[on site] RBY Underused Guide

[spies]

RBY Underused Guide

Introduction

In this article you will be introduced to a very fun and quick-paced metagame, RBY Underused. It has many similarities to the standard metagame of RBY, but it is also very unique. For one thing, it is not dominated by Psychic and Normal type pokemon. It is instead dominated by elemental pokemon such as Electric, Water and Fire. The reason for this is that there are no Ground/Rock pokemon around to completely wall Electric and Fire pokemon. There is also a lack of Chansey which is the most annoying special wall ever. Fire pokemon are very useful because they usually have high attack and speed stats which makes them decent sweepers in the underused metagame.

Of course, in the underused metagame you will probably see Omastar or Kabutops on the game, and they wall fire pokemon fairly well. In the underused metagame you do not focus so much on paralyzing as many pokemon as you can to set up a sweeper. There are a couple pokemon that set up with Amnesia, and a few that set up with Swords Dance, but setting up in underused is extremely difficult, regardless of any status inflictions you may have put on your opponent. If you manage to set up a "sweeper" it probably will not last long enough to kill more than one or two pokemon. The thing you must concentrate on the hardest in the underused metagame is doing as much damage as possible every turn. It requires thinking ahead and good predictions. The more solid hits you make, the better your chance will be to win the match. If I have my Electabuzz out, I can be pretty sure that my opponent will not leave in their Water type. They will probably send in a Grass type or their own Electric type. So I will predict this and use Psychic, Thunder Wave, or Seismic Toss instead of Thunderbolt. I am not going to switch in to my Tangela or Electabuzz counter. The goal here is just to do the most damage as fast as possible. Now that you have a basic understanding of the RBY Underused metagame, you will be provided with a more in depth explanation of RBY Underused battling.

Building your first team

The key to building a successful RBY UU team is to have key resistances and to be able to hit as many things as hard as you can. Many common leads are: Tangela, Arcanine and Electabuzz. Starters are usually fast or have the ability to inflict status. Since this is a basic team, Electabuzz will make a good lead.

Electabuzz
~Psychic
~Seismic Toss
~Thunderbolt
~Thunder Wave

With this as your lead, you will probably see a Tangela switch-in, or something that is immune to electric. Your best bet to start off the match would be to use Seismic Toss/Psychic to hit whatever comes at you. Of course, if you are facing a lead Tangela or Electabuzz, you will want to switch out to prevent status.

Arcanine
~Fire Blast
~Body Slam
~Hyper Beam
~Leer

This moveset works pretty well. You have a 30% chance to burn a physical attacker that could come in. You could use Body Slam to Paralyze a water. Eventually, Leer + Hyper Beam will be able to finish something off or force a switch. This is walled by Omastar.

Poliwrath
~Amnesia
~Surf
~Psychic
~Hypnosis

Psychic is to help defeat other Waters/Poliwraths. This is a good counter for Omastar.

Tangela
~Sleep Powder
~Mega Drain
~Stun Spore
~Growth

This is a support Tangela. It can hit things pretty hard with Growth + Mega Drain. If you do not use Sleep Powder, Swords Dance and Body Slam can also work well.

Muk
~Sludge
~Mega Drain
~Body Slam
~Explosion

Muk is a very useful member of the team. He can explode any threat, Mega Drain is so you can actually touch Omastar and Kabutops. Psychic is not very popular in UU, especially STAB Psychic. Muk has the potential to take out 2 opposing pokemon. It can at least take out 1 and really hurt 1 or 2 more.

Raticate
~Super Fang
~Hyper Beam
~Body Slam
~Blizzard

Raticate is a decent normal type sweeper in UU. It can hurt a lot of things with the Super Fang/Hyper Beam combo. Body Slam is for PAR Support. Blizzard is just a filler move.

Battling

This is a very well rounded team. It covers basically all of the pokemon you will face in Underused. The key to winning is just to inflict status, and before you make a move, think of all of the possibilities. If you know your opponents team, use the move that has the best chance to hit whatever will switch in the best. If something is giving you troubles, you can explode on it with Muk. Of course, you have to use prediction and actually Explode on the threat. If you can force your opponent to switch in to a lot of hits, while being able to switch in to Not Very Effective hits yourself, you will have a great chance to win. Super Fang Raticate can be very useful by putting other pokemon at 50%. After you play around with this team, you will begin to enjoy RBY UU for how fun it can be. Then you will be able to create your own team and start having fun!

