Hey MrBanana45 here, theres the history about how I peaked top 10 ladder without knowing anything about the format in less than two weeks, ando some thoughs about the meta and the learning process that new people trying the format may experience.
Actually peaked top 8 but got greedy and lose, forgot to screenshot
So lets start this learning process.
Its smart to think like "I dunno nothing about this meta, theres no point of trying to build My own team" whenever you start a new metagame always gotta go for a sample team, are nice to begin with, very very friendly and intuitive.
My first though was: "I need to make a test run, a suspect-like one" trying to get certain GxE in fewer games as possible. Not meta research, not team analysis, nothing like that. Just regular "try and fail until you learn". This was a cool strategy because the low ladder experiencie may be particularly not define as "true ubers gaming".
We got our first results and the first conclusion
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2198039165-g8sl3n9jqkctelkjezh84oitoi8hn1kpw?p2 first double dance mirai encounter !!!!!!!!
I ended up like "damn... I didnt even know that set was something possible". Now that I got some practice with my team, lets do some set research. Smogon Strategy dex is cool into set analysis but it's a bit slow and overwhelming amount of information, I need something else...
So decides to ask some friend that mains Ubers to do a team dump for me. I was stunned, really cool cores, creative and unexpected sets on HO, enormous amount of variety on stall. I gotta shootout my man Maarck for the vast dump that he give me, could get this far without studying those team structures.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2200622822-p2tzost4eymzv430rqu4oea62owjahwpw?p2 an example of ignoring vs creative building
So now I got access to some examples cores and unexpected sets, now it's time to stick to the plan and try to push harder on ladder.
I keep using the same time for the whole run even do I wanna try new stuff. The way ill get far is to master one team, master the interactions between my Mons ans the rivals, trying to understand the right pat into the deciding process.
There was a lot of times when a wrong order in my decisitions make me lose, like what is a good lead vs X webs or clicking Willo vs Dtail vs the opp boosted Necrozma and that stuff.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2200618389-90ba3j7eo1lyqn7aukhw8ou9wl32xuspw there is an example on how bad picks make the long game trickier
At this point, I can figure it out the sets i'm facing on raw leads, some common teras and how to prepare against unexpected sets. At this point, this isnt a battle againts "not being a noob". At this point... I'm ready to became really good.
Now I have my next mission clear; mastering interactions.
Heres is the most difficult task imo, learning the "why" on every click its the way, not making the same mistakes, whenever I lose a battle I find the mistake and try to get a conclusion at the moment. Ubers gaming is about punishment, exploit the weakness on the rival. "My rivals team is frail and fast" then never allow free ins. "My rivals team is balanced, very bulky" then break it with utility and hazards (passive damage is SO broken). "My rivals team have a mon that does million damage" then you pivot your threats before the rivals come in.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2204231323-w2ynpvv2hz01t2gaaes0xkiko68q0llpw?p2 cool example of everything that I said above
Something that makes everything easier was the "sacking metagame". As you may know, lead metagame is an actual topic on ubers, but I think the important one is the "what do I sack now" knowledge. Ubers its a powerful tier, sacrificing mons it's a daily task ans choosing wisely the value on each Mon of yours it's what puts your in a another League. When you learn about the sacking metagame, suddenly specs mirai isnt tough as you belive, suddenly random tera Zacian arent a threat anymore, suddenly the endgame it's a winning situation as long as you don't get crit.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2204983484-c6g384xtw6qmgo2kz7utvk8qilqmg7gpw
When you understand the "sacking metagame" the rival start making mistakes by itself, 90% of my winning matchs are there cuz the rival could get that "i'm willing to sacrifice this rn", then they choose the wrong move and suddenly my "sack" is now taking a kill.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2202019816-tr9mzjh35c1quvwpjvho1cuzxy3ejpfpw
And thats the whole process, I was doing this whole run cuz I wanna get into ubers, but when I do some research and found the current state of the player base didnt know what to Say.....
And thats it, hope you enjoy reading this and understand my point of view. Apologies for the bad English or the wrong pronunciation, i'm excited on reading what yall think about this experiment.
