OU Simple Questions, Simple Answers (Read the OP First!)

[LilOu]

I have two other questions too.
1- What is alum?
2- Which forum is for warstories?

Answers:

1.- "Alum (pron.: /ˈæləm/) is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate (potassium alum) with the formula KAl(SO4)2·12H2O. More widely, alums are double sulphate salts, with the formula AM(SO4)2·12H2O, where A is a monovalent cation such as potassium or ammonium and M is a trivalent metal ion such as aluminium or chromium(III)."

Well, maybe you mean "Alumnus". In terms of Smogon, someone has a badge "alumnized" when that person was, for example, a Team Rater and had the TR badge. The person contributed on the RMT forum but then stopped doing so. In those cases, he/she can have his/her badge alumnized in a way to recognize all the effort did in the past.

2.- I'm not really sure, but here is the Warstory Archive

 

[G-Von]

Im Using My PhonE To Post Since My Computer Broke So I Was Wondering, Is There Anything Wrong With Me Posting Like This SincE My Phone Automatically Capitalizes The First Letter In Every Word.

 

[LilOu]

Im Using My PhonE To Post Since My Computer Broke So I Was Wondering, Is There Anything Wrong With Me Posting Like This SincE My Phone Automatically Capitalizes The First Letter In Every Word.

Uh, actually it looks horrible...I'd suggest to go to Settings and check for a solution before posting like that.

 

[dcae]

2- Which forum is for warstories?

Warstories are posted in the forum of the tier they were played in. For example an OU warstory should be posted in OU subforum.

 

[Viktor24]

Thank you for answers c:
Apparently nobody noticed my first question under the other post. Where do suspect tests take place?

 

[haunter]

On Pokemon Showdown, our official simulator. A thread that announces the testing period is posted in the forum dedicated to the tier that's having the test before it starts.

 

[Box]

Not sure where this goes, but a very serious question: how would I go about upping my community involvement? I mean for Christ sake I've been here 3 years and done nothing productive outside of pointing out obvious errors to scrubby teams in the RMT forums.

tl;dr i want to be loved too wat do

 

[Gary]

Not sure where this goes, but a very serious question: how would I go about upping my community involvement? I mean for Christ sake I've been here 3 years and done nothing productive outside of pointing out obvious errors to scrubby teams in the RMT forums.

tl;dr i want to be loved too wat do

Honestly, the possibilities are endless. What do you like to do the most? If you enjoy rating teams, then you could continue to rate teams and work towards the Team Rater badge. Just be sure you have really detailed rates, and pinpoint the most crippling flaws for a team, in order to make it MUCH more successful. If you enjoy writing about Pokemon, you could take a look into maybe writing Pokemon analysis' for the Strategy Pokedex on the front page. Here's a link to the Contribution and Corrections forum. They can be a lot of work to put together, but you're contributing a lot to Smogon by creating these. Another way of contributing to Smogon is by leading the community in healthy competitive discussion, such as posting a war story of one of your most epic battles, discussing a specific Pokemon's viability in this current metagame, and even creating some kind of debating thread. It all depends on what you enjoy doing on Smogon. Just because you may not FEEL like your contributing directly to Smogon, that doesn't neccesarily mean you're not contributing to it. If you are really knowledgeable in the OU metagame and are well known around Smogon for your amazingly intelligent posts, then you're technically contributing to Smogon that way.

 

[aVocado]

What's a solid counter to Heatran/Celebi or CeleTran in general? My team consists of Mew/Ttar/Latias/Conkeldurr/Keldeo/Ferro and I'm pretty weak to both of them. I know Tyranitar can check both of them but switching into Leaf Storm/Giga Drain (even though the latter doesn't do much since I use specially defensive ttar) and Earth Power isn't pleasing.

Also, what will be the BP of Mach Punch if it's boosted by Iron Fist, STAB, and Fist Plate ?

 

[Manitary]

Also, what will be the BP of Mach Punch if it's boosted by Iron Fist, STAB, and Fist Plate ?

