Simple Questions & Simple Answers & General Resources (OU Edition) MK II

[LilOuOn]

Originally Posted by Fat Hugin

As a n00b, I'm curious how Gen 6 will affect Smogon. At what point do we stop running suspect tests, at what point will the various forums for B2/W2 be shut down, etc?

If you want to learn about Gen VI you can check THIS THREAD. You can find discussions about the different topics like new threats or new suspects.

What i can say about this is that a new suspect will be started once Pokemon X and Y comes out. Testing new pokemon like Darkrai and Shayming again in OU just too see if they are broken in the new metagame.

[Shurtugal]

On OU Current I have

93 wins / 26 losses and I only have 1833 (on shurty-suspect).

Er, why is this? Others on identification thread people have lower variations on these terms and have still made req. ?

[Novaray]

Originally Posted by Fat Shurtugal

On OU Current I have

93 wins / 26 losses and I only have 1833 (on shurty-suspect).

Er, why is this? Others on identification thread people have lower variations on these terms and have still made req. ?

Your ranking depends on the players you play. If you beat someone higher on the ladder you'll gain more points than if you beat a player ranked lower on the ladder. Likewise, if you lose to a higher ranked player, you lose less points than if you lose to a lower ranked player. Therefore, even if you have similar records, your ranking can be very different.

[Shurtugal]

How does that variation system work then? My variations have been sucking for three straight days. I've only lost to low roll / hax but I usually lose 21 (whereas wins are.... +3, making the bs loss like worth 7 wins). I can easily smash (1600 on Beta) but it seems so impossible to get past unavoidable hax losses since it cuts more despite my wins. Is there anyway to get better variations?

[The Great Mighty Doom]

Originally Posted by Fat Shurtugal

How does that variation system work then? My variations have been sucking for three straight days. I've only lost to low roll / hax but I usually lose 21 (whereas wins are.... +3, making the bs loss like worth 7 wins). I can easily smash (1600 on Beta) but it seems so impossible to get past unavoidable hax losses since it cuts more despite my wins. Is there anyway to get better variations?

I'm probably not the best person to answer this question, as I do not fully understand it myself, but I'll try my best (I'll pretty much try to explain everything about the ladder that would be valuable info to you that Novaray hasn't explained, so sorry if this sounds a bit like I'm not answering your question near the start.) Basically, the more games you play, the lower your deviation gets, the lower it gets, the less points you lose for losing / gain for winning (you've probably noticed that at the start of laddering you'll be gaining three digit numbers for winning.) I'm also pretty sure the higher you are on the ladder, the longer it takes for variation to go down. There's no real way to get better variations, the secret is to do well at the start when you have a high variation because that's where the big points come from, hopefully you'll battle people high on the ladder at the start and get a ton of points, also if you start off with a bad W/L then quit and start again. It's also worth noting that if you're like 100 points away from your goal with a very low variation (like under 50) then it'd probably be quicker, and have a higher chance at success, just to start all over again than it would be to continue trying to reach that goal. I hope this helped :)

P.S. When you mentioned in your previous post that others have reqs with a lower record than you, I infered that you're trying to get reqs yourself. Seeing as you don't have enough points to get reqs, you may want to try getting in on a special application, you can do this by sending a PM to Haunter, Aldaron, Bloo, JabbaTheGriffin, and Iconic with the screenshot of your rank and why you think you should be allowed to vote.

[Mew101112]

So I made a weird team in 4th gen that not only did well but I loved it. Then with Drizzle being so prevalent at that start of 5th I gave up left the scene. Now I am interested in coming back and therefore have a couple of questions. What is the current theme in the meta right now? Is it still all weather all the time or has that passed? Secondly, I ran a scarfed Gengar lead and loved it to death. Could anyone suggest a new "revenge killer" type lead that usually can let me start off a match up one pokemon?

[Novaray]

Originally Posted by Fat Mew101112

So I made a weird team in 4th gen that not only did well but I loved it. Then with Drizzle being so prevalent at that start of 5th I gave up left the scene. Now I am interested in coming back and therefore have a couple of questions. What is the current theme in the meta right now? Is it still all weather all the time or has that passed? Secondly, I ran a scarfed Gengar lead and loved it to death. Could anyone suggest a new "revenge killer" type lead that usually can let me start off a match up one pokemon?

Yes the metagame is still largely based around weather with the most popular being Rain currently due to having powerful threats to use such as Keldeo and Tornadus-T. Sand and Sun teams are still quite prevalent though not as common as Rain. Most teams that are non-weatherless are Deoxys-D HO teams that attempt to set up entry hazards quickly and then tear away at the opponent with sweepers.

A good Pokemon that can start off the match well and later serve as a revenge killer is Focus Sash Terrakion. Terrakion now has access to Stealth Rock in BW2 so he can set them up at the beginning of the game to immediately start racking up entry hazard damage. Later in the game, he can set up a Swords Dance or simply revenge kill with its great base 108 Speed and powerful STABs in Close Combat and Stone Edge. Focus Sash is a nifty item that allows him to live any attack, very much insuring you will at least get SR up. The set is:

Terrakion @ Focus Sash
Justified
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
-Stealth Rock
-Swords Dance
-Close Combat
-Stone Edge

[Mew101112]

Thanks for replying so quickly! :D What do you mean by Deoxys-D HO Teams? I may just be tired, but I cant think of what HO would stand for.

P.S. Nice avatar

[Novaray]

Originally Posted by Fat Mew101112

Thanks for replying so quickly! :D What do you mean by Deoxys-D HO Teams? I may just be tired, but I cant think of what HO would stand for.

