Your Pre-Competitive "Strategy"

Hyper Beam
All STAB moves
If it doesn't look cool it is not strong
Stat boosting moves are useless
More Hyper Beam
 
I Had ash's team in Yellow, Mon for Mon on some replays I used to sit in viridian forest for hours to get the lvl 9 pigeottos

I thought I was the shit in Gen 3 because I had R/S/E, Colloseum and the Colloseum demo disk with Jirachi. My first ever lvl 100 pokemon was my Sapphire Kyogre and I gave a groudon to one of my friends with a game shark for a lvl 100 Manetric (the manetric was legit but he just hacked rare candies). In Colloseum, Espeon was fucking op, so I got it to lvl 100 and then used the cloning glitch in emerald to get 2 of them. I then PL'd one other shit mon and a jirachi to 100 and used to body my friends in middle school and they could never beat by secret base.

Gen 4 rolls around and I find out the basics of EV training, and then bread stupid things like Meganium and Choice scarf typhlosion. Got clapped online, was time for a change
 
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I was such a noob... I started in Diamond version and trained only this pokemon:
Infernape (Flames)
Adamant
Fire blast
focus blast
Mach Punch
Dig

Needless to say, I didn't beat the elite 4, :/
 

Morfent

formerly known as clifford the big red pawg
is a Programmer Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnus
- Fighting is the only type worth using in the game, since it's the only one that can be called "above normal"
- Every move that doesn't have an obvious type and has to do with strength is Fighting type
- Moves that don't do damage are worthless

So the first time I played Red, I thought it was a good idea to try to solo the game with a Primeape that ended up having no STAB whatsoever:
- Karate Chop
- Mega Punch
- Strength
- Dig

Green showing up at the end of the Elite 4 with an Alakazam when I thought I already beat the game ruined my day.
 

MikeDawg

Banned deucer.
I was definitely an all-stab-move kind of person

I also went for highest amount of pp/highest accuracy.
 
My strategies changed from when I first played (back on Platinum) and how I play now (from SoulSilver to Y and beyond).
I wasn't very good at first. I mean, if you look at my Infernape, it knows Flamethrower, Close Combat, Blast Burn, and Brick Break. Actually, one tendency I kept for a while was teaching every starter Pokémon I used the elemental Hyper Beam. I think the only starter I didn't do that to prior to Black and White's release was my Feraligatr since I knew it's a physical attacker.
By the time I got SoulSilver, I actually got a lot better and developed my basic strategy:
STAB moves and coverage attacks with decent accuracy. That's how I build most of my playthrough Pokémon. I do use that occasional status move (such as Will-O-Wisp on my Delphox in Y or taking advantage of Prankster Whimsicott in Black 1), but not often.
 
I started playing the games with my older sister, and she would often teach me what to use even though it was always awful. One particular strategy I remember was using a weak move and then a DIRECT upgrade of that move on all of my pokemon just in case I didn't need the stronger move for some reason. Some example include Ember / Flamethrower / Double Kick / Sky Uppercut Blaziken, Scratch / Slash Slaking, and Spark / Thunderbolt Manectric.
 
Back in Gen I, I played Colosseum a lot, and although we had no idea about tiers or strategy or anything, we quickly realised that Mewtwo was every team's ringer (although we never banned it - asking for no Mewtwo was like admitting defeat). There had to be a way to beat it, but the damage chart in Gen I meant that nothing could get an SE hit on it that wasn't weak back. Every single bug with Bug STAB was also part Poison (not even Butterfree couldn't beat it). When Gen II came around, Heracross had the same problem, and most of the Dark-types actually kind of sucked.

Bear in mind that I had no idea about the damage formula, STAB, or that a strong neutral attack could be better than a weaker SE one. Seeing the words, 'It's super effective!' meant you won.