Actually peaked top 8 but got greedy and lose, forgot to screenshot
Start of the run
Current elo
Team usted: https://pokepast.es/14a4107d42192667 former team paste by Shuwri
Current elo
Team usted: https://pokepast.es/14a4107d42192667 former team paste by Shuwri
So lets start this learning process.
Its smart to think like "I dunno nothing about this meta, theres no point of trying to build My own team" whenever you start a new metagame always gotta go for a sample team, are nice to begin with, very very friendly and intuitive.
My first though was: "I need to make a test run, a suspect-like one" trying to get certain GxE in fewer games as possible. Not meta research, not team analysis, nothing like that. Just regular "try and fail until you learn". This was a cool strategy because the low ladder experiencie may be particularly not define as "true ubers gaming".
We got our first results and the first conclusion
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2198039165-g8sl3n9jqkctelkjezh84oitoi8hn1kpw?p2 first double dance mirai encounter !!!!!!!!
I ended up like "damn... I didnt even know that set was something possible". Now that I got some practice with my team, lets do some set research. Smogon Strategy dex is cool into set analysis but it's a bit slow and overwhelming amount of information, I need something else...
So decides to ask some friend that mains Ubers to do a team dump for me. I was stunned, really cool cores, creative and unexpected sets on HO, enormous amount of variety on stall. I gotta shootout my man Maarck for the vast dump that he give me, could get this far without studying those team structures.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2200622822-p2tzost4eymzv430rqu4oea62owjahwpw?p2 an example of ignoring vs creative building
So now I got access to some examples cores and unexpected sets, now it's time to stick to the plan and try to push harder on ladder.
I keep using the same time for the whole run even do I wanna try new stuff. The way ill get far is to master one team, master the interactions between my Mons ans the rivals, trying to understand the right pat into the deciding process.
There was a lot of times when a wrong order in my decisitions make me lose, like what is a good lead vs X webs or clicking Willo vs Dtail vs the opp boosted Necrozma and that stuff.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2200618389-90ba3j7eo1lyqn7aukhw8ou9wl32xuspw there is an example on how bad picks make the long game trickier
At this point, I can figure it out the sets i'm facing on raw leads, some common teras and how to prepare against unexpected sets. At this point, this isnt a battle againts "not being a noob". At this point... I'm ready to became really good.
Now I have my next mission clear; mastering interactions.
Heres is the most difficult task imo, learning the "why" on every click its the way, not making the same mistakes, whenever I lose a battle I find the mistake and try to get a conclusion at the moment. Ubers gaming is about punishment, exploit the weakness on the rival. "My rivals team is frail and fast" then never allow free ins. "My rivals team is balanced, very bulky" then break it with utility and hazards (passive damage is SO broken). "My rivals team have a mon that does million damage" then you pivot your threats before the rivals come in.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2204231323-w2ynpvv2hz01t2gaaes0xkiko68q0llpw?p2 cool example of everything that I said above
Something that makes everything easier was the "sacking metagame". As you may know, lead metagame is an actual topic on ubers, but I think the important one is the "what do I sack now" knowledge. Ubers its a powerful tier, sacrificing mons it's a daily task ans choosing wisely the value on each Mon of yours it's what puts your in a another League. When you learn about the sacking metagame, suddenly specs mirai isnt tough as you belive, suddenly random tera Zacian arent a threat anymore, suddenly the endgame it's a winning situation as long as you don't get crit.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2204983484-c6g384xtw6qmgo2kz7utvk8qilqmg7gpw
When you understand the "sacking metagame" the rival start making mistakes by itself, 90% of my winning matchs are there cuz the rival could get that "i'm willing to sacrifice this rn", then they choose the wrong move and suddenly my "sack" is now taking a kill.
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9ubers-2202019816-tr9mzjh35c1quvwpjvho1cuzxy3ejpfpw
And thats the whole process, I was doing this whole run cuz I wanna get into ubers, but when I do some research and found the current state of the player base didnt know what to Say.....
I think that may people that Ubers is a caothic meta and I think I get but.
But it isnt.
