So what is the set with Fini people are running? And EV sets too if any of you know.
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Resource VGC: Ask a Simple Question, Get a Simple Answer
- Thread starter blarajan
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This might help you: http://www.trainertower.com/vgc-17-meta-snapshot-december-2016/
Tapu Fini is in honorable mentions :)
When hidden abilities become available for the starters, will they be legal to use in VGC?
Pheromosa is a really odd pokémon to see, but it does appear sometimes. Your team definitely doesn't like to see it with three fighting weaknesses, and coverage options like Ice Beam and Poison Jab capable of taking out Bulu and Salamence in one hit. I think I would personally take Gigalith off of that lineup in favor of perhaps something like Muk; you still get a positive matchup against Marowak, though your team doesn't particularly fear it, and while you lose out on Wide Guard you don't fear Pheromosa much and can heavily damage it back with Poison Jab; 252+ Atk Muk-Alola Poison Jab vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Pheromosa: 136-162 (93.1 - 110.9%) -- 62.5% chance to OHKO. This opens it up to Life Orb recoil, as well as forcing your opponent to play Pheromosa more defensively out of fear of Shadow Sneak on Muk, regardless of whether you have it or not, unless you reveal your third attack (be it Imprison, Curse, or Minimize) earlier in the match. It doesn't entirely solve your problem, as Pheromosa's All-Out Pummeling (Fightinium-Z High Jump Kick) still knocks out Muk; 252 Atk Pheromosa All-Out Pummeling (195 BP) vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Muk-Alola: 219-258 (103.3 - 121.6%) -- guaranteed OHKO ; but typically leading Salamence to support Muk with Intimidate can cover this flaw.
Even then, both Buzzwole and Pheromosa are relatively rare. While having a game plan against them is a good idea, it's not entirely necessary to have a perfect counter to them if it detracts from your team's matchup against other, more common threats.
Hello everyone!
I'm trying to learn VGC this year (I don't know singles either) and since now, I've been playing with IC London's champion team. This has allowed me to start to understand movesets,weaknesses, switching between pokémon for having better match ups and so forth.
I've played already 50 times with this team (25 wins/ 25 loses) and I think the time to take the next step has come. The time to create teams on my own. The thing is that I would like some advice in which route to take.
1. I read, in smogon last year, an introductory post about teambuilding (for OU in ORAS) where the author was suggesting to start right away creating teams. The point was that, by doing that, a deeper and quicker understanding of the game and the pokémon is achieved. That make sense, but is very intimidating as well, at least for me that the last game I had played was Pokémon silver on my Game Boy Pocket lol.
2. The second way I've read is in the TEAM BUILDING HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT. Where blarajan encourage us to take some VGC team without knowing the movesets, objects and EV's for building around it ourselves. This is less intimidating but remembering the words at the first post I don't know if I'd be slowing down my learning
Any opinion would be appreciated. Thank you very much!
PS: Sorry in case I've misspelled something or the sentences have not much sense. I'm not an English native speaker
PSS: There's a third option. I've been seeing lately Cybertron and I kind of like it's trick room team. I could pick that team and just try it out for another 50 games. Anyway that would only delay this decision and I don't think is the best option either.
I'm trying to learn VGC this year (I don't know singles either) and since now, I've been playing with IC London's champion team. This has allowed me to start to understand movesets,weaknesses, switching between pokémon for having better match ups and so forth.
I've played already 50 times with this team (25 wins/ 25 loses) and I think the time to take the next step has come. The time to create teams on my own. The thing is that I would like some advice in which route to take.
1. I read, in smogon last year, an introductory post about teambuilding (for OU in ORAS) where the author was suggesting to start right away creating teams. The point was that, by doing that, a deeper and quicker understanding of the game and the pokémon is achieved. That make sense, but is very intimidating as well, at least for me that the last game I had played was Pokémon silver on my Game Boy Pocket lol.
2. The second way I've read is in the TEAM BUILDING HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT. Where blarajan encourage us to take some VGC team without knowing the movesets, objects and EV's for building around it ourselves. This is less intimidating but remembering the words at the first post I don't know if I'd be slowing down my learning
Any opinion would be appreciated. Thank you very much!
PS: Sorry in case I've misspelled something or the sentences have not much sense. I'm not an English native speaker
PSS: There's a third option. I've been seeing lately Cybertron and I kind of like it's trick room team. I could pick that team and just try it out for another 50 games. Anyway that would only delay this decision and I don't think is the best option either.
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I see your point. What do you think would be a good indicator that I'm ready for a next step? Some ELO milestone? Some specific win rate?
Thank you nardd
One big difference between this metagame and previous years' is that it shifts very fast. So a team that did well at london might not necessarily be doing that well any more, because people know how to play against it. You could try using a more up to date team.
That being said, did you feel like most of your losses were because you didn't have a good answer to certain team matchups (or even just individual pokemon), making it much more difficult for you to win? Or were your losses due to things you as a player could've done better, like make better predictions, indentifying your win condition, figuring out your opponent's game plan, and so on?
To be honest with myself It's more because of I don't know a specific pokémon/move/ability than the feeling of being completely countered by the team. For example, I lose a game because I thought gastrodon with icebeam could kill Drampa.
So like I've totally taken a back seat the past few years. I have a pretty good grasp on what I want to use this season but I want to copy check some analysis that have already been done (cuz why reinvent the wheel?) I thought I found a few analysis before, but now I cut find them. Was I imagining things or an I just retarded?
Since Nugget Bridge has, for the most part, gone quiet on new content, most of it has been relocated to other websites. While I'm relatively certain we'll see team reports on Smogon soon, in the meantime both Trainer Tower (trainertower.com) and PokéAus (pokemonaustralia.com) are good places, and you can also find a few from strong players' YouTube channels, like those of Wolfe Glick and Aaron Zheng.
