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

[Golden Piloswine]

Originally Posted by Fat Atticus Lee

Is the VGC tournament played over wifi or in person? How do you register for it if the former?


I've never done this before, but I want the custap berry offered to all participants.

The official VGC is played in person. You have to travel to regionals on your own. Nationals and Worlds you can earn a trip if you place high in regionals, usually top 4. There are VGC tournaments which are played over wi-fi. They give you championship points, when having collected enough of them, let's you get into exclusive events like worlds. The official VGC is in person though. The Cutsap berry is for wi-fi, and if you want one, I think I have one in stock that I can give you to.

[voodoo pimp]

The actual VGC is played in person.

The tournament you are thinking of, the one that awards a Custap Berry, is played on Wi-Fi, and you register for it through your Global Link account.

[tlyee61]

Originally Posted by Fat Atticus Lee

Is the VGC tournament played over wifi or in person? How do you register for it if the former?


I've never done this before, but I want the custap berry offered to all participants.

I assume you're talking about the Winter VGC Cup. It is played over WiFi, although most VGC tourneys are in person.

[madvorak]

I am going to attend VGCS 2012 Winter Battle, but I have only 6 badges in White2. If I trade my Pokémon on lv. 100 to White2, will they obey me in the WiFi battle? I don't know if the disobedience rule applies also in PvP. If it does, how is auto-level adjustment treated? (Pokémon is on lv. 100, but the level is lowered to 50 during the battle. Will it obey me if I have 6 badges and Pokémon on level up to 70 are supposed to obey?)

[pwrtoppl]

Originally Posted by Fat madvorak

I am going to attend VGCS 2012 Winter Battle, but I have only 6 badges in White2. If I trade my Pokémon on lv. 100 to White2, will they obey me in the WiFi battle? I don't know if the disobedience rule applies also in PvP. If it does, how is auto-level adjustment treated? (Pokémon is on lv. 100, but the level is lowered to 50 during the battle. Will it obey me if I have 6 badges and Pokémon on level up to 70 are supposed to obey?)

Yes, they will obey; the game doesn't care of your progress regardless of where you are (minus actually getting your c-gear) and doesn't take those rules from the pve portion about badge requirements into question. Pokemon are scaled to lvl 50 if above, and anything under doesn't get modified.
In any case, you'll be fine.

[Atticus Lee]

I'm on the Wi-fi Winter tournament battle right now and I've been searching for an opponent for a long time.

No one has shown up. I've tried cancelling, but it asks me if I want to quit the competition, which I don't. I'm not sure what's going.

[voodoo pimp]

Originally Posted by Fat Atticus Lee

I'm on the Wi-fi Winter tournament battle right now and I've been searching for an opponent for a long time.

No one has shown up. I've tried cancelling, but it asks me if I want to quit the competition, which I don't. I'm not sure what's going.

That just means you're leaving temporarily (I suggest trying that, it fixed my connection issues a couple of times). You don't actually quit permanently unless you select the "Cancel Participation" option.

Discussion of the tournament is going on in this thread; you'll probably get more responses if you ask your questions there instead.

[Blaze123]

Is DW venasaur legal in VGC?

[ultimatedra]

Originally Posted by Fat Blaze123

Is DW venasaur legal in VGC?

Yes as long as it legally came from a Japanese game.

[Project_Mars]

I had decent success with a fake out Meinshao/Dark Gem Weavile lead, which got me to thinking of a way to try to improve that. The Weavile was my MVP of this tournament, since it out-sped a ton of things and smashed them with a Dark Gem Boosted STAB Night Slash or an Ice Punch (or for T-Tar, Low Kick) and having a fake out user next to it can help keep the partner from hitting back. What I'm curious about is who would be effective to set right next to Weavile, hitting with fake out, coming to a conclusion about two others that would probably work real well if i am to change it: Hitmontop or Sableye (Scrafty would be neat, but shares a fighting and bug weakness with Weavile.) Hitmontop being a very reliable pokemon and one of the most common Fake Outers, and Sableye having access to Priority WoW and a few other moves due to prankster... Unfortunately no priority speed control (but it does have Icy Wind) but it gets Snarl. Staying with Meinshao is a nice idea too, thanks to a nice 125 base attack, 105 base speed, and immunity to flinching. Plus Flight Gem Acrobatics was a pretty nice way to smash some faces.
Thoughts?

