Jackal
I'm not retarded I'm Canadian it's different
The Beginners Guide To Red/Blue/Yellow
Well now, you have been playing pokemon for a while and start to get bored with Advanced play, and want a change. You want to try RBY, but have no idea where to start. This is for you.
The RBY metagame is very concrete and standardized, as it is the oldest, and anything new you can possibly try has been done. With this being said, there are certain pokemon and tactics that are known to be more effective than others. These are things you MUST learn.
Let us begin with the beginning of every trainer’s path to greatness, the teambuilding process. Now thankfully, this process is MUCH less complicated and quicker than constructing a team in Advanced mode, for several reasons. While there ARE EV’s, they are all maxed on Netbattle and need not be set. Secondly, there are no traits, gender, nature, hidden power or items in RBY. This means all you essentially have to do is select six pokemon, give them a moveset and you are ready for battle. The only other possible things to change are level and DV’s, but these should, for the most part, remain maxed in competitive play.
Team Building
Alright, what pokemon should I use? Well, as I previously mentioned, there are certain pokemon that play a dominant role in the metagame, and should be your first options when building a team. Here are the 15 pokemon that play a leading role in the RBY metagame.
Exeggutor
~Psychic
~Explosion
~Sleep Powder
~Stun Spore/Mega Drain
Definitely a SOLID pokemon, good for a sleep, tossing around paralysis AND taking something down with it with Explosion. This pokemon is a MAJOR threat and is on most teams.
Starmie
~Blizzard
~Thunderbolt
~Recover
~Thunder Wave/Surf
A pokemon who can easily sweep a team when it has been damaged. A strong special and speed stat allow it to sweep teams with a wide array of special based moves.
Tauros
~Body Slam
~Earthquake
~Hyper Beam
~Blizzard
A nightmare for many a team, a very strong physical pokemon who is known for being the bane of many teams. Its STAB Body Slam can paralyze and this pokemon is known to critical hit a LOT.
Chansey
~Ice Beam
~Thunderbolt
~Thunder Wave/Counter/Sing
~Softboiled
A very defensive oriented pokemon, who shrugs of special hits and takes abuse. The only TRUE counter to Starmie.
Alakazam
~Psychic
~Recover
~Thunder Wave
~Seismis Toss/Reflect
A very fast Psychic type with a crazy special stat. Its Psychic hurts, and does a good job paralyzing the opposition.
Snorlax
~Body Slam
~Hyper Beam
~Self Destruct
~Earthquake/Surf
A very common normal type, with the strongest single attack in the game, STABed Self Destruct. Nothing can flat out counter it, and is a threat to any team.
Golem
~Earthquake
~Rock Slide
~Body Slam
~Explosion
A solid Rock type, which is important as it provides a resistance to normal. Stops electrics COLD in their tracks.
Dragonite
~Wrap
~Agility
~Thunder Wave
~Body Slam/Hyper Beam
A much hated pokemon, mainly because of his ability to paralyze you then proceed to wrap you. He can slowly devastate a team.
Lapras
~Sing
~Blizzard
~Thunderbolt
~Body Slam
A bulkier water, but not nearly as common as Starmie or Slowbro. Can put pokemon to sleep as well.
Rhydon
~Earthquake
~Rock Slide
~Body Slam
~Substitute
The other common Rock/Ground pokemon, its Earthquake is powerful, and Substitute is useful when you predict a swith. Although be warned it will NOT block status moves.
Persian
~Slash
~Hyper Beam
~Bubblebeam
~Thunderbolt/Mimic
Persian is a weaker Tauros that does have some advantages over it. It is faster, and has a huge critical hit rate when using slash.
Gengar
~Hypnosis
~Explsion
~Confuse Ray
~Psychic/Thunderbolt
A very common lead, it puts something to sleep, confuses the switch in and can explode on a threat to the team. Also is immune to normal and fighting, a very big plus.
