VGC Ask a Simple Question, Get a Simple Answer - Mark II

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1. DO NOT ASK ABOUT HACK CHECKS OR ROMS or any other cheating devices or illegal things.
Pokemon.com will post the time, hopefully more than before a week of the event date which is April 14th. You should probably get there 30-60min before registration starts. Good luck!
 
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Pokemon.com will post the time, hopefully more than before a week of the event date which is April 14th. You should probably get there 30-60min before registration starts. Good luck!
Oh gosh sorry, I must've overlooked that. My apologies!

I'll be sure to check there regularly. Thanks for the help and also thank you for the warm welcome!
 

Firestorm

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Everybody gets hack checked before R1. They have a machine that checks. Don't hack. Don't use Pokemon you aren't sure of.
 
I'm new to the whole organised play thing, did pretty well in the 2 recent wifi international challenges... So yeah see the Birmingham UK VGC event in June? Can I just turn up or do I have to register or what? I'm confused, the official site is puzzling me. Got my player ID and all.
 

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I'm new to the whole organised play thing, did pretty well in the 2 recent wifi international challenges... So yeah see the Birmingham UK VGC event in June? Can I just turn up or do I have to register or what? I'm confused, the official site is puzzling me. Got my player ID and all.
Most venues allow you to pre-register to avoid having to wait in a long line (that option will likely become available closer to the event date), but you can just show up on the day of the tournament and you will still be able to participate.
 
Hi, sorry if this has already been answered, but the thread is a little long to check.

Me and some friends are interested in going to the Birmingham tournament not to play, but to just check out the competitive scene and maybe enter next year. Does VGC offer spectator options, or do you have to be a competitor to enter? Also if there is, are there any visitor attractions, like stalls and other things you'd see at conventions?
 
Hi, sorry if this has already been answered, but the thread is a little long to check.

Me and some friends are interested in going to the Birmingham tournament not to play, but to just check out the competitive scene and maybe enter next year. Does VGC offer spectator options, or do you have to be a competitor to enter? Also if there is, are there any visitor attractions, like stalls and other things you'd see at conventions?
You are not allowed to compete but you may enter as a spectator, because parents do it all the time. Generally players get annoyed when you look at their battles over shoulder mainly because they might think you are learning their strategies/movesets. Some players don't care though.

At VGC'11 they had a display of Pokedex 3D, but at more recent events all I see is kiosks, and just talking to people.
 
Hi, sorry if this has already been answered, but the thread is a little long to check.

Me and some friends are interested in going to the Birmingham tournament not to play, but to just check out the competitive scene and maybe enter next year. Does VGC offer spectator options, or do you have to be a competitor to enter? Also if there is, are there any visitor attractions, like stalls and other things you'd see at conventions?
try and enter! even if you are just playing casually, they don;t have many TVs anymore and you'll have a much better experience by playing people! also, I don't know if they're having a different format next year, but my guess is yes because they have had the same format for 2 years now. at most regionals, they do have 1-2 shops that sell (EXTREMELY OVERPRICED) good, sometimes imported from Japan. at the NorCal regional, they also had some booth with Pokedex 3D where you could get a picture with your team / some other Pokemon. Lastly, they were giving away a "battle-ready" Vulpix with some good IVs and I think they're giving away some Cloyster that's idetical to the Juniors World Champion too. (although it had HP Grass, but this Cloyster you have to RNG to make HP Grass, as it comes with random IVs)
 
Sup guys!
I've been wondering about make my self a new team and been trying out a few things (that really haven't worked as nice as I want). I have found myself using a word that I may don't fully understands: Synergy.

So let me make a simple question with a complex answer: what is synergy? how do you achieve synergy? are there a middle point between defensive and offensive synergy (i'm reffering at the bulky offensive playstlyle that've been dominating VGC for a few years)?

.....ok definitely not one question, but the answer may come while answering all those questions.

(Is in times like this that I want VGC to have a np: thread)
 
Sup guys!
I've been wondering about make my self a new team and been trying out a few things (that really haven't worked as nice as I want). I have found myself using a word that I may don't fully understands: Synergy.

So let me make a simple question with a complex answer: what is synergy? how do you achieve synergy? are there a middle point between defensive and offensive synergy (i'm reffering at the bulky offensive playstlyle that've been dominating VGC for a few years)?

.....ok definitely not one question, but the answer may come while answering all those questions.

(Is in times like this that I want VGC to have a np: thread)
Synergy to me is basically how well one Pokemon works with another. Common knowledge of this is having 2 Fire types on 1 team. Your team will obviously have a glaring weakness to Water, rock and ground. Picking Pokemon that work well together is an example of synergy. Virizion and Heatran are a great example of defensive synergy. They resist all of eachother's types. An example of offensive synergy is Latios and Heatran. Dragon and Fire have perfect neutral coverage on everything. Building a team with synergy is extremely beneficial so that you can switch and resist, even if it's not that common in VGC. I think there is a "balance" between offensive and defensive synergy. It's like Rotom-W or Latios paired with Metagross. Even though they have great offensive synergy, they resist eachother's weaknesses too. Hope you can understand this and that it helps! *might add more once I'm off my phone*
 
To me, synergy is "if I have these Pokémon out together, do they form more than the sum of their parts"? In the team I ran back in VGC'11 (to a top-8 at UK nationals), that was true of basically every pair in one way or another (with the exception of one mon, who I disliked using as a result). It could be something like a direct combo (fake out + setup move, surf + water absorb, or the like), or just simply offensive synergy (what sweeper A doesn't deal with, sweeper B can take out). Defensive synergy doesn't really exist so much in doubles, because you can't choose where the enemies aim their attacks and it's unlikely that you'll have two mons that both resist both the active enemies, although there's a sort of "support synergy" where support mon A prevents sweeper B from getting damaged (either by crippling the opponents, or directly with moves like Rage Powder). Resisting each other's weaknesses helps, but only on common spread moves, and only to make sure you don't both get hurt at the same time.
 
