Thank you so much for the advice. I really appreciate it.
-
Check out the relaunch of our general collection, with classic designs and new ones by our very own Pissog!
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread
- Thread starter Jordy
- Start date
You’re all good, but keep in mind that ladder varies a lot depending on time of day and state of the meta within given cycles/time frames. A lot of time what you see at 1700 during the morning and night can be totally different types of teams and what you encounter in May could be very different than June, so it’s best to keep an open mind.
Yeah, I was just posting my thoughts of what i had seen that day. Out of 30 games i played, i saw 20 rain teams so yeah
and i hit my highest elo so far laying rain.
Cool. Would you say these are the requirements for a good BO team?
-Ground Immune
-Electric Immune
-Rocker
-Defogger
-Speed Control
-Breaker
-Rain/Urshifu Check
-Steel (Cuz Lele)
-Pult check
-Weav check
In some capacity, yes.
Thanks Finch.
One more thing. I have been having trouble with my games cause I have been playing too reactively. What are some things to think about in order to play proactively? See their wincons and biggest threats in team preview? Preserving certain mons to check something? Etc.
I also have the habit of panicking when Ferro starts spiking up. If my Lando is my defogger, I end up rushing to get them off, which gets it worn down more quickly. What should I do when it starts spiking up?
Lastly, should I try doing tours as a way to improve my gameplay? Ladder is for improving the basic fundamentals, while tours are for everything else. Correct?
Team Preview is where you set the road-map for the game. You have to look at your team and your opponent's team, see what threatens your team heavily, and vice versa. Identify mons that put in a lot of work against your opponent's team and the ones that don't. An offensive win conn could be due to one of your mon's ability to set up and sweep if 1-2 of your opponent's mons are eliminated or sufficiently chipped, or because you have a pivot/ wall that walls their, say, Blacephalon, but if you let it get too weak or faint Blace sweeps the rest of your team. Then decide which pokemon are generally putting in a lot of value against the enemy team. Then choose a lead that does well against your opponent's team, and won't make you start off on the backfoot if they lead with the biggest offensive threat to your team.
Once you have identified you're winning and losing conditions, you need to come up with a game plan for executing the goal you have at team preview. once you have a gameplan, be flexible as you gain more information during the battle, but following a plan, even if it needs to be updated, is how you decide which mons to sack at critical ventures, which mons need to be kept healthy for you to win, and which enemy pokemon you need eliminated or weakened. That way, when an important turn comes, you know what to prioritize. By having a carefully thought out plan from the start, you aren't gonna become too reactive during the game or start overpredicting and sacking important mons when it isn't necessary. you'll be in the driver's seat from turn 1, making the opponent react to you and play on your terms.
When working on these skills, don't rush and always take some time each turn to consciously think about the risk/reward of a given play as it pertains to achieving the win condition layed out by your gameplan and minimize risk. You get better with experience as you will start to memorize and quickly recall what general plays you need to do against certain team structures.
this comes back to the road map and threat identification you conducted at team preview a. identify how important lando is for checking threats on your opponent's team. and evaluate if there is a safer time to defog with your lando. also make sure to pressure ferrothorn so it isn't just gonna have the time to setup more than one spike when it comes in if spikes stacking is gonna prevent you from executing your gameplan.
Generally it is to hit certain benchmarks. Example, Clef uses 12 speed Evs in oras to outsped no investment ttar. Serperior uses 56 HP Evs so that Rotom-W does not break sub with pump. This allows you to dump more EVs into bulk and strength while still having the neccesary speed.
Piggybacking on what stained said, you can always play around with EVs in the builder and create custom EVs. The Smogon Damage Calculator is great for this, and making custom EVs will give you a better idea of why not all spreads are Max-Max. It's also a somewhat necessary skill for teambuilding, depending on what you want.
Is there a reason why Thundy-I isn’t ranked but Thundy-T is?
Thundy-T is stronger and works on Rain while providing an Electric immunity. Thundy-I is not worth using, especially without HP Ice.
Thundy-t is usually more useful providing both an electric immunity and much stronger attacks. It also throws out absolutely nuclear attacks in rain. Thundy-I isn't super useful atm, because most of its useful qualities are overshadowed by other mons.
One thing that has been nagging at me lately and if anyone could answer that would be most appreciated, but why did Excadrill see an upward trend in usage on ladder last month compared to prior months? Unless I missed something, it hasn't really gotten better (especially with Buzzwole being a staple these days).
My first instinct is that metagame discussion about the weathers we had last month. People probably wanted to test what merits sand has more often. Otherwise literally nothing has changed other than maybe landorus being slightly easier to break through now that its spdef set is more common then phys Def.
How do I deal with Veil?
Veil can be annoying but you have to play proactively. Try not to let Ninetales in for free. Ninetales can threaten offensively, but with one of it's typings being ice, you can keep it out most of the time. What you don't want is to let a large offensive threat or a set-up sweeper in with screens. For example, I don't want to rush in Corv to defog if it's clear that they want to setup with Chomp. A second note is that most teams have some screen removal. With the amount of pokemon knowing defog, almost every team has one and a bulky one at that. Setting up hazards for Ninetales is also great because it almost always runs light clay for the screens.
Try to limit ninetales' switching. Rocks and spikes help a lot.
Have a screen remover on your team. (psychic fangs, defog, brick break)
play offensively and try to pressure ninetales offensively.
Lead a steel type, ninetales usually is a lead mon.
The rest has been answered but I'd like to note that the heal bell listed as an option can be very useful and is a very worthy consideration since status is usually the best way to deal with DD Dragonite and it also can help other teammates, which is especially useful on teams like CB Beat Up Weavile since status removes a hit. Also yeah, Ice Punch is generally more useful than DWB in defensive DD sets since Dnite isn't particularly amazing at checking stuff like Buzzwole anyway and it's more applicable to have ice coverage. In offensive DD I quite like it, though
So you recommend having one attack in Ice Punch?
When there's only one attack I think that's where DWB can actually become a lot more valuable as strong STAB off of a good offensive type. I think it's gonna depend on the rest of the team and what it can handle, cause if you find that you're just really needing the ice coverage then ice punch is a pretty good idea
It's an interesting thought, though I wouldn't pin using Ice Punch over Dual Wingbeat purely as coverage necessity. It could be used to lure usual DWB Dnite checks like Landorus, Garchomp, and Zapdos. However, this is at the overall determent of being checked by Clefable, Weavile, Urshifu, Tapu Fini, and a slew others; even after several DD. Not really a worthwhile change over Dual Wingbeat, but food for thought nonetheless.
I feel like on single-attack sets, you want to run DWB just because of the strong STAB, especially considering its coming from a type that not much resists. ice punch on monoattacking sets seems just plain bad honestly.