I came up with two ingenious strategies to beat down Mewtwo in Colosseum I/II:

Focus Band Heracross. A 10% chance to survive getting OHKO'd by Psychic, but when it worked it was sweet. One time it hung on with the Band and Megahorn missed, but then the Focus Band saved it a second time the next turn, and it successfully KO'd Mewtwo back with Megahorn. I regarded this as vindication for my excellent strategy and declared supreme victory.

Pin Missile Jolteon. Oh yes. This was the only thing that got a Bug move that wasn't weak to Psychic in Gen I. Mine outsped Mewtwo as well, so it got those crucial 2-5 14BP hits in first. Thunder would have been far better, but it wouldn't have been SE, would it? Obviously I didn't use Thunderbolt, because I think you'll find it's weaker, therefore worse.

Of course, Gen II introduced the Dark type in order to balance Psychics, so the thing to use was the most powerful Dark-type...

Sandstorm/Pursuit Tyranitar. An incredibly smart set: Sandstorm/Pursuit/RS/EQ. Set up Sandstorm, then as the opponent flees in terror from 6% damage each turn, Pursuit ftw. The problem was that it was totally transparent, so I'd end up using 40BP Pursuit on a stationary opponent more often than not. Went back to Crunch, in an eye-opening 'some things are better than others' moment.

So my opponent switched things up in order to counter TTar...

DynamicPunch Mewtwo. The metagame today is a lot about managing risk to produce favourable outcomes. The game we played back in the day was more like Russian roulette. DynamicPunch was the only Fighting move that Mewtwo got (it was a Gen I TM iirc), so that was its best bet against TTar. The fact it only worked 50% of the time made it all the funnier.

Why not switch? Not for fear of Pursuit, because we rarely switched at all. Switching was like a little admission of defeat, like your current poke couldn't get the job done. It was far more fitting (and insulting) to simply KO your opponent's counter and keep going. Also, if your opponent had Mewtwo out, the thing you switched in was going to die too, so what's the use? Teambuilding wasn't really something we considered either, and there weren't a lot of great Fighting types in Gen I/II anyway.

Plus I had my own Mewtwo...

Swift/Barrier/Psychic/Recover Mewtwo. Because that's what it came with. I also subscribed to the idea that pokes should have weaker moves to deliver a coup de grace, and Swift was pretty. Moves that weren't Psychic were basically there to fill out the set anyway.

After finding the Missingno glitch, which let me spam TMs on everything I could, I went with Blizzard/Thunder/Hyper Beam/Psychic, because fuck you.
 
Typhlosion with Sunny Day, Flamethrower, Thunder punch and Smokescreen was my bro back in Gold as a 7 year old.

Sunny Day + Thunder Punch + Smokescreen to beat water types. Flamethrower cos i wasn't a complete moron.

I used the duplication cheat to get 6 of these on my team. Pro strats y/y?

Edit: I may have used Dig + Smokescreen at some point to piss off my friends. #hipsterstall
 

cant say

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So with all the hype of ORAS going around I went and found my old Sapphire cart that I literally haven't played in years. I was surprised to see I at least had some sort of idea of what was going on but not really, gave me a laugh though. Thought I'd do a little RMT...

note: obviously none of these have specific EVs or anything and the natures are just random

LATIAS @ Lax Incense
Bold
- Water Pulse
- Dragonbreath
- Recover
- Psychic

REGICE @ Magnet
Jolly
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Superpower
- Explosion

BANETTE @ Sitrus Berry
(Ribbons: 22)
Mild
- Faint Attack
- Curse
- Shadow Ball (guessing this used to be Spite for the contests)
- Destiny Bond

FLYGON @ Soft Sand
Hasty
- Crunch
- Dragonbreath
- Fly
- Earthquake

CASTFORM @ nothing :(
Jolly
- Sunny Day
- Weather Ball
- Solarbeam
- Thunderbolt

SCEPTILE @ Miracle Seed
Quirky
- Dragon Claw
- Leaf Blade
- Rock Tomb
- Quick Attack

In my PC I found Shedinja I must have used in the story because it's level 49. It knows Hidden Power (no idea what type), Facade, Metal Claw and Shadow Ball. How did it even make it that far??