40*1.2(IF)*1.5(STAB)*1.2(Plate)~86

 

[LilOu]

I know that you need to have a badge to be able to insert images in your signature, however; I keep seeing people with no more than 100 posts, no badge and that joined on 2013 but have images in their signatures. How? Do they ask a mod for that?

 

[Arcticblast]

They use [pimg] tags. Simply put the Smogon index number of the Pokemon you're looking for, and...
[pimg]1[/pimg] Bravo!

The only easy way to check the index number is by viewing the URL of its sprite, however, so unless you're trying to make a post that takes up marginally less space on the server or trying to put it in your signature, it's useless.

 

[LilOu]

Oh, thanks! I'm just testing it [pimg]160[/pimg] [pimg]212[/pimg]

 

[Viktor24]

What's a solid counter to Heatran/Celebi or CeleTran in general? My team consists of Mew/Ttar/Latias/Conkeldurr/Keldeo/Ferro and I'm pretty weak to both of them. I know Tyranitar can check both of them but switching into Leaf Storm/Giga Drain (even though the latter doesn't do much since I use specially defensive ttar) and Earth Power isn't pleasing.

Also, what will be the BP of Mach Punch if it's boosted by Iron Fist, STAB, and Fist Plate ?

Ok. The defensive core of Heatren and Celebi is easily broken by HP ground Volcarona on the special side. Infernape can pwn them both with good prediction. If you're asking for counters for each of them then you have to know their movesets first. ie Jirachi is a very good counter to Celebi but suddenly an Earth Power on an offensive set will ruin everything. I suggest that you check out their in-site analyzes.
EDIT: On a second note, Chansey and Blissey can almost take all of their hits.
For your second question, 86.4.

 

[MrEon]

I'm planning to use SD Scizor on my team, so a couple of questions.
Firstly, which set is better in today's meta - bulky or all-out sweeper? I'm thinking bulky, because I can use BP/Bug Bite and use Magnezone support to make up for the loss of coverage.
Secondly, if I use offensive SD, will Quick Attack be viable? It can help against 'mons like Keldeo, Starmie, Thundy, Gyarados and Volcarona, I guess...

 

[Gary]

I'm planning to use SD Scizor on my team, so a couple of questions.
Firstly, which set is better in today's meta - bulky or all-out sweeper? I'm thinking bulky, because I can use BP/Bug Bite and use Magnezone support to make up for the loss of coverage.
Secondly, if I use offensive SD, will Quick Attack be viable? It can help against 'mons like Keldeo, Starmie, Thundy, Gyarados and Volcarona, I guess...

Probably the Bulky SD set, because Scizor finds a LOT more opportunities to setup with a bulkier set. Scizor is already so ridiculously powerful at +2, which means investing more in bulk then Attack won't really steal much away from its sweeping potential. Personally, I run this Bulky Scizor set:

Scizor @ Leftovers
Trait: Technician
EVs: 252 HP / 40 Atk / 216 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Bug Bite
- Roost

Quick Attack can be used over Roost, but then Scizor loses out on longevity. It's still viable though, and if you want to sweep earlier on in the battle, then Quick Attack is worth it.

 

[Raravian]

Is Rapid Spin / Magic Bounce support mandatory when using Gyarados? I'm having a hard time fitting a Rapid Spinner / Magic Bouncer on my team.

Also, I'm using a gimmick offensive Gyarados set, slightly weaker than normal.

Gyarados @ Leftovers
Trait: Intimidate
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature (+Spe, -SpA)
- Dragon Dance
- Waterfall
- Bounce
- Earthquake

That way it can check Lucario and Mamoswine, which would otherwise run through my team very easily. It can still kill what it's supposed to kill, but it sweeps a little harder. I just thought, Substitute and Stealth Rock, that's 50% of Gyarados' HP right away. So I didn't like the idea.

My second question: Is it too gimmicky or not?