Jynx
~Lovely Kiss
~Psychic
~Blizzard
~Mimic
Another common lead, and has a very accurate sleep move, higher than hypnosis or sing. Is decently fast and packs a strong punch. It is too easily walled by Starmie, however, mimic fixes that if thunderbolt is obtained :)
Zapdos
~Thunderbolt
~Thunder Wave
~Drill Peck
~Light Screen
A strong pokemon, but as with all electrics in this generation, it is walled by ground types, especially ground/rock which resists drill peck too. Once the ground is disposed of, this pokemon can cause major damage.
Slowbro
~Amnesia
~Surf
~Rest
~Thunder Wave
Some say he is overrated, but he is still strong and hard to take down. It usually takes a critical hit to take it down once it Amnesia’s up. It is commonly referred to as “Tobybro”, after its creator.
Those 15 pokemon are the most commonly used and are what you must look to have counters for defensively. A team does NOT have to be comprised of six of these fifteen, but they commonly are, and will continue to be whether you like it or not J
**Take note that the movesets I have listed are merely the most common, there are many other variations; check the Smogondex for more details.
Now, I cannot tell you which six pokemon to pick, but here are things all good teams include.
· Two pokemon with a sleep inducing move
· A paralysis move on at least 3-4 pokemon
· A good balance of types and attacks
· A few fast pokemon capable of sweeping
· A fast lead, Sleepers are best
Some other important things to have are:
· A ground pokemon to take electrics
· A normal resist
· A pokemon to take Special based hits
· Lots of pokemon resistant to Psychic
Competitive Battling
Once you have fully made a team and have constructed it intelligently, it is time to battle! Here are some important techniques to apply to battle.
You Snooze, You Lose
A very important part of RBY is putting a pokemon to sleep. This should be priority #1 in most cases. This is because sleeping a pokemon essentially disables them for the remainder of the match, as you do not attack the turn you wake up, and by staying in they will often get killed.
A Paralyzed team is a Beaten team
The next step is disabling the opponents team through paralysis to set up your sweeper. It is essential to keep your main sweeper from getting paralyzed, especially someone like Tauros or Starmie, as without speed their sweeping potential goes downhill. Paralyzing your opponents sweeper is a very good sign. Chansey is possibly the only pokemon you do NOT want paralyzed, as it wants to be paralyzed. This is because then it cannot be put to sleep or worse frozen. Chansey is often sent in on a predicted Thunder Wave, and is great at absorbing paralysis once paralyzed.
**An important thing to keep in mind is that sleep should come before paralysis, as once you paralyze one pokemon, it is an easy switch in to sleep moves, and it will be extremely difficult to put a different pokemon to sleep as they can always predict you. It is important to narrow down the opponents resources.
Plan Your Attack
Always take note of your opponents team, whether it be mentally, or if your like me and forget, write it down. Once you know all your opponents resources you can plan your path to victory. It is always a good idea to not reveal your whole team, as you can toss out a surprise Tauros when your opponent least expects is and have it sweep. If you see that your opponent has a damaged starmie, paralyzed alakazam and a damaged golem, work on getting the starmie paralyzed so your tauros that you have been reserving can have a n easy sweep. It is this kind of planning that will win games.
Be Unpredictable
This is so essential if you want to be successful. People complain RBY is all luck, but there are lots of mind games to be played. If you have Starmie out on a Rhydon, Surf or Blizzard are the obvious choices, but if you think your opponent will bring in their Starmie to take the hit, use Thunderbolt, it just might pay off. This also applies to pokemon switches. If you think they will switch to Starmie, bring in your Chansey. This gives you the upper hand as they now must switch out or take damage/be paralyzed. These are important skills that are more gut feelings than anything. It is important to try and think like your opponent, and can often lead to some advantageous situations.
Accept Luck
RBY is known to be heavily influenced by luck, as critical hit rates are higher and a pokemon that is frozen does not thaw for the rest of the match. It is important to realize that luck is a two edged sword and can strike at any time. If your Chansey gets frozen, move on. Keep focus and always stick to your plan, even if the luck makes you revise it. Don’t give up, because when all looks lost, your opponent might miss that Hyper Beam, allowing you to get the comeback win.