Are the mons and some possible sets in Ubers caothic? Yes.
Are the whole spectrum of 6vs6 caothic? Don't think so
The more caos you may seen is in HO vs HO mu, but everything else relaies on setting. Setting bunch of hazards, setting safe ins to my threats, setting lures to fish a tera, scout some set or speed orden, when you set a Stealth Rock now you can know the mirai set whenever that thing comes out, whenever you saw a mon using taunt, now that mon has 3 moveslots left with probability of not having enough coverage, whenever you see an arc staying in back for the endgame, more likely to be an offensive one!
People that say ubers is a caothic meta are people trying to play on surviving, and it's like playing to "not losing", were not surviving, we playin to win.
Defensive counterplay exist in Ubers with lots of momentum trading on both sides, playing into trying to counter the mon that we have in front is suffering. If you think you need a Mon that try to counter mirai or korai then you are just wrong and gonna lose.
The whole team is trying to win vs the rivals whole team, not individual 1v1 cases.
Some people think Ubers it's not enjoyable cuz tera or the lizards, fact is; the first player on make a mistake is the one on disadvantage, good players knows about the sacking metagame and really good players play trying to beat the whole 6v6 spectrum
Better player wins often that not. (Most of the times(
But it isnt.
Are the mons and some possible sets in Ubers caothic? Yes.
Are the whole spectrum of 6vs6 caothic? Don't think so
The more caos you may seen is in HO vs HO mu, but everything else relaies on setting. Setting bunch of hazards, setting safe ins to my threats, setting lures to fish a tera, scout some set or speed orden, when you set a Stealth Rock now you can know the mirai set whenever that thing comes out, whenever you saw a mon using taunt, now that mon has 3 moveslots left with probability of not having enough coverage, whenever you see an arc staying in back for the endgame, more likely to be an offensive one!
People that say ubers is a caothic meta are people trying to play on surviving, and it's like playing to "not losing", were not surviving, we playin to win.
Defensive counterplay exist in Ubers with lots of momentum trading on both sides, playing into trying to counter the mon that we have in front is suffering. If you think you need a Mon that try to counter mirai or korai then you are just wrong and gonna lose.
The whole team is trying to win vs the rivals whole team, not individual 1v1 cases.
Some people think Ubers it's not enjoyable cuz tera or the lizards, fact is; the first player on make a mistake is the one on disadvantage, good players knows about the sacking metagame and really good players play trying to beat the whole 6v6 spectrum
Better player wins often that not. (Most of the times(
I really think that bulky sweepers are the issue on the aparent caos; Calm Mind, Iron Defense, Bulk Up, Cosmic Power, Stored Power, Body Press, Taunt, Substitute in combo with tera is always a favorable advantage since the lead on the one that is running that. You can't be good enough to scout the whole combo that the rival choose to bring on their Arceus, Etern, Lizards, etc. In combination on tera.
Phazing moves are strong, fast Taunt on your side are nice, status dealing moves are cool. But in a real Game, rival just left the bulky sweeper on last to ignore phazing, status dealing cant do really nothing long term if isnt badly poision, and most teams can't even aford a fast taunt user.
The only thing that doesnt have a bad mu since lead vs this stuff is stall and prepared HO (how funny). Even offense with couple choose item users cant handle this if guess the tera wrong (or the rival suddenly got +2 on some stat). The 8pp recover nerf looks like isnt enough anymore.
Phazing moves are strong, fast Taunt on your side are nice, status dealing moves are cool. But in a real Game, rival just left the bulky sweeper on last to ignore phazing, status dealing cant do really nothing long term if isnt badly poision, and most teams can't even aford a fast taunt user.
The only thing that doesnt have a bad mu since lead vs this stuff is stall and prepared HO (how funny). Even offense with couple choose item users cant handle this if guess the tera wrong (or the rival suddenly got +2 on some stat). The 8pp recover nerf looks like isnt enough anymore.
And thats it, hope you enjoy reading this and understand my point of view. Apologies for the bad English or the wrong pronunciation, i'm excited on reading what yall think about this experiment.
/ 