When I loaded my game I was in the Battle Tower so I checked my record, I'm currently on a 49 win streak! If I remember correctly I was trying to get all the ribbons on my Banette so that's why I had the Latias and Regice. So anyway these are the building blocks where my competitive career began lol
 
Simple. Heliolisk, until I realized that my Lucario had actually been pulling a lot more wait and put him back on.
 
My first two Pokemon games were FireRed and Emerald, and I had my fair share of newbie ideas in both of them.

In FireRed, I remember that when I first discovered that you could buy as many copies of the TMs in the Celadon Department Store as you wanted, it was like a revelation. Suddenly,

Brick Break. On. Everything.

To be exact, Brick Break Charmeleon/Charizard, Brick Break Primeape, Brick Break Graveler, and Brick Break Raichu. And, when I caught it, Brick Break Mewtwo. I'm sure if Seaking and Venomoth had hands, I would have taught them Brick Break as well. Why all the Brick Break? Mainly because I thought the animation looked kind of cool (this was the Punch! Punch! ... screen gets dark ... Punch! animation, not the very slow karate chop animation from Gen 4 and 5). A secondary concern was punching out Rock-types for supereffective damage (too bad they usually have high Defense and Charizard's Attack isn't outstanding).

In Emerald, my silliest decision was putting Shadow Ball and Crunch on the same Mightyena. Great coverage, hitting the exact same two types for supereffective damage, huh? I think my reason for this was that I couldn't decide if physical non-STAB or special STAB was better for a physical mon who suffered from a textbook case of pre-Physical/Special split awkwardness.
 
Back in Blue, I was in love with Bublebeam for most of the game. I would swear that it was as powerfull as Surf. My blastoise used mainly Bublebeam/Surf/Ice Beam/Seismic Toss. I hated Hydro Pump With a passion. My lv 142 snorlax cought using the missingno glitch that only knew tackle was the next strongest thing., closely followd by psywave mewtwo.

My really wacky stuff started when I began playing "Competitive Battling" (capital letters are mandatory), by the 3rd generation, on netbattle. I read a lot of guides before starting playing to learn how to battle like a pro. What really happened was that I ended playing a bunch of casual battles against my friends while shying away from actual competitive stuff. I distinctly remember intentionally avoiding the smogon server, because people there were too good. I usually played in servers that didn't have any kind of clause and the cheesiest stuff I could think of. Don't hate me, I just didn't knew any better.

Smeargle Leftovers 252 Hp/252 def/4 SpD
~Spore
~Lock on
~Sheer Cold
~Spikes

This one I Half stole from a guy that had beaten me before using Fissure/Destiny Bond instead of Sheer Cold/Spikes and something else instead of spore as his leader. Spore something slow, lock on on the switch, and then sheer cold for a "garanteed" OHKO. If the guy start switching, Spike it up and spore everything. I remember battling the same guy some days later and saying "I hope this will not make you get mad at me" before sending my version at him. My improved version did a number on his team. I don't know what's worse: how smart I felt for using it, or how well it worked against random people.

Salamence Lum Berry 252 Hp/252 SpD/4 Def
~Dragon Dance
~Double Team
~Draco Meteor
~Dragon Claw

At least one of my IRL friends stopped playing against me because of this thing. I am not proud of it. The reason why I am bringing this out is because of

Lugia Leftovers
~Aerial Ace
~Ice Beam
~Psych Up
~Recover

Now, hear me out. I had created this sweet salamence build, right? Well, one of my friends was BOUND to steal it. And what if other guys had also tought of it? Well, I had to prepare. In comes this guy. Switch him on the boosting move, if it was Dragon Dance, Psych up and then Ice beam. If it was Double Team, Psych Up and then Aerial ace. Proceed to sweep the enemy team. I tought that every Salamence that had Dragon Dance was using my set.

