Article by Slow Homie, posted by me for bbcode and editing purposes.
Smogon VGC 101 - Win Conditions
Smogon VGC 101 - Win Conditions
In Avengers Infinity War Dr. Strange saw 14,000,000 futures and only one where the heroes defeated Thanos. What he saw was so important that he was willing to give the Time Stone to Thanos in a deal to spare Iron Man’s life. Spoiler alert for Avengers Endgame if you haven’t seen it – but Tony Stark was able to invent time travel, defeat Thanos and save the universe! This is an example of what we call a “Win Condition”. (Sorry for spoiling a movie that is over 7 years old).
Welcome back to VGC 101! The series is specially designed to take you from beginner to competing with and beating the best of the best! I’m SlowHomie and today we are going to talk about win conditions!
When you understand and apply what a win conditon is, you will find yourself holding on to your victories more instead of throwing away leads. You will find yourself winning difficult and impossible games! Your play will be more effective and focused and you will make less mistakes because understanding your win condition allows you to make plays that help you win the game - and not just a turn. Today we will help you understand:
- What a is a Win Condition
- Why Win Conditions are Important
- Identifying Your Win Conditions
- Identifying Your Opponent’s Conditions
- Managing Win Conditions
What Is a Win Condition
A win condition is a condition that will win you the game. That may seem a bit obvious but it’s true! Let’s try illustrating it a bit more with a couple examples. If I get my Choice Specs Eruption in while Trick Room is active - I should win. If I poison all of their Pokemon and then bring in my bulky leftovers Dondozo - I should win. If their last mon is choice locked into an electric attack and my last Pokemon is a ground type - I will win.
So here we see a win condition is usually a combination of having one or more of your Pokemon positioned to handle the remaining Pokemon the opponents have. All Pokemon have strengths and weaknesses - so if you can support your strengths and eliminate the opponents' way of handling your weaknesses, you should be in a good spot to win the game.
Sometimes these conditions can be simple - if I remove their X my Y should win. Other times they might involve weakening a Pokemon by lowering their stats or doing damage to them before one of your mons comes in. Oftentimes a win condition involves getting a Pokemon in a certain field condition with the right weather, terrain, or speed control. But for now, the main point to remember is - a win condition is a combination of events that puts you in a position to win the game.
Why Win Conditions are Important
Win conditions are really important because they guide our play. Ultimately we’re always playing to the same win condition - KO the opponent's Pokemon before they can KO yours. But there are lots of ways to get there. And oftentimes we will get careless and lose a win condition early.
For example, if you really need your Incineroar to handle the opposing Calyrex-Shadow, but you let it get KOd early in the game, you might lose even if you get an early game advantage. I have won games from down 1-4 because that last mon was my win condition and I set it up well, and I’ve lost games from up 4-1, because I let my opponent set up their win condition. If you are mindful about your win condition - and your opponents win conditions - you will be less likely to make mistakes or get baited into making plays that give you a short term advantage but ultimately lose you the game (we might call this a “bad trade”).
Identifying Your Win Conditions
There are lots of possible win conditions but we can typically categorize them into two types:
Offensive win conditions: This mon can KO all of their mons once you deal with X.
Defensive win conditions: After I deal with Y, they basically can’t touch my Z.
The next step to go to identifying your win conditions is to know your team. How does it win the game? Most teams will have a combination of offensive mons and support mons. Typically support mons themselves aren’ win conditions - but rather the pieces you use to set up their win conditions. For example, you can use redirection to set up a defensive win condition or protect an offensive win condition. Sometimes you might have a support mon that can win a game by itself such as an Encore Disable Scream Tail or a really bulky Amoonguss. But for most teams you will have 2-3 offensive win conditions.
Identifying Your Opponent’s Conditions
During team preview you should try to identify your opponents' win conditions. What are their key offensive pieces? Or do they have a defense heavy stall win condition? You should also try and identify what they have that looks good into your team. Chances are they will focus on whatever mon does best into your team as their win condition. Also try and notice what you have on your team that’s really good into them. That might help you identify your best win conditions as well.
Managing Win Conditions
So if you’ve identified both you and your opponents’ win conditions - how do you manage that information in the battle? I would say that there are 4 main things to keep in mind:
- Protecting your win condition
- Breaking/Clearing for your win condition
- Preventing your opponent from setting up their win condition
- Your win conditions ~may shift~ during a battle
Protecting your win condition: You can do this with redirection, fake out, smart protects, and taking key KOs. It’s also important to do that by knowing when you need to switch it out or save it for later in the game. Don’t be too reckless with your win conditions. Protect them. If a mon has already done its job toward setting up your win condition, don’t be afraid to let it go down for a free switch. Know which pieces can be sacrificed when, and protect the pieces that need protecting
Breaking/clearing for your win condition: If your win condition is a strong electric type attacker, you’re going to want to take care of the opponent’s ground type Pokemon. Many teams will combine complimentary offensive Pokemon to “Break” for each other. For example an ice type can “break” the ground type to let your electric type clean up. You can also use an offensive threat to eliminate an opponent’s offensive threats to set up your defensive win condition.
Most teams will combine both offensive and defensive tools, sometimes you use offense to clear the way for defense, or defense to position offense. Heck sometimes you’ll use offense to position offense or defense to balance defense. But generally you will want a mix of options.
Preventing your opponent from setting up their win condition: They’ve got a game plan they’re trying to execute as well. So don’t let them! This can include disruption like taunt or fake out, using defensive tools like protect and switching to stall out their offense, or offensive tools to remove their win condition. Sometimes removing the opponents win condition is enough for you to just win
Your Win Conditions can Change
I know I’ve spent a lot of time talking about protecting and focusing on your win condition, but it’s important to also be open to your win condition changing as the game goes by.
Based off of what your opponent brings and how they play, you might realize that one of your two or three win conditions is a lot better than the others
Let’s say you’re trying to set up your fire Pokémon to sweep the opponent, but they don’t bring their grass types, they bring their water types. Now you realize your own grass type is a better win condition to play to.
Some play styles like balance are designed to be flexible and have multiple win conditions that can develop throughout a game. Some teams like hard trick room have a lot clearer win conditions, (Set Up TR and bring in your best sweeper), some players like having more flexibility and others like a more clear goal and they choose teams that align with those styles. But no matter what team you play, it’s important to identify your win condition, protect it, and be ready to adapt mid game if the situations arise
VGC 101 Win Condition Video!
To help illustrate these points make sure to check out our video! We were lucky enough to have Pokemon YouTuber and Streamer CBAD break down how he thinks about team Win Conditions! Make sure to give it a watch and subscribe to both CBAD and SnoozeVGC!
Homework
Today’s homework is to: play 3-5 sets and at the start of each game ask yourself “what are 1-2 win conditions I want to play toward?” and “what win condition might my opponent play towards?” At the end of each game go back and ask yourself - “did I do a good job protecting my win condition?”
Review
In conclusion, identifying win conditions helps you focus your play and win more games! With some purposeful practice, I think you’ll find it helps you hold onto your leads better and come from behind when things get off to a rough start. So hopefully we’ve helped you understand win conditions enough that you can continue to grow as you practice!
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