 

[spies]

I have a few issues with this

- The "Introduction" section looks really convoluted. It seems to try to explain everything at once and feels both incomplete and rushed.

- I don't think that section is really the place for Prediction 101 either. That whole example with Electabuzz needs to go, in my opinion.

- Writing the full form "Underused" is favored in the first section, yet after that "UU" is always used. I'm not sure what's correct here, but I have the impression that "Underused" only needs to be written out once.

- Is giving out a "basic" team really the way to go? This is my biggest concern since the 2nd and 3rd sections work around that. I remember back then in "format analyses" people used to list every noteworthy Pokemon but I don't think that was too accepted either. What approach should be taken here?

- Adjective choices don't seem appropriate. "Decent" isn't exactly auspicious.

- The "Battling" section looks more like general battling tips than metagame-specific content.

In short, I think a hefty revamp is needed. A lot of things this says are true but the article isn't very orderly. If it's decided that a different approach to the explanation of teambuilding is needed, the revamp will be even larger.

 

[CaptKirby]

"There is also a lack of Chansey which is the most annoying special wall ever."
This sentence jumped out at me as pejorative and unnecessary. Right after, I did not like how it jumped paragraphs while still talking about fire pokemon. Also, after saying 'there is no rock/ground pokemon around' it demonstrates how fire is still walled, but NOT electric, which there are still things that wall it just fine (grass and ground).

In regard to the team status, the fact that Muk and Raticate are listed is a problem. Muk is probably 'more useful', but neither are going to be on THE most standard sort of team.

 

[GreenPikachu]

to talk about grammar and such, i think the use of UU once Underused has been used is fine. To clarify even, when Underused is first used you can say

"...Underused, from here on out referred to as 'UU'....."

also, im not so sure that the listing out of a basic UU team is such a good idea. but then again, i dont have any really good ideas for it right now. you certainly can't talk about all the uu-available pokemon. Maybe a small paragraph devoted to each type and its usefulness/practicality in UU?

 

[Somebody]

Yeah I really don't think that a Metagame Analysis should be in this format (which is basically RMT).

I suppose a threat list of sorts would better. Perhaps split into sections like "Starters", "Sweepers", "Walls", etc., with several examples of each provided and explained.

Also agreeing with your comment on adjective use. Naming exmaples that "usually" work and do the job "decently" doesn't really make a convincing argument.

 

[spies]

also, im not so sure that the listing out of a basic UU team is such a good idea. but then again, i dont have any really good ideas for it right now. you certainly can't talk about all the uu-available pokemon. Maybe a small paragraph devoted to each type and its usefulness/practicality in UU?

I think I'd rather have paragraphs devoted to some types in the introduction section since there's a really big change from standard (special types not having a universal wall, Psychic being unexistant, thus making Fighting somewhat remarkable, Rock having less Pokémon but being equally useful, Grass being worth it to wall Electrics, etc.)

 

[spies]

RBY UU guide

Introduction

RBY is the oldest of Pokémon generations. Its name alone conjures up fearful legends of insane luck, Psychic type domination and unavoidable status ailments. However true or false these may be, the quirks of the game's mechanics, coupled with the limited amount of Pokémon available when teambuilding, made it so only a handful of them were widely used, while an abundant bunch, considered "interesting" choices, waited for their chance to shine. The rest, very rarely seen in standard competitive matches even today, gathered under the "Underused" section of the tier list, from now on referred to as "UU."

This guide will familiarize you with the ways of RBY UU, which is a fun, fast-paced metagame that offers a whole different way of playing compared to the standard metagame, yet retains the characteristics and mechanics that make the first generation so likeable. For one, spreading status ailments on your opponent's team, especially Sleep and Paralysis, is still key to winning a battle. Moreover, good prediction and smart switching will give you the edge over the course of the game. Luck tends to influence the outcome of RBY matches more than those of other generations, so knowing how to handle bad luck and trying to reduce chances is important.

The most striking difference between standard RBY and UU is the number of Pokémon allowed: only 45 fully evolved Pokémon can be used. A quick look at the tier list reveals that the balance between Pokémon types has taken a blow, mostly due to the fact that key walls and sweepers are not found here. What catches the reader's attention is that not a single Psychic-type Pokémon is listed, while all members of the Fighting and Bug types are present. Other types with remarkable representatives in this format are Electric, Water, Grass, Poison and Flying. So what are the best types to have?

