Effective Opening Strategies

donutdude09

In my experience, the first few moves in a match can set the pace for the rest of the battle. A large chunk of damage may be done to a poke, a sweeper may get a few DD's in, Spikes may be set up, etc. What are some effective opening strategies that you have used or seen before? Do you tend to play offensively to try to score a quick KO, or do you play defensively to try to scout out your opponent's moves and try to find a weak spot in their team or use set-up moves?
 
I used to use Weavile alot. I'd give him focus sash so he was sure to get in a Swords Dance, then procede to kill everything that opposed him. Ice Shard helped too...
 
I honestly believe one of the most effective opening strategies this generation is laying down Stealth Rock. It does so much for so little.
 
My opening strategy is mostly a decent strong pokemon who also can taunt incase the first pokemon they sent out is a wall type to lay down spikes/stealth rock etc. like gyarados or gengar. Most of the time they are forced to switch out and i have landed either a free attack or a setup (substiute or dd)
 
My advice is:

Always scout

Knowledge is power. The more you know about the opponents team and the less they know about yours the better.
 
My advice, equip your lead with Lum Berry. Too many leads rely on getting you asleep.

Other then that, scouting can not be overestimated (unless its something predictable like Ninjask or Yanmega).
 
Always get the First Hit in, even if its indrective.
Intimidate (A Pokemon with this ability) is always a good lead.
You get a free -1 Atk Stage to their pokemon.
I'd Pefer Staraptor, since its UU, IMO. Intimidation Staraptor + U-Turn = Nice Starter
 
Lord_Sunday said:
My advice is:

Always scout

Knowledge is power. The more you know about the opponents team and the less they know about yours the better.
Click to expand...
Listen to this.

Its by far the best advice you'll ever get. I always run general usuage/low weakness pokemon as a starter because of this. Just running head on with a powerful attack is going to get you killed.

I've lost count of people with CBSlaking's trying to steal early kills only to meet a Substitute.
 
I'll agree with forsety on this one. Scouting is essential.

On the other hand, Intimidate, stab Return and close combat is anything but UU.... (Staraptor). BL for sure.
 
Lum Berry Metagross is cool for sleep leads, less so for Stealth Rock leads. I liked it against Hypnosis Gengar/Yanmega though.
 
I usually prefer to lead with a Stealth Rocking Hippowdon. This was back before the huge Obi hype. Now, it's currently a simple Skarmory lead. Not the best of leads, but the team itself is nice and it's the best option I have for the job until I make a new one. I also really enjoy Scarfphlosion leads.
 
Garchomp @Life Orb
Hasty nature
252 SpA, enough speed to hit 309, rest in attack
Outrage
Draco Meteor
Fire Blast
Swords Dance

Will get at least one kill before dying. Almost guaranteed. Once they think it's a chainchomp and bring in a Cresselia, it gets a Swords-Danced Outrage in the face.
 
I am still experimenting with a Shedinja lead. It may sound daft but the opening is the best time to get him out as there is no risk from stealth rock. He has sunny day to set up for my team - and save himself from Hippos (see example below) - and X-Scissor and Shadow Sneak to do damage. Most leads these days (Swampert) don't have anything to hurt you so a Focus Sash plus the aforementioned speed move lets you KO the switch in before it has a chance to hurt you. You

Eg: Tim sent out Shedinja
RandomN00b sent out Swampert
RandomN00b switched to Hippowdon and starts a sandstorm
Shedinja used Sunny Day
The sandstorm stops before it can do any damage.

The difficult part is trying to guess from your opponents opener whether they are running a sandstorm team or not - get it wrong and you're screwed.

Most of the time however I use a highly predictable Swampert lead or a Sceptile lead to counter the enemy's Swampert lead.
 
Scarfsplosion as in Scarf + Explosion? Why can't Typhlosion learn Explosion anyway? Silly Gamefreak.

So the ultimate lead has protection from sleep, is faster then SRers so he can Taunt them, and has SR of his own.

And CB, can't forget CB.
 
A Pokemon with Intimidate is always a nice way to start out (whatever, Salamence, Blissey stops you even if you're mixed). Getting in early Stealth Rocks and sleeps are also cool.
 
When I ran a Brock theme team, I found that Crobat worked great. It usually led with U-Turn, which was great for scouting, which also OHKO'd most Weavile and seriously dented Azelf.

That was CB of course, but come to think of it, Crobat is just a great lead in general. He can psuedo-trap-pass with Mean Look / Hypnosis / U-Turn / Filler *I like Whirlwind for Subsitute leads, but Aerial Ace can be used too*. He can taunt stuff like non-Scarf Gengar or Swampert from setting up with Hypnosis or Stealth Rocks respectively. He can catch Gengars on the fly with Pursuit, or use Subsitute to Block status, you get the picture. He is very versatile and can handle many leads well.
 
i like a nice set of spikes as the opening strategy even though i dont use use it. i use a physical sweeper with a focus sash.
 
I love leading with a fast U-Turner, (Scarfed Staraptor anyone?) as it allows you to scout the opposing team and to get one of your big sweepers in on an attempted switch in.
 
I like to lead with floatzel, taunt stops things like hippodown and other SR users while he batonpass's bulk ups to my metagross or snorlax, or he can lure out tangrowth, tuant it so it can't do anything but use power whip, floatzel will probably die but then i switch in my bellyzard and all tangrowth can do is do a pitiful power whip which does bullshit damage to zard letting him drum, i also like to lead with Specsmence and CBstaraptor for obvious reasons.
 
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