[Baz Anderson]

The thing about Fake Out users slower than Mienshao is that they can be Fake Out-ed themselves by faster ones... Mienshao is not only fast, but has Inner Focus too. Also, Scrafty doesn't have a Bug weakness.

[Dusk209]

How do you counter rain teams? I've tried adding thundurus-t and sunny day sableye to my team just for them, but I've had no luck. They always find a way to get the rain back up and then kill everything with ludicolo.

[M. Rock]

Originally Posted by Fat Dusk209

How do you counter rain teams? I've tried adding thundurus-t and sunny day sableye to my team just for them, but I've had no luck. They always find a way to get the rain back up and then kill everything with ludicolo.

There are some really good anti-rain Pokemon you can use, but more than anything it comes down to outplaying and predicting your opponent (be wary, though, most rain teams worth their salt have ways to work around their weaknesses).
Weather changers are good, but you would want to have then in the back seat, because if they die too early you're out of luck (and most teams don't lead with their weather anymore unless a prankster can set up). I've had great success with Tyranitar, although I suppose Ninetales can work if you find a way to fit it into your team.

Now as for anti-rain Pokemon:

- Virizion: Can beat Ferrothorn and most waters, must be wary of Toxicroak
- Ludicolo: May be hard to fit him in if you aren't running rain, but rain teams can't do too much to him short of STAB Hurricane and Poison Jab.
- Gastrodon: Storm Drain is amazing. Be sure to have a Rindo Berry.
- Ferrothorn: lol so many resistances
- Rotom-W: He can't hurt Gastrodon and is hurt badly by a stray HP Grass, but damn this thing is good. A Modest Choice Specs 252 STAB Thunderbolt can OHKO standard Kingdra if you lack a dragon. Very nice.
- Zapdos: It's an electric type, and has good bulk. At the bottom of the list because rain teams almost always have more than one Ice Beam user.

There's quite a few more Pokemon that can beat rain, but I really need to get back to studying, lol. Note how most Pokemon that give rain teams trouble can also work pretty well under rain themselves.

[tlyee61]

Originally Posted by Fat Dusk209

How do you counter rain teams? I've tried adding thundurus-t and sunny day sableye to my team just for them, but I've had no luck. They always find a way to get the rain back up and then kill everything with ludicolo.

Originally Posted by Fat M. Rock

There are some really good anti-rain Pokemon you can use, but more than anything it comes down to outplaying and predicting your opponent (be wary, though, most rain teams worth their salt have ways to work around their weaknesses).
Weather changers are good, but you would want to have then in the back seat, because if they die too early you're out of luck (and most teams don't lead with their weather anymore unless a prankster can set up). I've had great success with Tyranitar, although I suppose Ninetales can work if you find a way to fit it into your team.

Now as for anti-rain Pokemon:

- Virizion: Can beat Ferrothorn and most waters, must be wary of Toxicroak
- Ludicolo: May be hard to fit him in if you aren't running rain, but rain teams can't do too much to him short of STAB Hurricane and Poison Jab.
- Gastrodon: Storm Drain is amazing. Be sure to have a Rindo Berry.
- Ferrothorn: lol so many resistances
- Rotom-W: He can't hurt Gastrodon and is hurt badly by a stray HP Grass, but damn this thing is good. A Modest Choice Specs 252 STAB Thunderbolt can OHKO standard Kingdra if you lack a dragon. Very nice.
- Zapdos: It's an electric type, and has good bulk. At the bottom of the list because rain teams almost always have more than one Ice Beam user.

There's quite a few more Pokemon that can beat rain, but I really need to get back to studying, lol. Note how most Pokemon that give rain teams trouble can also work pretty well under rain themselves.

