Knowing How to Find Your Win Condition

Redew

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<Jellicent> win conditions
<Jellicent> make it happen

Written by Windsong and Redew

Win Conditions
Approved by Jellicent

Introduction

We all know what win conditions are. A win condition is something that helps you win the battle in the end. It could be anything from taking out the opponent's Gastrodon for your Choice Scarf Thundurus-T to sweep the rest of the opponent's team (or aid in the taking down of their team), or, in stall's case, stopping them at all moments until their team is brutalized, then pick them off with weak, defensive Pokemon. But, there's a catch: you also have to know your opponent's win condition. If your opponent can take out one of your 'mons so their's can sweep, it's gg right there. So, it's your goal to, at the beginning of a battle, think of which 'mons of theirs can threaten you most, think of a way to beat said 'mon(s), then look at your team and see what can threaten their team after you've beaten said threats.

Misconceptions of Battling

A common practice in battling is playing by instinct. Well, that won't always work. Playing instinctively can be very costly, as you could unknowingly open up holes in your team by 'instinctively' playing. You can remedy this by just battling on the ladder, any ladder, really. Just practice, practice, practice. As long as you (at least) know the metagame and what the common threats are, you'll have a very good chance of beating your opponent with win conditions in mind. If you don't know what Pokemon in your team beat what / are KOed by what, the head over to Smogon's Tiers to go to the desired StrategyDex. This will help you find out what can beat your Pokemon (in Checks and Counters) and also what helps beat said counters (Team Options & Additional Comments).

Long-term Thinking

Long-term thinking is one of the most important aspects of win conditions. In order to know your win condition, you also have to be thinking long-term. What this means is that you need to be thinking of scenarios and ways to get your opponent to send out X Pokemon so your X Pokemon can get rid of it for your sweep.

Application


I will add more ofc
 

tehy

Banned deucer.
Simplest thing to say, really:Find something that beats the other remaining members with 1 Pokemon subtracted.

As a stall member, I find that setting a first layer of spikes, even at the cost of my spiker's life, can aid fulfilling my win condition tremendously. I suppose an important thing to remember is to think of every pokemon as a potential sweeper, and see how to remove their checks/counters on an opponent's team.
 

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