What was the hardest part of the metagame for you to understand?

I have problems with things that are not standard, thanks mainly to lack of practice against them and being a "reactive" player, playing on the opponent's bad judgement or prediction.

Early DP the fighter was always Heracross. And then I fought this Machamp and got 6-0ed.
 
Stall teams and offensive teams. I just couldn't understand why someone would use a team with all sweepers and no defense. I also didn't understand why people would use teams with no offense, and just rely on passive damage the whole time. It just seemed like a waste of time you could be using beating down the opponents team with a sweeper.

Team synergy continues to elude me, though. I think once you have learned all of the basics, that's the hardest part to learn.
 

cim

happiness is such hard work
is a Contributor Alumnusis a Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
The tricky part is translating perfect theory into good battling skills. All the teambuilding, studying, and careful EVing in the world doesn't mean shit if you make a mistake. And that's where I fall as a battler.
 
Nothing except for understand idiots going saying Cresselia is uber.

Everything is easy to understand, as long as the IV/EV part is out of the way, the rest just came to me:
- Every Pokemon has a number between 0-31 in all stats, if it picks 0, it sucks, and if it picks 31, it's good.
- In other words, Pokemon has to born good, or born suck.
- Retards like a Modest Rhyhorn should not exist and be shot in sight.
- Some exceptions can be accepted like if a Machamp has 4 in SA.
- Predictions are important, but don't overpredict.
- Use all your pieces effectively, remember your opponent's pieces.
- Deoxys-S and Skymin are uber.

That's all you need to know about Pokemon D/P, it's a insultingly simple concept, but punishingly difficult to pass the luck and planning.
 
Magic Speed Numbers.

Now it is fairly straightforward, but when I first started... Goddamn! I had such a difficult time understanding why that heatran beat my azelf...

Thankfully this gets easier the more you play, as does anything else mentioned in this thread.
 
My problem is probably opening up the enemy's team. I always try to win the battle now, not win the battle in 4 turns, if you know what I mean. I can't lure an opponent out or focus on a single threat and eliminate it to let another pokemon succeed.

Synergy I understand to some degree, at least to in team building, but where I fail is understanding who is a threat to my team, and how to sacrifice, lure, or set up for a sweep, especially in battle.

I know that say, specsluke can support a SD Scizor to set up, but I don't know how to do it.

That, and I easily can forget to pay attention. I think there was at least one instance where a ususal ice beam carrier threatened my Skymin... so I switched to Flygon.
 
I've been always been no good at Pokemon math, but I've never been very good at measurements at all.

I understand when somebody tells me that Pokemon + move + x EVs/IVs will get me a 1-2HKO, but it's the x that I can never figure out for myself. >.<
 
where I fail is understanding who is a threat to my team
Three words: trial and error.
My golden rule is, if you battle someone and a particular pokemon takes out at least three of your pokemon one after the other, it's a threat to your team. How to solve that problem is another matter entirely.
 

bugmaniacbob

Was fun while it lasted
is an Artist Alumnusis a CAP Contributor Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnusis a Top Smogon Media Contributor Alumnus
I could barely understand anything, really. I still have problems with everything, but if I had to choose something...

  • Why Ubers are not allowed
  • Why two moves of the same attack type is bad
  • But most of all, I could not understand the value of non-attack moves like Swords Dance and Calm Mind.
 
The hardest part for me is this platinum Metagame. I can make a perfectly good team... but lose to all this wierd shit I keep seeing. Like teams with 3 Trick pokemon... my god
 
I still have a hell of a time trying to come up with a good team, but my biggest problem when I started was that I didn't know enough of what my opponents were capable of.

Thinking back to my first war story (Yes, that 1-6 -> 1-0 Blissey sweep I had in one of my first ever competitive battles. I still have a quote from it in my sig.), I totally underestimated my opponent's capabilities--especially that Starmie's Special Attack. :( I wouldn't have had to resort to such a miraculous comeback had I known better just what the opposing Pokemon could do...
 
For me, the main thing was creating a good team- something I'm not exactly capable of doing now. The EVs and IVs were pretty easy, but I still don't exactly love "efficient" EV Spreads- like the spreads for Bronzong.
 
Figuring out all the templates for guys, the names like Scarftran or DDtar confused me at first when people said my guys were weak ot them. Plus, the moves I should expect those guys to use in battle. Choice guys use strong attacks, Machamp uses Dynamic Punch. Sometimes now with one move I can accurately predict the rest of them.
I still don't make teams to win against everything.
 
EVs were easy (although I see Gen's point on the spread).

Roles and type coverage confused me. Ingame, my Infernape had 2 physical fighting moves, and a fighting move (the other move didn't matter to me). He was a straight out attacker (do keep in mind that the EVs were mixed and he had no hope in the competitive scene). Competitively, Infernape isn't at all like that, often being a suicidal lead/attacker. The concept of 4 different move types threw me off a tad. Of course it made sense, but which types for which reasons was hard to grasp.
 
IV's were confusing as hell. But now the main thing I'm working on is remembering what pokes have what movesets but that all comes with more experience.
 

Fabbles

LN_Slayer
is a Contributor Alumnus
Finding the balance between gimmicks, creativity, and usefulness on the competitive level. At first I was a really gimmicky battler, but over time I have developed those skills in order to make extremely competitive teams but with the unexpected. I find that these sets are much easier to use than the standards and often are more effective.

Game play wise, I didn't really have any problems aside from possibly the occurrence of critical hits. The randomness always bothered me when I was still fairly new.
 
Yep, the roles thing is definitely a biggie, and it's advice that a lot of people here can use. Forget about physical walls, special sweepers etc. If something deals with something you are weak with, consider it on your team. A team doesn't have to have 3 sweepers, 1 supporter and 2 walls or whatever. Yuck. Get rid of that mentality. Just counter mainly through types both offensively and defensively.

Till this day I'm still drawing up counters for my team, well at least things that can counter poke x with prediction or revenge killers for them. I wonder if that's holding me back. An overriding strategy is also somewhat hard for me. My teams are usually just of the offensive ground and pound types. Not that I can't build stall teams, but you know what I mean. Should really work on that.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top