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

[Randy Butternubs]

Anyone ever tried running both Slowbro and Slowking together?
I think they'd make an interesting pair if anything.

[TheMantyke]

Originally Posted by Fat Randy Butternubs

Anyone ever tried running both Slowbro and Slowking together?
I think they'd make an interesting pair if anything.

Not really. When you pick two Pokemon you want to use as partners in doubles, you generally want to select two Pokemon that share a diverse array of resistances (especially to spread attacks) and that can hit a wide variety of targets between their attacks. Classic examples include Garchomp + Zapdos, Metagross + Rotom-W, and Hitmontop + Latios. Slowbro and Slowking get near identical coverage and share the exact same array of weaknesses. All it takes is a Pokemon with Discharge to bring them to their knees.

[Randy Butternubs]

Originally Posted by Fat TheMantyke

Not really. When you pick two Pokemon you want to use as partners in doubles, you generally want to select two Pokemon that share a diverse array of resistances (especially to spread attacks) and that can hit a wide variety of targets between their attacks. Classic examples include Garchomp + Zapdos, Metagross + Rotom-W, and Hitmontop + Latios. Slowbro and Slowking get near identical coverage and share the exact same array of weaknesses. All it takes is a Pokemon with Discharge to bring them to their knees.

My interesting bit was in the haha fun interesting not serious but point taken.

New questions:
Who would make a good Partner(s) to Slowbro/Slowking, Arcanine, and Emboar?
Are there any strategies that are used that aren't Trick Room, Weather, or Gravity?

[Blaze123]

If you put a focus sash on shedinja what would happen? Butternubs (funny name) I used a discharge team at my first regionals and I won third place with it so there are strategies that are used except them.

[voodoo pimp]

Originally Posted by Fat Randy Butternubs

My interesting bit was in the haha fun interesting not serious but point taken.

New questions:
Who would make a good Partner(s) to Slowbro/Slowking, Arcanine, and Emboar?
Are there any strategies that are used that aren't Trick Room, Weather, or Gravity?

Well, first I'd suggest getting rid of either Arcanine or Emboar, since they do basically the same thing. From there, it depends on what sort of overall strategy you're going for, but you definitely want a Steel-type of some kind to take Dragon moves.

Goodstuff is arguably the strongest strategy in general, since you don't have to dedicate any team slots or effort to setting up and maintaining a particular field effect. It's also the most difficult team style to do really well, though.

Originally Posted by Fat Blaze123

If you put a focus sash on shedinja what would happen?

If it's hit with a super effective attack, it takes no damage and the sash is used up. It still dies to any form of passive damage.

[Pokemasta77]

I know that I missed the deadline for vgc tutoring but would anyone be willing to tutor me. I am familiar and a pretty good battler in singles but VGC rules are a whole new game. Please respond if you are willing to do it. Thanks!

[voodoo pimp]

Originally Posted by Fat Pokemasta77

I know that I missed the deadline for vgc tutoring but would anyone be willing to tutor me. I am familiar and a pretty good battler in singles but VGC rules are a whole new game. Please respond if you are willing to do it. Thanks!

If you're still interested in Battling 101, we should be adding more rounds once the next set of rules is announced. In the meantime, it's hard to tutor properly when we don't know for sure what the metagame will be like.

[Randy Butternubs]

Originally Posted by Fat voodoo pimp

Well, first I'd suggest getting rid of either Arcanine or Emboar, since they do basically the same thing. From there, it depends on what sort of overall strategy you're going for, but you definitely want a Steel-type of some kind to take Dragon moves.

Goodstuff is arguably the strongest strategy in general, since you don't have to dedicate any team slots or effort to setting up and maintaining a particular field effect. It's also the most difficult team style to do really well, though.

If it's hit with a super effective attack, it takes no damage and the sash is used up. It still dies to any form of passive damage.

Oh, I didn't mean all of them in one team. I meant who would be a good partner for each of them. :)

[The Last Sheikah]

Originally Posted by Fat Randy Butternubs

My interesting bit was in the haha fun interesting not serious but point taken.

New questions:
Who would make a good Partner(s) to Slowbro/Slowking, Arcanine, and Emboar?
Are there any strategies that are used that aren't Trick Room, Weather, or Gravity?