P.S. Nice avatar

HO stands for Hyper Offense. These teams feature a fast Deoxys-D in order to Taunt the opponent to prevent them from setting up any entry hazards and to get up Stealth Rock and as many layers of Spikes as possible himself. They then feature 5 sweepers that are a combination of Set-up sweepers, Scarf users, Band/Specs users, and wall breakers that work together well, often sharing similar counters so they can eventually break through them. The entry hazards set up by Deoxys-D allow these attackers to sweep more easily, turning 3HKO's into 2HKO's and 2HKO's into OHKO's. A sample team would look something like: Deoxys-D, Swords Dance Lucario, Choice Band Terrakion, Dragon Dance Dragonite, Life Orb Alakazam, and Choice Scarf Salamence.

[White symphoni]

I was wondering what advantage Jumpluff in Sun has over Whimsiscott as a Sub Seeder.Jumpluff maybe super fast but whimsiscott has priorities on leech seed,Sub,Encore and status moves.But I think I'm missing something,but what?

[Arcticblast]

Jumpluff has Sleep Powder, a Ground immunity, and better looks. That's about it, really.

[LilOuOn]

Originally Posted by Fat White symphoni

I was wondering what advantage Jumpluff in Sun has over Whimsiscott as a Sub Seeder.Jumpluff maybe super fast but whimsiscott has priorities on leech seed,Sub,Encore and status moves.But I think I'm missing something,but what?

Nothing really. If you see the standard Jumpluff subseed set it is encore, substitute, sleep powder, leech seed. Whimsicott can learn everything but sleep powder. Anyways, whimsicott has prankster so is better at stalling like that.
Maybe jumpluff is better with a SD set with flying gem and acrobatics because chlorophyll helps her. <-Venusaur is better at chlorosweep.

[Onicon]

I have just read though the Scolipede analysis and wonder if there really is need for something like Toxic Spikes in this meta. They need time to make an impact and therefore are relatively unappealing to HO teams, whereas stall and balanced team may opt for bulkier options like Tentacruel or Forretress.

Also, when not using Toxic Spikes, why would I use Scolipede over Accelgor?

Edit: No, I am not asking RU or UU questions, otherwise I would have been there. Besides, Deoxys cannot beat Latios en passant.

[LilOuOn]

Originally Posted by Fat Onicon

I have just read though the Scolipede analysis and wonder if there really is need for something like Toxic Spikes in this meta. They need time to make an impact and therefore are relatively unappealing to HO teams, whereas stall and balanced team may opt for bulkier options like Tentacruel or Forretress.

Also, when not using Toxic Spikes, why would I use Scolipede over Accelgor?

Toxic spikes is not that needed. IMO toxic is just better. Imagine that you took all the time setting up TS and then a Tentacruel comes out. Bye bye, he absorbs them and there goes all your effort.

EDIT: If you are talking about UU or RU this question should go HERE for UU or HERE for RU

[ClubbingSealCub]

Toxic Spikes should only be used if your team struggles with SubCM Keldeo or a similar grounded mon that looks to sub up and boost; or when paired with SubRoost Kyurem (mons that can take 2 hits of Ice Beam / EP tend to hate Toxic Spikes, except for Zong).

Otherwise, they're pretty bad.

[Anikrahman1995]

Can someone give me the link to to thread where BW's initial banlist was discussed?

[Scarfwynaut]

Originally Posted by Fat Anikrahman1995

Can someone give me the link to to thread where BW's initial banlist was discussed?

http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82101
http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81568
http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79694

[rolrctermaniac]

I know this is the OU ask a simple question thread, but I really don't know where else to ask this. I saw a dodrio picture once and it said kookookachoo I felt like it was on smogon but can't remember. Anyone know where it is?

[alkinesthetase]

probably in one of the recent issues of the smog, for the birds article

here http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue22/gamefreak

[rolrctermaniac]

Originally Posted by Fat alkinesthetase

probably in one of the recent issues of the smog, for the birds article

here http://www.smogon.com/smog/issue22/gamefreak

Thanks! for some reason I thought 22 was the most recent and looked for the 10 most recent besides that one >.>

[Lord of Bays]

So I've been running a SubSalacSD Garchomp to absurd success recently, but beyond tanking a hit and Subbing down to only slightly under 25%, Subbing 4 times puts me at 1 HP, which actually lost me a match recently because the guy's Terrakion was packing Quick Attack (252Atk Choice Band Terrakion (Neutral) Quick Attack vs 0HP/0Def Leftovers Garchomp (Neutral): 19% - 22% (68 - 81 HP). Guaranteed 6HKO) after his Scarf Keldeo broke my Sub.

I switched from 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe to 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe because I wasn't Subbing into my Salac Berry after three Subs, but I'm still not Subbing into it. Is there an IV I can drop down to on HP to get the Salac Berry boost after only three Subs, or is that not possible?

[alkinesthetase]

^ run 30 HP IV and 0 HP EVs, which gives you 356 HP. divisible by 4 so you will get salac on the third sub

[Lord of Bays]

Thanks, brostapholasaur.

[cwolf190]

Hey everybody, I have a quick question. Sorry about starting a new thread about it, didn't realize we had this thread. Anyway, I prefer breeding and raising and EV training my pokemon on my own instead of using pokesave/pokegen. However, this means I'm limited and can't really use things such as Jirachi or Celebi. This also means, at times, my IVs will be a little lacking. My question is, does this put me at a big disadvantage?

[Shurtugal]

How do you get badges on smogon and how do you know if you will get one? Just generally curious (I actually had a dream about getting CC.... lame imo lol).