I'm currently theorymonning up a team with a Tapu Fini/Kartana/Arcanine core (+ an admittely gimmicky mon) and I wish to add Goodra too to further increase my specially attacking and defensive options, but I'm struggling to figure out which mon needs Assault Vest more.
Kartana can use Focus Sash, but AV has gained a ton of popularity lately and is touted as generally superior. AV Goodra also makes a ton of sense in my mind and is the most common set, but does it have any other viable options? Is the loss of that SpDef boost too big? are there other bulky special attackers that don't need AV I could use (other than P2)?
The only ideas I have so far is giving a Z-Crystal to either of them, settling for Sash on Kartana or maybe Specs Goodra? idk.
Kartana can use Focus Sash, but AV has gained a ton of popularity lately and is touted as generally superior. AV Goodra also makes a ton of sense in my mind and is the most common set, but does it have any other viable options? Is the loss of that SpDef boost too big? are there other bulky special attackers that don't need AV I could use (other than P2)?
The only ideas I have so far is giving a Z-Crystal to either of them, settling for Sash on Kartana or maybe Specs Goodra? idk.
I used those four to get 4-1 and top 4 at a PC, along with muk and p2. I feel like kartana can still function with a sash (and sometimes it can prove more useful than AV), whereas goodra needs the AV to fulfill its purpose of "laugh at special attacks and stay around for a long time". It's also nice having protect on kartana, as night slash is literally only there for marowak, whereas goodra wants all four of its moves to be attacks to take advantage of its huge movepool.
Generally speaking I go Focus Sash on Kartana unless I already have it on something else. Goodra often goes AV but I've seen things like Sitrus Berry on it - in most cases I'd go Assault Vest but I don't think the loss in SpD is the end of the world if you decide to go Specs for more damage (I don't really think this is worth doing but I still think it's worth looking into). As for Z-moves I'm not sure what Z-move you'd want to put on Goodra that would be worth it. Dragonium Z could be worth it to dodge a drop in SpA from Draco Meteor, but at the same time you're using Tapu Fini and Dragon has reduced damage on Misty Terrain so that doesn't sounds too appealing. I've heard of people running Z-moves and Choice Scarf on their Kartana... Which sounds weird because I really feel like it needs Focus Sash/Assault Vest but I do see where the idea comes from - Scarf Kartana wins speed ties against Ninetales and Kartana (same base speed) and Z-move Kartana can dish out a lot of suprising damage. So I'd probably stick AV on Goodra and Sash on Kartana, but there are other options you may want to explore as you build the rest of the team.
What are some relevant benchmarks to consider when EVing a Modest Vikavolt that will be using Z-String Shot?
use it on goodra i actually would use a life orb set on kartana after a boost and life orb he is a monster i use adamant with psycho cut brick break smart strike and leaf blade but u could use sacred sword or night slash in place of psycho cut or brick break
guys i need some help here.
I'd like to make a great team for this VGC, actually my rank sucks pretty much, kind like 100W and 100L
i think that the tapu are great and you need at least 1 in your team, i used a team like trick room with marowak and drampa and was pretty good, but i just don't really know how to make a solid team which could counter pretty much everything.
There are some sample teams very strong or one good team that you guys can raccomande?
I'd like to make a great team for this VGC, actually my rank sucks pretty much, kind like 100W and 100L
i think that the tapu are great and you need at least 1 in your team, i used a team like trick room with marowak and drampa and was pretty good, but i just don't really know how to make a solid team which could counter pretty much everything.
There are some sample teams very strong or one good team that you guys can raccomande?
Check out Trainer Tower. It's a relatively new website that keeps track of all the teams from the top cut of major events like Regionals and Internationals. Some players even have team reports on the website with their EV spreads and moves revealed. It's a pretty good place to get an idea of what's working well and what's not. Hope I've helped.
Breaking even at first definitely isn't bad when you first start playing a format you're unfamiliar with. After 200 matches though if you haven't started going positive there's probably some issues with your team/your playing/both. Cybertron has a great guide to teambuilding on his channel explaining good ways of going about making a team, but really its important to be flexible with your team. When playing with it, keep in mind what Pokemon your team struggles against. Decide whether or not its a manageable matchup with your current version and if necessary make changes while trying not to worsen your other matchups too hard. You will never have a team that has a perfect matchup against everything, but as long as you feel comfortable playing around those bad matchups you should be okay. Make sure the win conditions that your team has are consistent and have answers to Pokemon that prevent your win condition (i.e. Pokemon that can beat the Pokemon that give your trick room setter a hard time). Really though at the end of the day a team that may work for somebody else may not work for you. It all depends on your playstyle. Many teams are very aggressive, such as Phillip Wingett's Top 16 San Jose team with 3 Z-Crystals, a sash user, a scarfer and a Life Orb user and no defensive investment, whereas some are far more defensive, such as Wolfe Glick's London International team which utilised only one offensive item with the rest being Berries, Lefties and Eviolite and far bulkier spreads. Neither is wrong, it's just what you feel more comfortable using and you find success with.
The videos I mention:
https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/find-an-event/?mo_ar=true
https://www.pokemon.com/us/play-pokemon/pokemon-events/find-an-event/?mo_ar=true
You can use this link to find events occurring in your area. You can filter it by distance, date, etc.
I know that, I was wondering if there's anywhere on Smogon I can post it? I already know about the event but I'd like to use Smogon as a platform to promote the upcoming VGC MSS in Toronto for anyone on smogon who doesn't know about it.
The VGC board seems a little unclear. The discussion seems to be kept to the discussion tread and new threads aren't common. It was more a question to the mods blarajan if I can post the info in it's own thread or put it in VGC IRL.