Hey guys! I was just wondering if any one had any general tips on how to pick the 4 pokemon to use during team preview during VGC 2015? During my battles I always seem to find myself wishing I chose different pokemon during previews. I would really appreciate it if anyone could help me.
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Any tips/strategies for picking 4/6?
- Thread starter Burn the Pages
- Start date
What macle said is really all you can do. I say this is one of those things that you will only get better and more comfortable at by playing.
What I do is just put myself into my opponent's shoes and think what I would choose if I'm my opponent. Sometimes (I don't really recommend this lol) I just trust my gut and pick what my gut tells me lol.
You don't want to being trying to counter pick what you think your opponents going to bring, and instead try to have the best match-up against their entire team. If they don't bring the exact four you predicted you've potentially under prepared for a Pokemon which could lose you the game.
While old this is a pretty good article on the subject: http://nuggetbridge.com/articles/a-preview-to-team-preview-in-vgc/
While old this is a pretty good article on the subject: http://nuggetbridge.com/articles/a-preview-to-team-preview-in-vgc/
This article is exactly what I'm looking for! Although it is a bit old, its still applicable to the 2015 metagame. Thanks so much! After reading through it a few times, I'm certain its going to help me during preview.
One thing you can do is look for obvious leads and start with pokemon that counter them. Like if your opponent has a Meowstic-m in their team, chances are they're gonna start with Prankster support, so bring in a Taunt/Quick Guard user to counteract that. Other than that you can fill up with type coverage or counters to main threats.
I always try to pick one mon that counters/checks more of the opponents team than any other mon on my team. My other lead is then something that can support my first mon by countering/checking as many mons as possible that my first lead might lose to. I then try to figure out the worst case scenario and what I can lose if this worst case scenario happens. If the worst case scenario is too risky, I try changing my leads until I find a lead that has a worst case scenario that either isn't too bad or extremely unlikely. For my last two, I pick two mons from my remaining team that can check/counter more of my opponent's team than my other two remaining mons can, or I just find another mon that can do really well against the other team and find a good partner for that. Hope this helped.
Reading a lot of VGC war stories, I've noticed that people do attempt to counter-pick often, with varying results. The best players seem to be able to guess what threats their opponent will prepare for and attempt to exploit their resulting team building. I therefore think that counter-picking, while a difficult and often counterproductive skill to master, is something that is worth learning at higher levels of skill.
My usual logic and situation:
"Well, my Charizard is raped by Terrakion, Mega Khan, Mence, and Talonflame, but Mega Venusaur is raped only by Mence and Talonflame, so I'll just bring that and kill the birdspam I guess?"
"Well, my Charizard is raped by Terrakion, Mega Khan, Mence, and Talonflame, but Mega Venusaur is raped only by Mence and Talonflame, so I'll just bring that and kill the birdspam I guess?"
I think one example is Bisharp when you see a landorus-t on the other team. In my latest Nugget Bridge Major game, I ran a team with Bisharp and my opponent had a Lando. Normally, the threat of leading Bisharp stops your opponent from leading Lando, so I left Bisharp behind, and it paid off (he led Kang, a surefire Bisharp killer). Game 2, I guessed my opponent would be a little less hesitant to lead with Lando, so I brought Bisharp as my lead, and it paid off again.
On the other hand, when trying to counter pick, there's a balance between getting the best possible lead match-up and playing it safe. Ideally, you'd pick two pokemon which could together counter any combination of two opponents. If you predict your opponent is going to lead with two pokemon, you'd have an idea of two pokemon which can beat it. If they don't have any glaring weaknesses, then its probably a good idea to bring them, but if your opponent would gain a significant advantage over that combo with a different lead match-up, perhaps it'd be better to play it safe.
Of course, playing against a good-stuffs team is very different from playing against a themed team. If you're playing against a rain team, you might be at a significant advantage if your opponent doesn't lead with politoed. Same with TR and Cress/Gothitelle/etc. Leading with the assumption that one of your opponents leads will be the set-up isn't a bad idea, simply because even if they don't lead with it, they're putting themselves at a disadvantage. Of course, a well made TR or rain team would have a non-TR/rain mode, so this isn't as much of an issue, but even then, they still prefer to put themselves in their arena of choice with their lead.