Those are the five key elements to success in RBY battling. Master them and you WILL be successful.
General Info
Here are some general things to know about RBY that will make you better.
Standard RBY Battling Rules
~No Mewtwo or Mew
~No Tradebacks from GSC
~Sleep Clause and OHKO Clause enabled
~Evasion and OHKO moves are frowned upon
~No two pokemon of the same species
~Freeze Clause and PP ups is optional
Critical Hits:
Full Credit to Justin8649 for the information:
The Critical Hit Ratio is figured out by dividing the pokemon's base speed divided by 2 divided by 256.
[Base Speed / 2 / 256]
For example, Venusaurs base speed is 80, so (80/2)/256 = .15625 Therefore Venusaur has a 15.625% chance to get a CH for whichever move it uses.
Some moves have high Critical Hit ratios.
They are:
Karate Chop, Slash, Razor Leaf, and Crabhammer
For these moves the formula is Base Speed times 4 divided by 256.
[Base Speed * 4 / 256]
So if Venusaur used Razor Leaf we would use: 80(4)/256 which would be 1.25 which is 125%. Therefore it would always Critical Hit. But apparently there is some sort of cap, to prevent the numbers from going over 100% because that wouldn’t make sense. So the cap is 255, because they used 0-255 instead of 1-256 and then divided everything by 256. So the highest CH rate you can get is 255/256 so you can still not CH .4% of the time with Persian and Venusaur!
RBY Tiers List
Credit to Hipmonlee for this list:
Tier 1: Banned
Mewtwo
Mew
Tier 2: Mainstays For All Teams
Tauros
Snorlax
Chansey
Exeggutor
Starmie
Alakazam
Tier 3: Other Standards
Golem
Slowbro
Jynx
Lapras
Zapdos
Rhydon
Gengar
Persian
Tier 4: Borderline Standard
Venusaur
Sandslash
Clefable
Dodrio
Jolteon
Hypno
Articuno
Dragonite
Victreebel
Kangaskhan
Raichu
Cloyster
Tier 4a: Pokemon that suck in standard but are too good for uu..
Gyarados
Mr. Mime
Moltres
Tier 5: UU Pokemon. But practical in standard battles.
Charizard
Raticate
Nidoking
Ninetales
Wigglytuff
Venomoth
Dugtrio
Golduck
Tentacruel
Tangela
Pinsir
Kingler
Electrode
Nidoqueen
Machamp
Weezing
Muk
Kabutops
Arcanine
Tier 6: Pokemon mostly unuseable in standard, but good in UU.
Blastoise
Parasect
Primeape
Poliwrath
Rapidash
Magneton
Scyther
Omastar
Hitmonlee
Lickitung
Flareon
Electabuzz
Magmar
Butterfree
Arbok
Vileplume
Dewgong
Marowak
Porygon
Aerodactyl
Vaporeon
Tier 7: Pokemon that just suck.
Pidgeot
Hitmonchan
Fearow
Onix
Ditto
Seaking
Seadra
Farfetch’d
Golbat
Beedrill
The Agility Glitch
This is one of the more useful glitches in RBY. Once a pokemon is paralyzed, it speed is reduced. However, if Agility is used afterwards it nulls the speed loss, and you will have double your original speed. You still have the chance to be fully paralyzed, however.
Important Changes
Some things work differently in RBY. Here are the most important:
Special Stat: The Special Attack and Defense of a pokemon are combined into one stat, called “Special”. This makes moves like Amnesia really good as they raise both Special Attack and Special Defense.
Sleep: Pokemon do not attack the turn they wake up. Thankfully this was changed in the later versions, it is very annoying.
99.6%: This is the accuracy of all 100% moves. This can really bite you in the bum sometimes.