On the offensive side, Special types such as Fire and Electric are particularly dangerous as a result of the lack of a universal wall like Chansey in standard. Thunderbolt will hit any Pokémon for at least neutral damage except the three Electric Pokémon, the two Ground-types, and the two Grass ones, while Fire Blast is a powerful attack that requires the opponent to have a Water, Fire or Rock Pokémon. Having a sweeper of each of these types will yield good results and guarantees a team strong on offense. Other good special offensive types to have are Psychic, since nothing resists it, and Ice. The physical side has less options, since the Earthquake users are not strong enough, so Normal moves like Body Slam and Hyper Beam will fill up most of your moveslots. Fearow's Drill Peck is noteworthy.

On the defensive side, it should be noted that a characteristic of many UU Pokémon is that they don't have many different move types to deal damage with. Sweepers often only carry STAB attacks and a Normal-type one. Because of their useful resistances, Water and Grass Pokémon are the usual walls here; either Omastar or Kabutops will be in most teams, while Tangela and Vileplume are extremely common and valuable here, since they resist Electric so you don't need a Ground type.

Building a team

Here are some guidelines for making a solid team; try to follow them but don't let them limit your creativity.

Usually your building process will begin by choosing your lead. The first Pokémon you send into battle needs to have good chances to give you a clear advantage from turn one. Because of this, the player needs to have a clear knowledge of the most popular leads. Some battlers want to put something to sleep on the first turn, so they will use Venomoth, Vileplume or Tangela. While the Grass-types can withstand more attacks, thus having more chances to use Sleep Powder, Venomoth is far speedier and better at dealing damage. However, Fire Pokémon like Arcanine, Ninetales and Rapidash are brilliant choices, not only to counter the mentioned popular leads, but because they pose an immediate threat and will lure out your opponent's main wall, thus giving you the knowledge needed to plan your attack. A lead Fearow follows this logic too. Electabuzz is also a strong attacker that could start the battle, but it has to run away from sleepers.

Every team needs at least one Pokémon with a Sleep-inducing move and should strive to put it to use as soon as possible. Even though the number of options in UU is small, the three leads mentioned in the preceding paragraph (Venomoth, Vileplume and Tangela) are some very efficient sleepers. These are very common and effective choices, so you should be prepared to face them. However, it is a good idea to have a backup sleeper to fall back on if your main one fails to do the job. Parasect deserves mention here as the sole user of Spore, a 100% (or rather, 99.6%) accurate Sleep move, even though Parasect itself is very vulnerable in battle. Your team should also contain several Pokémon with Paralysis moves. Two or three is a good number. There are many more choices for this since Thunder Wave is a common move, so take your picks. Most users of Sleep Powder can also carry Stun Spore for the usual double-powder moveset.

Once you have this covered, you need to focus on balancing out your defensive and offensive sides. A wide variety of types is not hard to obtain, but since there is not much to choose from some players end up having half of their team easily nulled by the standard walls; don't let this happen! Resistances to Fire, Electric, Water and Normal are the most important.

Battling

Once you have your freshly built RBY UU team, you'll want to test it out in battle. Other than the usual ways of RBY battling, some metagame-specific ideas apply here.

More often than not it will be only one Pokémon holding back your main sweeper. You should concentrate all your efforts on removing it. If you notice that such a wall switches in your sweeper every time, very basic prediction can instantly put you at an advantage. For example, if Omastar keeps switching in when you have Arcanine out, immediately switching to Electabuzz is a simple play, yet very effective. Even though they could just go to another wall, you can take the turn to paralyze something or do damage with Seismic Toss. As you can see, with all of this you reduce your opponent's options little by little which is in the best of your interests. Always remember that getting back HP is rare in this metagame; only Porygon gets Recover and most Pokémon cannot afford to use Rest, Omastar and Vaporeon being the exceptions. Mega Drain gives a bit of recovery. This is something to take into account because the damage you'll do will not be healed back.