 

[BurningMan]

I think thats a perfectly viable set you are using, its a good idea to run leftovers if you don't got a spinner and want to abuse Intimidate to check certain threats.

I wouldn't say that spin support is necessary for an SR weak pokemon it is often helpful, but if you don't got room for a spinner on your team thats just fine.

 

[forestflamerunner]

Hey.

What is the definition for the term. Gimmick and in what ways does it differ from a Pokemon Niche? How do people differentiate between the two from pokemon to pokemon?

 

[BurningMan]

Hey.

What is the definition for the term. Gimmick and in what ways does it differ from a Pokemon Niche? How do people differentiate between the two from pokemon to pokemon?

A gimmick is simply a non standart set, an example for a good gimmick would be Expert Belt keldeo with HP Bug to get past Celebie although one could say that it isn't a gimmick anymore, because it actually is a pretty well known set much like it was the case with Expert Belt Landorus in BW1.

Gimmicks usually are something that you use to surprise your opponent, a good gimmick does this by using an unusual move or unusual item on a pokemon that allows it to get past its usual counters. However there also are bad gimmicks like Choice Specs Scizor, life orb Blissey etc. that will surprise your opponent, but likely won't do anything besides making other people wonder whats is going wrong in your head.

A niche is something a pokemon can do succesfully in the Metagame for example Weaviles niche in OU is that it is able to pursuit trap every Psychic type and revenge kill Dragons, while Weavile is outside of this a pretty bad pokemon it can do something no other Pokemon can do so it got this niche.

 

[Viktor24]

I always thought that only badged users can put those sentences under their name but I've seen some non-badged users having those sentence things. What trickery is this?

 

[dcae]

They are users who had their badges taken away because they weren't contributing anymore in that department. However, they maintain their custom titles.

 

[DGX]

If i wanted to build a team around Gyarados, how would i start out?

 

[Nova]

If i wanted to build a team around Gyarados, how would i start out?

You would want to decide what set to use first. In my experience, the most effective are Sub DD with Intimidate or DD with 3 attacks and Moxie. The first partner that comes to mind is Politoed who provides rain to boost Gyarados' Waterfall and can be a complementary wallbreaker if you use Specs Toed. Then you probably want hazards as Gyarados mainly functions as a sweeper so something like Ferrothorn would work well. In the remaining team slots you should consider a spinner such as Starmie or Tentacruel that fit well on a rain team, a scarf user such as Keldeo, and then a wildcard such as Thundurus-T or Jolteon who can Volt Switch around to weaken the opponent and provide an opportunity for Gyarados to come in and set up.

 

[TGMD]

If i wanted to build a team around Gyarados, how would i start out?

Rain is certainly very useful because it boosts Gyarados' Waterfall. However, Politoed magnifies the weakness to Electric that Gyarados brings to the team, so do many common rain Pokémon, so just be cautious of that and pack an Electric resist. You'll definitely want to remove Gyarados' counters, such as Ferrothorn and Rotom-W, preferably with something that has good defensive and offensive synergy with Gyarados. That's a lot to ask from a single Pokémon though, especially considering the two have great defensive synergy, so you may be hard pressed to find anything that fits that description. Gyarados can actually get around Rotom-W by using Substitute as it goes for the Volt Switch, so that certainly helps. There is the risk of Thunderbolt, but that's extremely rare. Gyarados is also weak to Stealth Rock, so naturally, you'll likely want a spinner of some sorts. Unfortunately, almost every single OU spinner is weak to Electric, and all of them are weak to Rotom-W.

Overall, there are a lot of problems with coming up with a scaffold for a Gyarados team, if you want rain and spin, two extremely beneficial things for Gyarados to have, you'll often end up extremely weak to Electric types, especially Rotom-W. Don't let this discourage you though, Gyarados is extremely difficult to counter, especially if you set up hazards, and can easily sweep through even the best of teams. As long as you make sure the rest of your team is strong against Rotom-W and you apply the usual rules of teambuilding (making sure there are few huge weaknesses, etc.), you should be fine. I hope this helps :)