OHKO moves: Only work if you are faster. Not dependant on base stats.
Freeze: Pokemon do not thaw. Only a fire move will thaw a frozen pokemon.
Substitute: This move does not block status moves. Also a pokemon does not die if it used explosion on a sub. See Vineons guide for more info.
Hyper Beam: If a pokemon is KO’d with this move, there is NO recharge time.
Counter: Only counters NORMAL and FIGHTING moves.
Light Screen and Reflect: Only work on the pokemon that used it.
Blizzard: 90% accuracy makes it a formidable move.
**For a complete and detailed list, see Vineon’s RBY changes guide.
Secondary Strategy: Wrap/Fire Spin
Other than a standard team, these teams are the other type of commonly used team in tournaments. They focus on trapping moves, as they work different in RBY. Moves such as Wrap, Clamp and Fire Spin trap the opponent for 2-5 turns, making them unable to attack. They can still switch, but you will just end up switching into another Wrap, Clamp or Fire Spin. You have to hope it misses. The strategy behind these teams is to paralyze everything and to abuse these moves, as if you miss you will be faster and can just trap them again next turn. If you are facing a team like this, you need to be very careful and avoid paralysis at all costs. These teams can work very well in the right hands.
Here are some common pokemon that use this technique, other than the aforementioned Dragonite:
Cloyster
~Clamp
~Blizzard
~Explosion
~Surf
Clamp is the strongest of the trappers, but only Cloyster learns it. Clamp until weak and use either Blizzard or Surf as a finisher.
Moltres
~Fire Spin
~Agility
~Fire Blast
~Hyper Beam
This can work even if the opponents team is NOT all paralyzed, so watch out. After an Agility it outspeeds everything. And can Fire Spin appropriately. Once again KO with the appropriate finisher
Victreebel
~Sleep Powder
~Swords Dance
~Wrap
~Hyper Beam
This can get painful. Sleep Powder will force them to switch as you Swords Dance. This makes Wrap really pack a punch.
As you can see these teams are not to be underestimated and can really cause problems.
This concludes my guide. All the knowledge of how to become a great RBY battler is right here. Hopefully this will bring many new battlers to this great genre. A BIG thanks to Vineon, Justin, Hipmonlee for their previous information I was able to compile as well as to the RBY greats for making this such a competitive genre of pokemon J I hope you all will enjoy RBY as much as I do!
-Jackal
(If I forgot anything PLEASE post and let me know)
Well now, you have been playing pokemon for a while and start to get bored with Advanced play, and want a change. You want to try RBY, but have no idea where to start. This is for you.
The RBY metagame is very concrete and standardized, as it is the oldest, and anything new you can possibly try has been done. With this being said, there are certain pokemon and tactics that are known to be more effective than others. These are things you MUST learn.
Let us begin with the beginning of every trainer’s path to greatness, the teambuilding process. Now thankfully, this process is MUCH less complicated and quicker than constructing a team in Advanced mode, for several reasons. While there ARE EV’s, they are all maxed on Netbattle and need not be set. Secondly, there are no traits, gender, nature, hidden power or items in RBY. This means all you essentially have to do is select six pokemon, give them a moveset and you are ready for battle. The only other possible things to change are level and DV’s, but these should, for the most part, remain maxed in competitive play.
Team Building
Alright, what pokemon should I use? Well, as I previously mentioned, there are certain pokemon that play a dominant role in the metagame, and should be your first options when building a team. Here are the 15 pokemon that play a leading role in the RBY metagame.
Exeggutor
~Psychic
~Explosion
~Sleep Powder
~Stun Spore/Mega Drain
Definitely a SOLID pokemon, good for a sleep, tossing around paralysis AND taking something down with it with Explosion. This pokemon is a MAJOR threat and is on most teams.
Starmie
~Blizzard
~Thunderbolt
~Recover
~Thunder Wave/Surf
A pokemon who can easily sweep a team when it has been damaged. A strong special and speed stat allow it to sweep teams with a wide array of special based moves.
