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Poster of the Month
The biggest challenge in entering into the vastly deep metagame of competitive pokemon is the idea of team creation. Who's the best? Does the team mesh? Are there any glaring weaknesses to a team? How do you overcome the current top competitors? No matter if you are new to the competitive scene or a seasoned veteran, team creation is the crux of battling. My proposition for you today and singular goal of Project Mono-Type is to learn more about team construction.
The vast majority of players use the analyses to develop and construct their lines, as well they should. The analyses are tried and true staples and are designed to fit the metagame. But problems arise when players do not fully understand how to tweak their pokemon to suit the needs of the team.
I, myself, many times fall into the idea of recruiting by roll. I need a special sweeper, a physical sweeper, a couple decent walls/tanks, and hazards... so Just go through the list and pick pokemon to fill those rolls, trying to keep from leaving any really obvious weaknesses in the team. Then I play, I find out what's wrong, I alter the team, wash, rinse, repeat... I believe this style of team creation works, but team potential is only fully realized with a deeper understanding of the pokemon themselves and how they operate within a team.
As an analogy:
So we've gone from the metagame to team creation to individual pokemon... how do we learn more about pokemon so that we can maximize the effectiveness of our teams thus pushing the metagame into further evolution?
My answer: restriction.
Ever since my Gen 4 days on Shoddy Battle, I have kept a poison mono-type team. I am intimately familiar with the type and how to best utilize its strengths and overcome its weaknesses. Most of the pokemon on my poison line do not use standard sets. They can't. If they did, they wouldn't be able to make a cohesive team. Their individual standard rolls may still apply, but they don't have the benefit of being able to avoid their weaknesses with complementing types. Their options are limited, requiring me to think outside the box to make the team operable.
Here, then, is the proposition of Project Mono-Type: To learn how to tweak pokemon during team creation so that the team is cohesive in a way that can't be done by rigidly sticking to metagame staples. I plan to make a Standard OU competitive team with each of the 17 types. This is accomplished by:
1) Identifying a types main strengths and weaknesses;
2) Planning possible workarounds and implementing solutions based on current analyses, examining secondary types, move-pool options, stats, EV-spreads, and abilities; and
3) Play-testing line configurations, recording results and attempting to further the communities understanding of team creation.
What I need is input from the community. I am not the best nor most experienced player. And while I am very confident in my ability as a poison-type trainer, I am sure to need a lot of help with other types. Some types will be significantly harder to make a competitive team with than others and I need your expertise to make Project Mono-Type as beneficial for the community as possible.
I invite as many as are willing to participate in the exercise as possible. Through this thread I will keep updated results, links to each types' thread, and discussion on which types to attempt next.
As way of a disclaimer, I don't expect these lines to break top 100 or anything; but I do hope to create what can be considered a decently competitive line of each type, maximizing its potential within the standard OU ruleset.
Main Thread: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3457307
The vast majority of players use the analyses to develop and construct their lines, as well they should. The analyses are tried and true staples and are designed to fit the metagame. But problems arise when players do not fully understand how to tweak their pokemon to suit the needs of the team.
I, myself, many times fall into the idea of recruiting by roll. I need a special sweeper, a physical sweeper, a couple decent walls/tanks, and hazards... so Just go through the list and pick pokemon to fill those rolls, trying to keep from leaving any really obvious weaknesses in the team. Then I play, I find out what's wrong, I alter the team, wash, rinse, repeat... I believe this style of team creation works, but team potential is only fully realized with a deeper understanding of the pokemon themselves and how they operate within a team.
As an analogy:
Think of dumping a bunch of rocks into a jar. You want to completely fill the jar so you put as many rocks in there as possible. But the rocks don't fit together nicely, therefore there is space in between edges and while you can make a nice heavy full jar, it could still be more full. So you take the rocks out and crush them down into their smaller parts, smaller rocks leave smaller gaps in-between, so you put your rocks back in and now have a jar that is even better filled, fewer, smaller gaps. Now think again if you could crush all the rocks into sand. You could practically completely fill the jar with no gaps in space.
Think of the jar as your team and the rocks as competitive potential. The further you break down those your pokemon into their core elements (stats, moves, EVs, etc...) the better you are able to fill your team with potential. The better understanding you have of each of those small parts, the less likely your team will have any "gaps," or exploitable weaknesses.
Think of the jar as your team and the rocks as competitive potential. The further you break down those your pokemon into their core elements (stats, moves, EVs, etc...) the better you are able to fill your team with potential. The better understanding you have of each of those small parts, the less likely your team will have any "gaps," or exploitable weaknesses.
So we've gone from the metagame to team creation to individual pokemon... how do we learn more about pokemon so that we can maximize the effectiveness of our teams thus pushing the metagame into further evolution?
My answer: restriction.
Ever since my Gen 4 days on Shoddy Battle, I have kept a poison mono-type team. I am intimately familiar with the type and how to best utilize its strengths and overcome its weaknesses. Most of the pokemon on my poison line do not use standard sets. They can't. If they did, they wouldn't be able to make a cohesive team. Their individual standard rolls may still apply, but they don't have the benefit of being able to avoid their weaknesses with complementing types. Their options are limited, requiring me to think outside the box to make the team operable.
Here, then, is the proposition of Project Mono-Type: To learn how to tweak pokemon during team creation so that the team is cohesive in a way that can't be done by rigidly sticking to metagame staples. I plan to make a Standard OU competitive team with each of the 17 types. This is accomplished by:
1) Identifying a types main strengths and weaknesses;
2) Planning possible workarounds and implementing solutions based on current analyses, examining secondary types, move-pool options, stats, EV-spreads, and abilities; and
3) Play-testing line configurations, recording results and attempting to further the communities understanding of team creation.
What I need is input from the community. I am not the best nor most experienced player. And while I am very confident in my ability as a poison-type trainer, I am sure to need a lot of help with other types. Some types will be significantly harder to make a competitive team with than others and I need your expertise to make Project Mono-Type as beneficial for the community as possible.
I invite as many as are willing to participate in the exercise as possible. Through this thread I will keep updated results, links to each types' thread, and discussion on which types to attempt next.
As way of a disclaimer, I don't expect these lines to break top 100 or anything; but I do hope to create what can be considered a decently competitive line of each type, maximizing its potential within the standard OU ruleset.
Main Thread: http://www.smogon.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3457307