Setting up to sweep will get through any walls, albeit it is hard to do and there's always the imminent danger of Critical Hits. Poliwrath and Golduck with Amnesia are more effective during the late game, so they need to be taken down before they get their chance to act. There isn't a safe way to do this because of their bulkiness and their Water typing, but consistent damage dealing shouldn't let them switch in easily. If worse comes to worse, relying on a Critical Hit to take them down isn't a pitiful choice; you will need a fast Electric type to increase your chances. Pinsir can also Swords Dance and there is little that you can do if it manages to set up, although it's not as hard to take down.

By now it's pretty clear that RBY UU is a game of basic walls and sweepers, mainly due to the lack of a lot of variety present in the standard metagame or any of the next generations. However, that makes the metagame both simple and enjoyable in its own way. Try it out if you have the chance, it's not hard at all to learn!

 

[JimBob]

The most striking difference between usual RBY and UU is the Pokémon allowed: only 45 fully evolved Pokémon are to be used.

Do you mean the number of Pokemon allowed? Since you followed it up with the number, it makes me think that that's what you meant, but I could be wrong.

only 45 fully evolved Pokémon are to be used.

to me, "are to be used" says that you must use them. I would say "only 45 fully evolved Pokémon can be used" or "only 45 fully evolved Pokémon are available to be used"

Thunderbolt will hit any Pokémon for at least neutral damage except the three Electric Pokémon and the two Ground-types,

Vileplume and Tangela?

Other good special offensive types to have are Psychic, due to the lack of anything to resist it, and Ice.

Seems really wordy and awkward, I would just use a simpler phrase that says the same thing, like so:

Other good special offensive types to have are Psychic, since nothing resists it, and Ice.

On the offensive, Special types such as Fire and Electric are especially dangerous, as a result of the lack of a universal wall like Chansey was in standard.

It's trivial, but in the next paragraph you say "On the defensive side", while you just say "On the offensive" here. Personally, I would make this say "On the offensive side" since these paragraphs are kind of parallel.

It should be noted that the only possible Boltbeamers in UU are Lickitung and Wigglytuff, who would rather use physical attacks.

It should be noted that you used the phrase "It should be noted" twice in close proximity. If you want to change this one, I would say:

However, the only two BoltBeamers in UU are Lickitung and Wigglytuff, who would rather use physical attacks.

On the defensive side, it should be noted that a characteristic of many UU Pokémon is that they don't have many different move types to deal damage with.

On the defensive side, you should note that many UU Pokémon don't have many different move types to deal damage with.

I don't think it matters which one you change (not both of them), but you should try to vary your phrasing, at least enough so that you don't use a unique expression twice in 4 sentences.

Because of their useful resistances, Water and Grass Pokémon are the usual walls here: either Omastar or Kabutops will be in most teams, usually paired with another, while Tangela and Vileplume are extremely common and valuable here, since they resist Electric so you don't need a Ground-type.

I think a semicolon is more appropriate than a colon here, though I'm not 100% sure.

Next you will be taught how to materialize this knowledge in a team of six Pokémon.

Telling people what you're going to do in the next section is probably one of the worst transitions ever, you're better off not having a transition. Just looking at it seems to take all of the feeling out of the article. You're going along and I can hear someone lecturing in my head, interesting and full of helpful information, and then this sentence comes in like the stock voices telling you to be careful on roller coasters. (I'm not saying you shouldn't have a transition, I'm just saying that this one is bad)

So how do we materialize this knowledge into a team of six Pokémon? Let's find out!

I don't even think the one I wrote is very good to be honest, so I hope someone else will give a better suggestion.

 

[spies]

Thanks a lot. I fixed all of those. I'll delete the transition until I figure out a good one.

 

[Fishin]

Many of these are pretty nitpicky, so feel free to ignore them if you don't really feel the need for a change.

Its decade of existance tells new users of fearful legends about insane luck, Psychic type domination and unavoidable status ailments.

I dunno about the phrase "decade of existance", (plus it's supposed to be existence). Possibly replace with something like "reign of x years as the primary Pokemon generation"

RBY,. the oldest of generations.

extra period?

The most striking difference between usual RBY and UU

I'd just go with the official term and use "RBY OU" instead of "usual RBY", or maybe something like "standard RBY".

As always with RBY, luck influences the outcome of the match,

This sentence seems to imply that luck is a part of RBY and yet not a part of other gens. Possible rephrase to indicate that luck is simply a larger part of RBY matches than other pokemon gens, or just replace "RBY" with "Pokemon"?

So how do we materialize this knowledge into a team of six Pokémon? Let's find out!