Tauros
~Body Slam
~Earthquake
~Hyper Beam
~Blizzard
A nightmare for many a team, a very strong physical pokemon who is known for being the bane of many teams. Its STAB Body Slam can paralyze and this pokemon is known to critical hit a LOT.
Chansey
~Ice Beam
~Thunderbolt
~Thunder Wave/Counter/Sing
~Softboiled
A very defensive oriented pokemon, who shrugs of special hits and takes abuse. The only TRUE counter to Starmie.
Alakazam
~Psychic
~Recover
~Thunder Wave
~Seismis Toss/Reflect
A very fast Psychic type with a crazy special stat. Its Psychic hurts, and does a good job paralyzing the opposition.
Snorlax
~Body Slam
~Hyper Beam
~Self Destruct
~Earthquake/Surf
A very common normal type, with the strongest single attack in the game, STABed Self Destruct. Nothing can flat out counter it, and is a threat to any team.
Golem
~Earthquake
~Rock Slide
~Body Slam
~Explosion
A solid Rock type, which is important as it provides a resistance to normal. Stops electrics COLD in their tracks.
Dragonite
~Wrap
~Agility
~Thunder Wave
~Body Slam/Hyper Beam
A much hated pokemon, mainly because of his ability to paralyze you then proceed to wrap you. He can slowly devastate a team.
Lapras
~Sing
~Blizzard
~Thunderbolt
~Body Slam
A bulkier water, but not nearly as common as Starmie or Slowbro. Can put pokemon to sleep as well.
Rhydon
~Earthquake
~Rock Slide
~Body Slam
~Substitute
The other common Rock/Ground pokemon, its Earthquake is powerful, and Substitute is useful when you predict a swith. Although be warned it will NOT block status moves.
Persian
~Slash
~Hyper Beam
~Bubblebeam
~Thunderbolt/Mimic
Persian is a weaker Tauros that does have some advantages over it. It is faster, and has a huge critical hit rate when using slash.
Gengar
~Hypnosis
~Explsion
~Confuse Ray
~Psychic/Thunderbolt
A very common lead, it puts something to sleep, confuses the switch in and can explode on a threat to the team. Also is immune to normal and fighting, a very big plus.
Jynx
~Lovely Kiss
~Psychic
~Blizzard
~Mimic
Another common lead, and has a very accurate sleep move, higher than hypnosis or sing. Is decently fast and packs a strong punch. It is too easily walled by Starmie, however, mimic fixes that if thunderbolt is obtained :)
Zapdos
~Thunderbolt
~Thunder Wave
~Drill Peck
~Light Screen
A strong pokemon, but as with all electrics in this generation, it is walled by ground types, especially ground/rock which resists drill peck too. Once the ground is disposed of, this pokemon can cause major damage.
Slowbro
~Amnesia
~Surf
~Rest
~Thunder Wave
Some say he is overrated, but he is still strong and hard to take down. It usually takes a critical hit to take it down once it Amnesia’s up. It is commonly referred to as “Tobybro”, after its creator.
Those 15 pokemon are the most commonly used and are what you must look to have counters for defensively. A team does NOT have to be comprised of six of these fifteen, but they commonly are, and will continue to be whether you like it or not J
**Take note that the movesets I have listed are merely the most common, there are many other variations; check the Smogondex for more details.
Now, I cannot tell you which six pokemon to pick, but here are things all good teams include.
· Two pokemon with a sleep inducing move
· A paralysis move on at least 3-4 pokemon
· A good balance of types and attacks
· A few fast pokemon capable of sweeping
· A fast lead, Sleepers are best
Some other important things to have are:
· A ground pokemon to take electrics
· A normal resist
· A pokemon to take Special based hits
· Lots of pokemon resistant to Psychic
Competitive Battling
Once you have fully made a team and have constructed it intelligently, it is time to battle! Here are some important techniques to apply to battle.
