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Playstyles

LonelyNess

LonelyNess

Makin' PK Love
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So I've been playing a lot lately, and I mean A LOT. (sometimes in upwards to 5-6 hours a day) During this time, I've found myself to be a very conservative player. I don't make a lot of flashy predictions and I'm never thinking, "well this next move could either make or break me." I would say I'm a good player, I certainly win more often than I lose, but I find myself wondering how much more I might win if I were more daring.

I've seen some people make outrageous predictions that could very well backfire and cause a loss, But these same predictions sometimes allow them to crawl out of holes that my particular playstyle wouldn't.

So here's what I'm asking. First, what kind of player are you? Second, which playstyle do you believe is more effective? Conservative play, which to me seems more consistant but sacrifices one turn comebacks. Or balls to the wall play, where every turn could both make a loss or solidify a win.
 
I used to play conservatively, but right now I'm playing with the "balls to the walls style" In which every turn counts.
 
I'd say that I am somewhere in between conservative and balls to the wall. I mean, if i feel i am in a position where i am in control of the situation, i do absolutley nothing dangerous lol. But of course, that kind of mindset is where a balls to the wall player can come back and turn the match around, so im always sure i have somthing the opponent doesnt know of.
 
Mine is Aggro with simple prediction usually, but with my current team, I uses a slightly less agrro, and more conservative
 
I play ballsy. I've sent a Thunderbolt at a Garchomp, predicting their switch to Gyarados. I killed a Heracross with my Blissey because it was banded and used Pursuit (FUCK that could have gone badly!). I've EQed a Jolteon with Gyarados as it predicted me switching and used Agility. If you don't do random crazy shit, you're going to get out predicted.
 
In all honestly, I'm more conservative, but I really want to change that. :(

My prediction skills are ass and I could really use help honing my prediction prowess so I can be more "ballsy".
 
I mostly use a combination of both. It also depends what mood I'm in, and how important of a battle it is. If it's some random battle on Shoddy, I'll go for the flashy move, or if I'm pretty desperate in the battle.

One time I brought in a Starmie out against a Vaporeon. I had a bit of trouble in the battle, so I decided to use Surf predicting a switch. Luckily the thing that came in was a Dugtrio, and it died from Surf. I lol'd quite a bit, and it was even better since it was against my friend.

If it's early in the game, I probably won't go for the flashy move, but late in the game, I might depending on how the battle is going for me.
 
I like to make predictions, but I always play it safe when a prediction attempt could fuck me over

i.e. i always t-bolt when I see a gyarados, unless I have a surfire DDdos counter, which I usually don't as my walls usually don't have recovery moves and are mostly to just absorb a few attacks until I can get on the offensive again.
 
Conservative play doesn't mean that you don't predict, it means that you play the way that is least likely to backfire if you do something wrong. Unlike say Blue Harvest who could very well lose if the opponent decided to stay in on the Thunderbolting poke, or if Blissey stays in and cripples Heracross with Thunder Wave instead of switching out. The latter certainly has it's perks, but it also comes with a loss of consistancy.
 
ballsy. you know, things like leaving gyarados in against t-bolt starmie to dragon dance once more, predicting that the opponent will predict a switch out so they'll do something else like rapid spin or ice beam. However if a battle is extremely important (like a battle against chaos but like that'll ever happen) I play more conservative because one risky move could cost me the game.
 
I, too, am a combination of both. I play safe until there's that opening where I might just get a reward for taking that chance. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

Just earlier today on Shoddy, my opponent had Gyarados against my Arcanine. I switched in Starmie and it ate a Waterfall. I've only seen his Gyarados, so I know not to use Thunderbolt, so I use Surf. He switches in Electivire and it's down more than 50%. Then I swap in my Electivire while his used Tbolt, I got the speed boost, he switches in Gengar expecting EQ (but mine is a MixVire with Cross Chop as its one physical move) and his Gar eats a Flamethrower. I attempt to KO it with Flamethrower, get it down to 3%, he hits me with Shadow Ball and I'm down to 3%. >.> Almost had it. But Vire took out Gar next turn.


Fun times with prediction.
 
I'll always do whatever the hell I want. The way I see it, if they're incompetent, then if I failed, then it's probably not that hard to get out of the hole. If they're competent, they probably wouldn't play risky for a while, especially until they know the team advantages/etc, therefore it's not like my whatever the hell I want mentality will screw me over.

But then again this only works if you're playing on the offense. If you're on the defensive, you're playing into the opponent's hand and don't have a choice tbh.
 
Depends on the situation. If I'm up 5-3 I'd play a bit conservative, and wear down the opponent. If I'm down 3-5, I'd play ballsy ad try to even things up a bit.
 
In the beginning I usaully play pretty conservativly, but towards the end I play balls to the wall. My style seems to also rely upon my opponent. If I think my opponent is a fucking dumbass I play balls to the wall because they are easier to predict. But if my opponent is smart I will start out conservative till I know their team.
 
