playing competivly

Vox

sorry if this is the wrong place to post this but the genral discussion board seemed like it was non-pokemon themed so i went else where.

anyway im very new to the idea of competitive pokemon. but i had a few questions. from what i can see most people just use the same couple of pokemon ala blissey various others. is that just because if you use anything else your doomed? because honestly i mainly play for fun, and part of the fun is playing as pokemon i like, such as raichu and maril and various others. and it would kinda of stink if i have no chance of winning because i decided not to use the top 10 tier pokemon (tier is used for lack of better word i dont even know if there is a tier or not)
 
Your not doomed but if you use marill you are pretty handicapped when it comes to competitive battling. Dommed is a harsh word so that is why I said handicapped.
 
Raichu and azumarill belonged to different tiers than blissey, so you can try playing underused instead...

Real competition isn't really about favorites where you want them to be, sadly... I'd stick around and surf RMTs to see what works best with what, along with looking at analyses to see what a particular favorite can do in it's respective tier.
 
thanks . its all good to know. unfortunately alot of my favorites all seem to be the underevolved forms such as marill and cyndaquill. but thanks for the tips. and ill definatly check out rmt.
my goal is to have a competitive team by otakon this year.
 
Just give in and evolve your favourites. I love Charmander, but well, I can't really use him now can I >.>; Charizard on the other hand is not very good, but useable.

Raichu is also useable. A lot of Pokemon do have some interesting uses, even in OU play. Check out the DP Analyses subforum and read up on your favourite Pokemon to see what they can do and how they can help your team.
 
Azumarill has one of the highest attacks in the game period, at max it reaches around 436.

But competitive doesn't necessarily mean certain pokemon are doomed to non-use but you disadvantage yourself alot by not using some standards. You just have to know when to draw the line between favouritism and power.

Standards change all the time the second someone discovers an effective tactic. I'm pretty sure near the mid-life of the game Typhlosion was considered UU, it wasn't till much later it was brought up to BL after people started using Petaya/SunnyDay/Blaze abuse on it and showed the ability to setup quickly and OHKO or critically injure even high standards.
 
The thing to keep in mind when playing competively is that if you want to use whatever pokemon you want and you also want to win, then you need to seriously understand the strengths and weaknesses of each pokemon. Some can make do in a strong competitive enviornment, some can't.

One way to take advantage of battles is with the item Focus Sash, which guarentees that you get a chance to do something (provided that your energy is at full health of course). With a Focus Sash, a Raticate can actually kill a couple of pokemon.

Here is an example...

Have Raticate use Endeavor against whatever opponent it is facing (This only works with full health btw). Once Focus Sash activates, use quick attack to finish them off. Congratulations, Raticate has just made a kill. Now, if something is switched in that has more then 97 base speed (Raticates base speed), switch out until an opportunity comes up to bring Raticate back in against something that has less then 97 base speed (like a Rhyperior or Swampert). Now use Endeavor. Sure, you are going to lose Raticate next turn, but already, you've killed one pokemon and put another one near death.

Of course, there are some things that are just for variety/gimmick/storyline, or promotion purposes and are not really meant to be played competively (Unown for example). Understanding what is meant to actually be a battler and what is not is the thing to keep in mind.
 
When battling random people, surprise can also play a nice role on the team, while of course rematches can ruin this i win a few battles by surprise, as in this example

X sent out Pikachu, (Now of course opponent expects light ball double spa so...
Y switched in blissey,
Pikachu used Brick Break (Powered by Light Balls new attack doubling effect)

This persons poor blissey was pretty maimed and finished off due to this in one of my fights

This is only an example but basically, though the OU metagame is full of high end pokes using a lower end poke or 2 wont always completely ruin you
 
thanks everyone for the tips. the only problem is im new enough to not have any idea what all the abbreviations mean exactly. can someone point me to an faq or something?
 
In D/P, if a Pokemon is underused, that pretty much means that it is either very poor in movepool, stats, or both, or is outclassed by something else. For example, Feraligatr in and of itself isn't bad, but it is overshadowed by Gyarados.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top