I think Ferro is one of the best. He resists nearly every common rain mon except Toxicroak which can be easily countered by cress. Power Whip hits so many things for lots of damage even with minimal investment. it even 3HKOes thundurus-t!

[voodoo pimp]

Any well-designed rain team will not be beaten by a single Pokémon, even Ferrothorn. While those Pokémon definitely help, you should also consider solutions at a more tactical level - for instance, a bulky Thunder Wave user to give your own sweepers the advantage over their Swift Swimmers. It's not possible to hard counter rain teams, so you will need to create some advantages during the battle, just like you would with any other type of team.

[M. Rock]

^All good points^

I was just quick to respond and anti-rain mons were the first thing that came to mind. Trick Room can even be a decent counter if his overall team isn't too fast. Most rain teams I come across have an emphasis on power and speed (although there was this one crappy one that tried to do rain and TR....baffled me how it got to 1700+ on GBU)

[pootoucher]

So in the open format that is the 2013 season, who has the title of "best" fake-out?

[voodoo pimp]

Originally Posted by Fat pootoucher

So in the open format that is the 2013 season, who has the title of "best" fake-out?

Depends entirely on your team's needs, but here's some good options:

Hitmontop/Scrafty: both have Intimidate and good bulk, meaning you can benefit even more from switching them in and out.
Weavile/Infernape/Mienshao: the first, third, and fourth fastest viable options in neutral weather, meaning they can Fake Out other Fake Outers (and Mienshao has Inner Focus for good measure).
Ambipom: fast and has STAB+Technician, but kind of underwhelming otherwise.
Shiftry/Ludicolo: fastest in sun/rain respectively.
Toxicroak: Nothing special for Fake Out, but it's good in rain.
Kangaskhan: Scrappy. 'nuff said.
Hariyama: low Speed makes it a contender with Scrafty for TR teams.
Sableye: it doesn't have much for Fake Out specifically other than the Normal immunity, but Prankster makes it a good supporter overall (Liepard could also work, I guess).

Anyone spot anything I missed?

[pootoucher]

pikachu, if for no other reason then he is pikachu. Saw it a time or two on the latest wi-fi competition

[Kazuki]

What are the top teams that are being played. Also what are the go to pokemon that are in lots of teams. Thanks

[voodoo pimp]

Originally Posted by Fat Kazuki

What are the top teams that are being played. Also what are the go to pokemon that are in lots of teams. Thanks

Other than the champions' teams (particularly Ray Rizzo's, which you can find explained in detail here), there isn't really a whole lot of team copying. While there are a few popular archetypes (goodstuff, rain, sun, Trick Room, etc.), there is a huge amount of variety within each of those archetypes.

There are some Pokémon that tend to be popular across the archetypes, though - Cresselia, Hitmontop/Scrafty, Metagross, Latios, Garchomp, Rotom-W, and weather starters (even on non-weather teams, Tyranitar and Abomasnow are useful for countering sun/rain) are probably the ones you'll see most often, though some of the archetypes have their own popular mons (for instance, Swift Swimmers on rain teams).

In the end, though, you're not going to be able to make a successful team just by trying to counter all the major threats. A better approach would be to start with your own strategy in mind, build your team with the primary goal of executing that strategy, and then make adjustments if you find that you're weak to any major threats.

[Misdreavus]

Do most Scizor now no longer run Superpower?

[M. Rock]

Originally Posted by Fat Misdreavus

Do most Scizor now no longer run Superpower?

I want to say "yes", but there probably are still some people out there running it because they desperately need the coverage or just copied it from the analysis. Personally, though, I haven't seen it in a LONG time. The general consensus is that after being put at -1/-1, Scizor is essentially waiting to die. So most players give him a third move that won't cripple him and just have teammates that can take care of other Steel-types.

[Baz Anderson]

Yeh, Acrobatics and Swords Dance are more common than Superpower now.

[Golden Piloswine]

Does anyone know the correlation for number of participants v. number of swiss rounds, and number of wins required for Top 8 for the total rounds played?