It really depends on the cost of being out predicted. I gues you could say that my playstyle is to go with the flow, and adapt to the changes. Thinking many, MANY turns ahead works well for me, but I find that if my teams have an overall stratergy that I become too overcentralised about Implimenting that stratergy and somehow screw it up. So instead I ahve pokes that can often take advantages of certain cituations in a one-off manner. Like Bronzong w/t Hypnosis and SR, Tentacruel with T-Spikes and Knock off. Magnezone to trap thost bastardly steels. A Blissey, a speedy opener and a Dragon that sets up in a turn or two and sweeps. There that's my whole team XD
 
On Shoddy I'm usually pitting an UU team against an OU one, so I'm forced to take MAJOR risks. If playing another UU team, I'm reasonably conservative.
 
In a regular battle, like a random ladder match, you always play conservative at the start. Send thunderbolts at gyarados and ice beam at garchomp. The reason for this is

1) You don't yet know what type of player your opponent is. He could be a complete noob and predicting that he will switch gyarados out of a thunderbolt and having him stay in and attack you can backfire. So you always test the waters first to see what he is likely to do throughout the battle.

2) You don't yet know your opponent's team. You can't really predict if you don't have some idea what they're likely to do. For example, you might predict that gyarados will switch out of an electric attack and a ground type might come in to take it. So you use an ice attack but they send in magnezone. No harm done really but then it goes back to point 1 where they might not have switched at all and if you used that ice attack, it would have cost you.

Once you get a grasp of the type of player your opponent is and you've scouted their team significantly, then you begin playing ballsy and making crazy predictions because at that point, you have some idea what to predict instead of just blindly predicting.
 
I used to be 100% conservative, like extreme defensive. It actually had me on a 20-1 wins to losses, since thats all i remember playing..but i got bored of it, since my team was pretty much a stall team minus the stall. It was defensively annoying, is more like it. anyways..Now i play differently. In terms of switch prediction, i'll usually go with what the enemy doesnt expect me to do, yet doesnt always think of. (for example, if i have vaporeon in early game and i can threaten my enemy, the enemy will think im gonna just surf, so they're free to switch. Unbeknownst to some people, i have toxic, so instead i toxic on their switch, or hey their stay in even, and i get off a very good early game crippling) I like using the seemingly obvious (meaning, not obvious, but not so much a surprise since they still kenw it, they just disregarded it) to my advantage, it gets me into so many favorable matchups that my team really needs.

Anyways, i never play full-out. Im always deeply strategized, and im always thinking wha could happen and the odds of what will happen, and im always weighing the reprocussions of a misprediction to determine if its actually worth it to stay in. It almost always works on the turn that im strategizing...too bad i forget the most important things, like how that metagross with red health just exploded on my full health vaporeon, and i somehow dint even see it coming. seriously, wtf. However, i do enjoy the sneak attack sweep as much as the next guy. Before you know it, my umbreon has 4 curses and you cant even phaze me cause of taunt. conservative, with some sneak-full-out sometimes...it is fun...


Ok, so conservative and yea. But like i said, im flawed with enemy moveset prediction sometimes...which is not something that works for conservatives.
 
Something I've noticed is that your first intuitions in regards to switches or attacks usually are the best choices.

I remember a match where I was facing off a Gdos with a weakened Starmie. I'm sitting there debating whether or not I should just nuke his ass with a Tbolt or anticipate a switch. I figure that he'd be switching, but my cautious side kicked in at the last momentso I decided to play go neutral with Ice Beam.

Turns out he was way ahead of me and not only stayed in, but KOed me with a surprise Tbolt. :(
 
I might occasionally do something random to test how much my opponents predict moves (And I do mean risky, like keeping in Ttar against Infernape; That actually turned out well as the guy got greedy and used Nasty Plot). In fact, there are a total of two pokemon for which I basically do the same thing and use the same sets over and over: Breloom and Shuckle. Can't get enough of those guys.
 
Random early on, and then I play very predictably later on. If they're trying to out predict me, might as well out predict them and mess with their head.

But when it comes to them having the upper hand, I'll just switch to whatever would take the least amount of damage from any of their attacks, and make a strategy from there.
 
Aeroblacktyl said:
I'll always do whatever the hell I want. The way I see it, if they're incompetent, then if I failed, then it's probably not that hard to get out of the hole. If they're competent, they probably wouldn't play risky for a while, especially until they know the team advantages/etc, therefore it's not like my whatever the hell I want mentality will screw me over.

But then again this only works if you're playing on the offense. If you're on the defensive, you're playing into the opponent's hand and don't have a choice tbh.
Click to expand...

That may as well have been coming out of my mouth. That's 100% what I would have posted if Aeroblacktyl hadn't got there first.
 
Pure offensive. The more aggressive you are, the more hax you get, and frankly my entire team relies on hax. (Hax-based team). I love to be the one predicting and getting the reward, not the one being predicted.
 
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