This really doesn't need three answers, but it couldn't hurt to elaborate more on a pretty critical aspect of team building.

Synergy is how well your Pokemon work together. Each Pokemon plays off each others strengths and weaknesses. There are two main types of synergy: offensive synergy and defensive synergy. Pokemon have offensive synergy when, while together, they can hit most Pokemon for strong neutral or super-effective damage. Pokemon have defensive synergy when, while together, they don't share vulnerabilities to any one type and force the opponent to use single target attacks to deal with them.

Achieving synergy is simple: Look at your Pokemon of choice, look at its weaknesses both in terms of type weaknesses and vulnerabilities to specific Pokemon, and look for a Pokemon that can deal with those weaknesses while your first Pokemon does so for it. A good example would be a core like Metagross and Rotom-W: Metagross can deal strong physical hits to Pokemon like Amoonguss that Rotom-W dislikes while Rotom-W can fry bulky waters for Metagross. Between the two of them, they share no weaknesses; infact, each of their weaknesses is a resistance or immunity for the other. Additionally, they're not very vulnerable to any particular spread moves.

As for the middle ground, it's not too difficult to find Pokemon with great offensive or defensive synergy that happen to share okay synergy on the other side. Sticking Hitmontop with anything that appreciates Fighting-type coverage will usually make a nice core with good offensive and moderate defensive synergy. Some cores, particularly ones involving Steel-types like Metagross, Scizor, and Heatran, can have phenomenal synergy on both sides of the spectrum.

Muffinhead has uploaded a series of tutorials on team building and the basics of VGC. In this particular video, he gives a pretty solid introduction to synergy and some decent examples. I'd recommend checking it out (and the rest of his videos too since muffinhead is amazing).

[youtube]zjLrN5U_fvg[/youtube]
 
Super Fang only takes half the actual HP, so if both of your pokemons use Super fang on a single enemy, the opposing pokemon is left with 1/4th of it total HP.
 
Hey guys, I've been using pokecheck to test a few pokemon and I've been wondering: do pokemon from pokecheck show up as hacked on Nintendo's hack checks? I'm able to use them on GBU, battle videos etc. but they have a ribbon that they shouldn't have. On the site, they say they, 'discourage' using them in official tournaments, but in the case where I cannot obtain these pokemon otherwise, would they be fine?
 
I thought the Pokemon only get the ribbon if you download them from Pokecheck. I only use Pokecheck for its legality checker
 
Okay, so I'm kind of new to Double Battling (after having been a competitive Singles player for about 5 years now), and what got me into it was the March International Wi-Fi tournament... so after reading the 5th Gen Double Battle guide, I realized that the order in which Pokemon use their moves is decided before the turn begins; for example, things like Icy Wind, Bulldoze, and other attacks that modify Speed don't take effect until the next turn.

Case in point, my question is this: if one or more Pokemon were to switch - causing certain Abilities to be activated - would that affect turn order?

In a hypothetical situation: I have a Sawsbuck out, who would normally be outspeed by Terrakion. My partner is Sableye, and I switch to Ninetales for Sableye's turn, and have Sawsbuck use Horn Leech on Terrakion. Now, both players have confirmed their moves and the turn begins. Since the switch happens before the first Pokemon makes its move, would Ninetales' Drought cause Sawsbuck's Chlorophyll to kick in right away, allowing it to outspeed Terrakion on that turn?... or does my poor Sawsbuck get Close Combat'ed to death before it has a chance to move?


Thanks!
 
In a hypothetical situation: I have a Sawsbuck out, who would normally be outspeed by Terrakion. My partner is Sableye, and I switch to Ninetales for Sableye's turn, and have Sawsbuck use Horn Leech on Terrakion. Now, both players have confirmed their moves and the turn begins. Since the switch happens before the first Pokemon makes its move, would Ninetales' Drought cause Sawsbuck's Chlorophyll to kick in right away, allowing it to outspeed Terrakion on that turn?... or does my poor Sawsbuck get Close Combat'ed to death before it has a chance to move?
No, in this case Sawsbuck would still be slower on that turn. You would need to Protect with Sawsbuck and wait for the next turn (the first turn selecting moves while the weather is in effect) for it to be faster.
 
No, in this case Sawsbuck would still be slower on that turn. You would need to Protect with Sawsbuck and wait for the next turn (the first turn selecting moves while the weather is in effect) for it to be faster.
It's worth saying though that speed changes are the only things that take until next turn to come into effect. So for example if your Sawsbuck used Solarbeam on the turn Ninetales switches in, it would get charged up straight away.
 
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