Arcanine works excellently with Gastrodon; Intimidate accounts for Gastrodon's slightly lower physical defence, and Arcanine can take care of grass-type Pokémon that threaten Gastrodon, while in return, Gastrodon can stop non-spread water moves (and dissuade the opponent from using spread moves) thanks to Storm Drain.
The same goes for other Pokémon with Storm Drain, Water Absorb etc, like Jellicent.

Slowbro and Slowking work well with Ferrothorn, who resists all of the Slow's weaknesses other than bug, and many other trick room Pokémon work pretty well.

Emboar is similar to Arcanine, but also likes Trick Room, so Jellicent is probably its perfect teammate.

In terms of other strategies, the ones you listed are the strategies that affect the whole game, as well as Tailwind (which is usually best not to be the focus of the team) but there are all sorts of strategies one can employ just between two Pokémon, such as Beat Up+Justified, Surf+Water Absorb, Swagger+Persim/Lum Berry etc.

[Furret162]

Is Cloud Nine Altaria any good, and if so, what Pokemon are good partners for it?

[voodoo pimp]

Originally Posted by Fat Furret162

Is Cloud Nine Altaria any good, and if so, what Pokemon are good partners for it?

Not really. It doesn't give you much of an advantage except maybe against sun teams, and Altaria is kind of a bad Pokémon on its own. If you want to use it you're definitely going to need something to switch into Ice and Dragon attacks, maybe Metagross?

[Golden Piloswine]

Originally Posted by Fat Furret162

Is Cloud Nine Altaria any good, and if so, what Pokemon are good partners for it?

It can be good if used correctly. Like voodoo said it's best against sun due to the unlikey chance of ice beam, or rock slide. It can do good against sand though if you have an appropriate partner that can sweep good. You can always Cotton Guard, but then it would be a waste if you switch. Perhaps a Water Gem Surf partner would be best. Also like voodoo said it's not the best there are others like Lickilicky, or a priority weather user.

[dragonmire]

Who would be a better partner in a TR/Hybrid team: Ferrothorn or Gigalith?

[TheMantyke]

Originally Posted by Fat dragonmire

Who would be a better partner in a TR/Hybrid team: Ferrothorn or Gigalith?

You're going to have to be more specific. I'm not entirely sure what a TR/Hybrid team is, but I'll guess it's a Trick Room team that doesn't necessarily need Trick Room up to survive (which really any Trick Room team should be). We can't make a team slot decision without being able to see the rest of your team; what other Pokemon you have on your team could make one more or less viable.

However, I suppose we can help if you can give a general outline of what you have on your team so far. If you have a whole team assembled and you've playtested it a bit over wifi or PO, you should consider posting it in the RMT section for more in depth recommendations.

[Golden Piloswine]

Originally Posted by Fat TheMantyke

You're going to have to be more specific. I'm not entirely sure what a TR/Hybrid team is, but I'll guess it's a Trick Room team that doesn't necessarily need Trick Room up to survive.

I think a TR Hybrid may be similar to my RMT, where most of the team relies on it, but there are 1-2 fast mons, it helps if TR can not go up.

[Randy Butternubs]

How useful is a Special based or Mixed Emboar?
I mainly want to know because I find it hilarious it can learn Scald. Yeah, a Fire type can Burn you with Water. Sooooo funny.
Still, it could be unexpected (the using Specials I mean, I think most use the thing as a pure Physical Attacker).

[voodoo pimp]

Mixed attacker maybe, but as a special attacker it's outclassed by other Fire-types since it lacks a good special Fighting attack. Either way, needs TR support or else you'd be much better off with Infernape or Blaziken.

[TheMantyke]

Originally Posted by Fat Randy Butternubs

How useful is a Special based or Mixed Emboar?
I mainly want to know because I find it hilarious it can learn Scald. Yeah, a Fire type can Burn you with Water. Sooooo funny.
Still, it could be unexpected (the using Specials I mean, I think most use the thing as a pure Physical Attacker).

