[you may skip this if you want]
I don't suppose a lengthy introduction is needed; however, I am probably a new name/face to most of the frequenters here so I'll at least give a short summary of where I've been and what I've seen with regards to Pokémon in its competitive history. I started playing competitively online when I was 12 at the dawn of the GSC era, though I had discussed Pokémon at length on a forum called DMGIce before that generation's release (went by the tag PokémonMaster151, obviously an elite player). I then made an account on pokemasters.net as PokémonMaster251, again establishing my dominance over the rest of the competitive community (right?). I endured the archaic battle system of IRC scripts for quite some time, probably before the creation of Smogon as an entity (though I have no memory of the origins of Smogon). Can't say in hindsight that I was any better than garbage, though. I took a vacation from the scene a couple of years later and upon my return, RSE had been newly established, with an early release of Netbattle, which undoubtedly surged new life into an almost cult-like competitive gaming community, and also led me to Smogon for my first time. I would say that the discovery of this site revealed to me the true competitive style of the game, and I played RSE Netbattle for a while, showing some friends the program and playing for a few months. Can't say I got especially good either, but I made a few decent teams and understood the basics. However, that's not even where I consider myself in D/P. I gently dabbled in team building for D/P upon the game's first release, but that was before a comprehensive metagame was established, there hadn't been time for many trends to develop, shoddybattle wasn't discovered yet, and most of the metagame evolved slowly through Nintendo's WFC as Competitor slowly slouched along. Playing against other people, sharking my own Pokémon because I'm lazy, etc just wasn't the same, and as my interest waned I played D/P less and less. Shoddybattle was still in beta, the new site hadn't been completely restructured and there definitely was no extensive strategy index for the D/P metagame, and I didn't feel like waiting, so eventually I just ceased the study altogether in the summer of 07. But now that I've had some renewed interest due to meeting a friend who enjoys playing D/P, I decided to see how things have changed; sure enough, the scene has rapidly progressed, and everything I wanted to exist is here.
However, I'm very unprepared for this metagame and I know I can't just make Pokémon with the ideas of the past and expect myself to exceed with any more than a modicum of success, so I decided to take a different approach to creating a team. I discovered the Shoddy Battle Server Statistics, and to my delight, the top threats have been reported, as well as the top lead Pokémon. So I decided to start there.
@ Focus Sash
((Naive)) Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Att / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- Explosion
- Flamethrower
Smogon's statistics show Azelf being in the top 20 of Pokemon used for the past six months - however, what's more important is that Azelf is ranked the #1 most used lead. This is astonishing considering that Azelf has never even been in the top 10, and that a good number of the contenders for the top 10 have also been used as fairly common leads. This tells me that Azelf's primary and most effective function is to be a lead, and obviously a very good one, and that's why I decided to start here. I surmise that, based on my own understanding, Stealth Rock is an important facet of D/P's metagame, so I am going to make the best use of it with my lead posing an immediate threat of laying them down. I chose the Azelf that is supposed to beat the other leads, further explaining why Azelf rocks so much as a starter. However, I was still unsure about who to add, so I decided to return to the statistics one more time. My next Pokemon came straight from the top 5 threats in today's metagame - and for the past four months straight, it's never scored below 2nd place.
@ Choice Scarf
((Rash)) Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 6 Att / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Explosion
- HP Ice
Seems like as good of a choice as any to toss into my team, it's definitely discussed a LOT in pretty much all of the strategy pages so I'm guessing it's the tip of top tier OU. Upon adding him, I reasoned that I can't go wrong with choosing any two good Pokemon, even if they don't necessarily have much synergy together. However, after choosing this one I must consider my team's weaknesses as well as threat coverage for the remaining four. I wanted HP Ice because Salamence had a consistent 4-month-in-a-row top 3 usage rating, and from what I remember about Salamence from RSE, it's probably one of the most pervasive threats in the metagame for D/P as well, top 5 if not even higher. I must have sufficient coverage for Salamence. My next choice came as a result of looking at my first two choices and realizing that I have a weakness to bulky waters...