I don't even think the one I wrote is very good to be honest, so I hope someone else will give a better suggestion.

"The next step in learning to play RBY UU is applying this knowledge to construct a balanced team of six Pokemon". Meh, not great, but I figured I'd throw an idea out there.

What catches the reader's attention is that not a single Psychic-type Pokémon is listed, while all members of the Fighting and Bug types are present. Other types with many representatives in this format are Electric, Water, Grass, Poison and Flying. So what are the best types to have?

On the offensive side, Special types such as Fire and Electric are especially dangerous

One thing I notice is that Psychic is Super Effective against two of the types listed and resisted by none, which would probably make it a dangerous offensive type - granted, you don't have any STAB users, but some pokemon still get access to Psychic. I could be completely off here though as I've never played competitive RBY.

either Omastar or Kabutops will be in most teams, usually paired with another,

Another really isn't clear in this format - if you're referring to whichever of Kabutops/Oma you didn't use, I'd say "the other".

Having a sweeper of each type will yield good results and guarantee a strong offensive for your team.

guarantees, not guarantee. yield doesn't need an s after it because it's being used in the future tense.

 

[JimBob]

I dunno if I missed these sentences the first time I read through it or you just added them (actually I missed a lot of stuff but Fishin already picked it out), but

Having a sweeper of each type will yield good results and guarantee a strong offensive for your team.

do you mean guarantee a strong offense for your team? (or guarantees since Fishin says so) Offensive is usually used as an adjective, and you're using it as a noun. And when I think of offensive as a noun, I usually think of a military campaign, not a Pokémon team building concept.

Thunderbolt will hit any Pokémon for at least neutral damage except the three Electric Pokémon, the two Ground-types and the two Grass ones,

Add a comma after Ground-types.

 

[JabbaTheGriffin]

the guarantee vs. guarantees really depends

if the sentence is broken down like this:

Having a sweeper of each type

as the first portion, then you have will yield good results and guarantees a strong offensive for your team

if it is

Having a sweeper of each type will

then the following phrases would be yield good results and guarantee a strong offensive for your team

I think the first way just reads better. Also I think "strong offensive" makes sense, but "strong offense" sounds a bit better.

 

[Max]

How's this going? Anywhere near HTMLization yet?

 

[spies]

not really since I still have to finish up the other two sections and pick errors apart

I should have that ready by tomorrow

 

[spies]

finished my writeup, it's edited in post #7. Thanks to everyone who posted. Please point out errors and stuff like that

 

[Fishin]

On the defensive side, it should be noted that a characteristic of many UU Pokémon is that they don't have many different move types to deal damage with.

Maybe change "a characteristic of many UU Pokémon is that they don't have many different move types" to "a characteristic of many UU Pokémon is the lack of many different move types"? IMO the phrase "a characteristic of x is that they y" is a little overly wordy.

The first Pokémon you send into battle needs to have good chances

I'd change "good chances" to "a good chance". Dunno, it sounds a little funny as is.

A wide variety of types is not hard to obtain, but

Assuming it's going to be played on simulators, the word obtain (to me) points towards finding something in-game, not just picking it on a program. Maybe "It's easy to create a team that has type variety, but"

Setting up to sweep will get through any walls, albeit it is hard to do and there's always the imminent danger of Critical Hits

Sentence sounds a little strange, the first part could probably be rephrased to "Setting up to sweep will let you break through any walls" because setting up isn't actually what's getting through the walls. As for the second part, I'm not sure that "it is" should be after albeit, the word albeit could just be replaced with "though". I think albeit is supposed to go after something describing a noun, though I could be wrong on this.

If worse comes to worse, relying on a Critical Hit to take them down isn't a pitiful choice; you will need a fast Electric type to increase your chances.

The phrase is "If worst comes to worst", actually. Also, instead of saying you need a fast electric type, I'd just say that's the best way to do it, because (again, I could be mistaken here as I haven't played RBY UU) most other fast sweepers could probably suffice. Also, I'm not sure that pitiful is the greatest word choice, that seems to imply something of the battler's skill than the success of the actual operation. It could probably be replaced with bad or something along those lines.

It's looking pretty good overall, most of these are just prose nitpicks.

 

[ryubahamut]

fixed these changes. Fishin, you can also make the edits -- find the article under the Red/Blue articles section