I haven't personally used one, but I'd imagine it'd be pretty bad. Despite his decent defensive base stats, Emboar's rather frail thanks to his wide array of weaknesses. This confines him to the lackluster role of "slow Pokemon that can work alright in Trick Room that's horrible outside it". If you're going to use a Pokemon like that, you better be certain they can hit pretty freaking hard while Trick Room is up. 100 Base Special attack is alright, but not the kind of attack you'll be ripping holes in teams with. The fact there are Pokemon out there that can suit such a role better and be useful in and outside of Trick Room like Heatran and Chandelure doesn't help a special Emboar's case either.

I don't think the mixed set is off much better either as Emboar doesn't gain any crucial coverage options from going mixed. Pretty much everything you want to hit is covered between Flare Blitz, Wild Charge, and Superpower or Hammer Arm.

[pootoucher]

hello,
i am new to the vgc thing this season and will be going to my first states this winter. I have read up on the prospect of RNGing perfect IV sets but was wondering if it was conmpetitivly nessassary to perform well in? is it not enough to pick the right team, breed/soft reset for nature and correctly effort value train pokemon to do well? (and by well, i mean in the top cut)

[Baz Anderson]

I breed/soft reset my Pokémon. If you can breed well enough, and have the patience to soft reset long enough, then it shouldn't really make much difference. You just need to make sure they have 31 in the important stats - Speed is usually important. It isn't too difficult to breed things with four 31s though.

With soft resetting, the only downside is if you would be after a specific Hidden Power. Outside of being extremely fortunate, you need to RNG for Hidden Powers.

[Randy Butternubs]

Originally Posted by Fat voodoo pimp

Mixed attacker maybe, but as a special attacker it's outclassed by other Fire-types since it lacks a good special Fighting attack. Either way, needs TR support or else you'd be much better off with Infernape or Blaziken.

Originally Posted by Fat TheMantyke

I haven't personally used one, but I'd imagine it'd be pretty bad. Despite his decent defensive base stats, Emboar's rather frail thanks to his wide array of weaknesses. This confines him to the lackluster role of "slow Pokemon that can work alright in Trick Room that's horrible outside it". If you're going to use a Pokemon like that, you better be certain they can hit pretty freaking hard while Trick Room is up. 100 Base Special attack is alright, but not the kind of attack you'll be ripping holes in teams with. The fact there are Pokemon out there that can suit such a role better and be useful in and outside of Trick Room like Heatran and Chandelure doesn't help a special Emboar's case either.

I don't think the mixed set is off much better either as Emboar doesn't gain any crucial coverage options from going mixed. Pretty much everything you want to hit is covered between Flare Blitz, Wild Charge, and Superpower or Hammer Arm.

Well, it seems everything I think about is a stinker competitively. :/

Edit: Is it possible to do a viable and good team based on Gen I Non-Legendary (breedable) Pokemon? Same question for Gen V.

[Zog]

Yeah it is, but limiting yourself always makes the team worse so there's no point.

Just think things through and you'll be able to work out if they suck or not. :D

[Randy Butternubs]

Originally Posted by Fat Zog

Yeah it is, but limiting yourself always makes the team worse so there's no point.

There is always a point (in this case, it is going for a theme). ;)

[voodoo pimp]

Originally Posted by Fat pootoucher

hello,
i am new to the vgc thing this season and will be going to my first states this winter. I have read up on the prospect of RNGing perfect IV sets but was wondering if it was conmpetitivly nessassary to perform well in? is it not enough to pick the right team, breed/soft reset for nature and correctly effort value train pokemon to do well? (and by well, i mean in the top cut)

Baz Anderson covered your question pretty well (though I still recommend learning RNG if you can, just because it's a lot faster), but I noticed you mentioned states. VGC doesn't do the state tournaments (at least, not yet), those are only for the TCG - if you showed up to one with your DS, you'd be in for a disappointment. For VGC, there's only regionals, nationals, and worlds.

[Project_Mars]

Let's talk a little more hypothetically: if vgc13 uses the bw2 unova dex only and ninetales and tyranitar are the only two auto weather starters: do you think a cloud nine lickilicky would be a good idea? A little less hypothetical is mentioning that it has a far better special attack pool, but 5 less Base special attack than attack. Which would you rather have?