@ Life Orb
((Modest)) Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 120 Att / 252 SpA / 136 Spe
Energy Ball
Ice Beam
Surf
Focus Punch
Going from my previous logic, I wanted an effective counter to bulky waters, and being a general threat in its own right is something that it seems most Pokemon need to be; however, this set lets me still have some freedom and I'm not going to be relying on him as a sweeper necessarily. I had some choices, such as whether to use Grass Knot or Rain Dance. I don't want Rain Dance messing up Azelf or especially Heatran, and with Stealth Rock support from Azelf I should be able to 2HKO bulky Gyarados, so I chose Energy Ball. Did I make the right choice with Ludicolo? He seems like an oddball for sure, but I think it fits nicely with two special sweepers that use Flamethrower. So, in need of a fourth Pokemon, I looked to the physical side of the metagame, an aspect my team completely lacks thus far:
@ Life Orb
((Adamant)) Ability: Technician
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Att / 224 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- X-Scissor
The number one threat for two months in a row, #2 in October, and still hit top10 in September... his popularity seems to have surged right around the time that Garchomp was banned. I was wondering if there was any connection? Also, right around the time Scizor's popularity increased, Heatran rose from being somewhere in the top10 to #2 or #1 (tying only with Scizor), so this has to say something about Scizor's threat level. Seems like out of the Pokemon I've chosen, this slot in my team is the most malleable, however I do want to try Scizor out for a bit and see how he does. As for who I chose next, I still don't have a reliable counter to dragons, and I need something sturdy that can hold my team together against a lot of things. So I decided on-
@ Leftovers
((Bold)) Ability: Trace
Evs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SpA
- Discharge
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Thunder Wave
Porygon2 seems amazing on paper. He has the ability to handle Gyara/Sally/Heatran, stands alone as a capable BoltBeamer, and isn't going to be fainted by just anything. I'm still not sure if he's the best choice, but I need a thorough counter to dragons. It's possible that I might rather have someone who can still handle dragons who also gets STAB on Thunderbolt, but given that Porygon2 can handily switch-in on Heatran he seems needed for my team, which has a pretty big Heatran weakness so far (though my Heatran can beat out other Heatran on revenge kills). My last choice is a consistent staple Pokemon; almost always landing among the top10 and has an integral role in all of the metagames it's ever been involved in:
@ Leftovers
((Calm)) Ability: Natural Cure
Evs: 252 Def / 80 SpA / 176 SpD
- Wish
- Protect
- Thunderbolt
- Toxic
I determined that Porygon2 is a decent physical wall with his ability to Trace away Intimidaters and his fair amount of Defense EV's (although he has a Fighting weakness), but my ability to withstand special hits is lacking. That's where Blissey comes in, obviously. Most importantly, ChoiceSpecsMence will absolutely rape my whole team if I don't have a reliable special wall, since Porygon2 is really only equipped to handle physical variants, and Blissey suits this role beautifully. n I chose Thunderbolt in case Gyarados switches in and Porygon2 isn't around for some reason, and finally, Wish support is like water to a team like mine with multiple Life Orbs.
What do you think of my approach? Is it logical to look at the server statistics? Do I need more physical threats? I think I did an okay job, but feel free to rip into my team as much as physically possible.
I don't suppose a lengthy introduction is needed; however, I am probably a new name/face to most of the frequenters here so I'll at least give a short summary of where I've been and what I've seen with regards to Pokémon in its competitive history. I started playing competitively online when I was 12 at the dawn of the GSC era, though I had discussed Pokémon at length on a forum called DMGIce before that generation's release (went by the tag PokémonMaster151, obviously an elite player). I then made an account on pokemasters.net as PokémonMaster251, again establishing my dominance over the rest of the competitive community (right?). I endured the archaic battle system of IRC scripts for quite some time, probably before the creation of Smogon as an entity (though I have no memory of the origins of Smogon). Can't say in hindsight that I was any better than garbage, though. I took a vacation from the scene a couple of years later and upon my return, RSE had been newly established, with an early release of Netbattle, which undoubtedly surged new life into an almost cult-like competitive gaming community, and also led me to Smogon for my first time. I would say that the discovery of this site revealed to me the true competitive style of the game, and I played RSE Netbattle for a while, showing some friends the program and playing for a few months. Can't say I got especially good either, but I made a few decent teams and understood the basics. However, that's not even where I consider myself in D/P. I gently dabbled in team building for D/P upon the game's first release, but that was before a comprehensive metagame was established, there hadn't been time for many trends to develop, shoddybattle wasn't discovered yet, and most of the metagame evolved slowly through Nintendo's WFC as Competitor slowly slouched along. Playing against other people, sharking my own Pokémon because I'm lazy, etc just wasn't the same, and as my interest waned I played D/P less and less. Shoddybattle was still in beta, the new site hadn't been completely restructured and there definitely was no extensive strategy index for the D/P metagame, and I didn't feel like waiting, so eventually I just ceased the study altogether in the summer of 07. But now that I've had some renewed interest due to meeting a friend who enjoys playing D/P, I decided to see how things have changed; sure enough, the scene has rapidly progressed, and everything I wanted to exist is here.
However, I'm very unprepared for this metagame and I know I can't just make Pokémon with the ideas of the past and expect myself to exceed with any more than a modicum of success, so I decided to take a different approach to creating a team. I discovered the Shoddy Battle Server Statistics, and to my delight, the top threats have been reported, as well as the top lead Pokémon. So I decided to start there.