Edit:

Typhlosion with Sunny Day, Flamethrower, Thunder punch and Smokescreen was my bro back in Gold as a 7 year old.

Sunny Day + Thunder Punch + Smokescreen to beat water types. Flamethrower cos i wasn't a complete moron.
Oh, god. I remember now my Flame Weel/Flamethrower/Thunderpunch/MUD SLAP Typhlosion. I even used Mud slap against Red's Pikachu.
 
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I was absolutely convinced for the longest time that substitute and taunt were troll moves created be Gamefreak as a joke (the animation never helped, one was "hey you lost health to turn into a doll!" and the other was "Your pokemon told a 'yo momma joke!").

Also, fly and dig for everything. EVE, RY, THING!
 
It's all well and good saying that you did the things you say (not calling anyone out. I'm just saying) but what it you have video evidence of you sucking in the Battle Tower in Pokemon Emerald (Thank fuck I didn't have a microphone.... Or any sort of skill whatsoever)
DON'T KILL ME T.T
But in all seriousness, these were my "strats" take note of how its on the NOOB version of it.
Edit: my god. This video
I hate it
What possessed me to make this?
IDK, but it's here for you to laugh at me with ^_^
 
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It's all well and good saying that you did the things you say (not calling anyone out. I'm just saying) but what it you have video evidence of you sucking in the Battle Tower in Pokemon Emerald (Thank fuck I didn't have a microphone.... Or any sort of skill whatsoever)
DON'T KILL ME T.T
But in all seriousness, these were my "strats" take note of how its on the NOOB version of it.
Edit: my god. This video
I hate it
What possessed me to make this?
IDK, but it's here for you to laugh at me with ^_^
10/10 would get gengar to use Frenzy Plant on weedle again. =P
 
It's all well and good saying that you did the things you say (not calling anyone out. I'm just saying) but what it you have video evidence of you sucking in the Battle Tower in Pokemon Emerald (Thank fuck I didn't have a microphone.... Or any sort of skill whatsoever)
DON'T KILL ME T.T
But in all seriousness, these were my "strats" take note of how its on the NOOB version of it.
Edit: my god. This video
I hate it
What possessed me to make this?
IDK, but it's here for you to laugh at me with ^_^
Why Frenzy Plant on Gengar? That's just odd.
 
My pre-competitive strategy was to use my starter for literally everything and only use other Pokemon when necessary. On my first playthrough of Emerald (at the Elite Four), my Swampert was Level 70, whilst the rest of my Pokemon were low 40's. The only other high-levelled Pokemon I had was Rayquaza. Needless to say, I got completely destroyed by Glacia...
 
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My first lvl 100 mon was a sandslash with eq/cut/slash/fissure in blue..one hit ko?! Yes. I think it worked like 3 times. I have retrained a sandshrew every gen since, just to pay homage to that little shrew
 
My moment of glory was when I beat the Platinum Elite Four with what I thought were the strongest Grass-Types
Torterra: Actually had EdgeQuake, Woodhamer, and something else so it turned out decent
Leafeon: Leaf Blade, no idea what else
Tropius: Air Slash, Fly, Leaf Storm, something else
Victreebel: Sleep Powder, Leaf Blade, Leaf Storm, Sludge Bomb
Ludicolo ( because of the Fire-Type member ): Surf, Energy Ball, Nature Power, Ice Beam
And I forget the last member ( but Mono-Grass Elite Four run with about equal levels still makes me happy I did it )
 
Send out Lvl. 78 Charizard that I spent way too much energy grinding. Spam Flamethrower. Win.

Never failed.

Although I never beat Giovanni because I spent the entire time after Cinnabar running around in the Sevii islands doing absolutely nothing. And then my Gameboy Advance broke.
 

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