((Naive)) Ability: Levitate
EVs: 4 Att / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Stealth Rock
- Psychic
- Explosion
- Flamethrower
Smogon's statistics show Azelf being in the top 20 of Pokemon used for the past six months - however, what's more important is that Azelf is ranked the #1 most used lead. This is astonishing considering that Azelf has never even been in the top 10, and that a good number of the contenders for the top 10 have also been used as fairly common leads. This tells me that Azelf's primary and most effective function is to be a lead, and obviously a very good one, and that's why I decided to start here. I surmise that, based on my own understanding, Stealth Rock is an important facet of D/P's metagame, so I am going to make the best use of it with my lead posing an immediate threat of laying them down. I chose the Azelf that is supposed to beat the other leads, further explaining why Azelf rocks so much as a starter. However, I was still unsure about who to add, so I decided to return to the statistics one more time. My next Pokemon came straight from the top 5 threats in today's metagame - and for the past four months straight, it's never scored below 2nd place.
((Rash)) Ability: Flash Fire
EVs: 6 Att / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
- Flamethrower
- Earth Power
- Explosion
- HP Ice
Seems like as good of a choice as any to toss into my team, it's definitely discussed a LOT in pretty much all of the strategy pages so I'm guessing it's the tip of top tier OU. Upon adding him, I reasoned that I can't go wrong with choosing any two good Pokemon, even if they don't necessarily have much synergy together. However, after choosing this one I must consider my team's weaknesses as well as threat coverage for the remaining four. I wanted HP Ice because Salamence had a consistent 4-month-in-a-row top 3 usage rating, and from what I remember about Salamence from RSE, it's probably one of the most pervasive threats in the metagame for D/P as well, top 5 if not even higher. I must have sufficient coverage for Salamence. My next choice came as a result of looking at my first two choices and realizing that I have a weakness to bulky waters...
((Modest)) Ability: Swift Swim
EVs: 120 Att / 252 SpA / 136 Spe
Energy Ball
Ice Beam
Surf
Focus Punch
Going from my previous logic, I wanted an effective counter to bulky waters, and being a general threat in its own right is something that it seems most Pokemon need to be; however, this set lets me still have some freedom and I'm not going to be relying on him as a sweeper necessarily. I had some choices, such as whether to use Grass Knot or Rain Dance. I don't want Rain Dance messing up Azelf or especially Heatran, and with Stealth Rock support from Azelf I should be able to 2HKO bulky Gyarados, so I chose Energy Ball. Did I make the right choice with Ludicolo? He seems like an oddball for sure, but I think it fits nicely with two special sweepers that use Flamethrower. So, in need of a fourth Pokemon, I looked to the physical side of the metagame, an aspect my team completely lacks thus far:
((Adamant)) Ability: Technician
EVs: 32 HP / 252 Att / 224 Spe
- Swords Dance
- Bullet Punch
- Superpower
- X-Scissor
The number one threat for two months in a row, #2 in October, and still hit top10 in September... his popularity seems to have surged right around the time that Garchomp was banned. I was wondering if there was any connection? Also, right around the time Scizor's popularity increased, Heatran rose from being somewhere in the top10 to #2 or #1 (tying only with Scizor), so this has to say something about Scizor's threat level. Seems like out of the Pokemon I've chosen, this slot in my team is the most malleable, however I do want to try Scizor out for a bit and see how he does. As for who I chose next, I still don't have a reliable counter to dragons, and I need something sturdy that can hold my team together against a lot of things. So I decided on-
((Bold)) Ability: Trace
Evs: 252 HP / 216 Def / 40 SpA
- Discharge
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Thunder Wave
Porygon2 seems amazing on paper. He has the ability to handle Gyara/Sally/Heatran, stands alone as a capable BoltBeamer, and isn't going to be fainted by just anything. I'm still not sure if he's the best choice, but I need a thorough counter to dragons. It's possible that I might rather have someone who can still handle dragons who also gets STAB on Thunderbolt, but given that Porygon2 can handily switch-in on Heatran he seems needed for my team, which has a pretty big Heatran weakness so far (though my Heatran can beat out other Heatran on revenge kills). My last choice is a consistent staple Pokemon; almost always landing among the top10 and has an integral role in all of the metagames it's ever been involved in:
((Calm)) Ability: Natural Cure
Evs: 252 Def / 80 SpA / 176 SpD
- Wish
- Protect
- Thunderbolt
- Toxic
I determined that Porygon2 is a decent physical wall with his ability to Trace away Intimidaters and his fair amount of Defense EV's (although he has a Fighting weakness), but my ability to withstand special hits is lacking. That's where Blissey comes in, obviously. Most importantly, ChoiceSpecsMence will absolutely rape my whole team if I don't have a reliable special wall, since Porygon2 is really only equipped to handle physical variants, and Blissey suits this role beautifully. n I chose Thunderbolt in case Gyarados switches in and Porygon2 isn't around for some reason, and finally, Wish support is like water to a team like mine with multiple Life Orbs.
What do you think of my approach? Is it logical to look at the server statistics? Do I need more physical threats? I think I did an okay job, but feel free to rip into my team as much as physically possible.