You Snooze, You Lose
A very important part of RBY is putting a pokemon to sleep. This should be priority #1 in most cases. This is because sleeping a pokemon essentially disables them for the remainder of the match, as you do not attack the turn you wake up, and by staying in they will often get killed.
A Paralyzed team is a Beaten team
The next step is disabling the opponents team through paralysis to set up your sweeper. It is essential to keep your main sweeper from getting paralyzed, especially someone like Tauros or Starmie, as without speed their sweeping potential goes downhill. Paralyzing your opponents sweeper is a very good sign. Chansey is possibly the only pokemon you do NOT want paralyzed, as it wants to be paralyzed. This is because then it cannot be put to sleep or worse frozen. Chansey is often sent in on a predicted Thunder Wave, and is great at absorbing paralysis once paralyzed.
**An important thing to keep in mind is that sleep should come before paralysis, as once you paralyze one pokemon, it is an easy switch in to sleep moves, and it will be extremely difficult to put a different pokemon to sleep as they can always predict you. It is important to narrow down the opponents resources.
Plan Your Attack
Always take note of your opponents team, whether it be mentally, or if your like me and forget, write it down. Once you know all your opponents resources you can plan your path to victory. It is always a good idea to not reveal your whole team, as you can toss out a surprise Tauros when your opponent least expects is and have it sweep. If you see that your opponent has a damaged starmie, paralyzed alakazam and a damaged golem, work on getting the starmie paralyzed so your tauros that you have been reserving can have a n easy sweep. It is this kind of planning that will win games.
Be Unpredictable
This is so essential if you want to be successful. People complain RBY is all luck, but there are lots of mind games to be played. If you have Starmie out on a Rhydon, Surf or Blizzard are the obvious choices, but if you think your opponent will bring in their Starmie to take the hit, use Thunderbolt, it just might pay off. This also applies to pokemon switches. If you think they will switch to Starmie, bring in your Chansey. This gives you the upper hand as they now must switch out or take damage/be paralyzed. These are important skills that are more gut feelings than anything. It is important to try and think like your opponent, and can often lead to some advantageous situations.
Accept Luck
RBY is known to be heavily influenced by luck, as critical hit rates are higher and a pokemon that is frozen does not thaw for the rest of the match. It is important to realize that luck is a two edged sword and can strike at any time. If your Chansey gets frozen, move on. Keep focus and always stick to your plan, even if the luck makes you revise it. Don’t give up, because when all looks lost, your opponent might miss that Hyper Beam, allowing you to get the comeback win.
Those are the five key elements to success in RBY battling. Master them and you WILL be successful.
General Info
Here are some general things to know about RBY that will make you better.
Standard RBY Battling Rules
~No Mewtwo or Mew
~No Tradebacks from GSC
~Sleep Clause and OHKO Clause enabled
~Evasion and OHKO moves are frowned upon
~No two pokemon of the same species
~Freeze Clause and PP ups is optional
Critical Hits:
Full Credit to Justin8649 for the information:
The Critical Hit Ratio is figured out by dividing the pokemon's base speed divided by 2 divided by 256.
[Base Speed / 2 / 256]
For example, Venusaurs base speed is 80, so (80/2)/256 = .15625 Therefore Venusaur has a 15.625% chance to get a CH for whichever move it uses.
Some moves have high Critical Hit ratios.
They are:
Karate Chop, Slash, Razor Leaf, and Crabhammer
For these moves the formula is Base Speed times 4 divided by 256.
[Base Speed * 4 / 256]
So if Venusaur used Razor Leaf we would use: 80(4)/256 which would be 1.25 which is 125%. Therefore it would always Critical Hit. But apparently there is some sort of cap, to prevent the numbers from going over 100% because that wouldn’t make sense. So the cap is 255, because they used 0-255 instead of 1-256 and then divided everything by 256. So the highest CH rate you can get is 255/256 so you can still not CH .4% of the time with Persian and Venusaur!
RBY Tiers List
Credit to Hipmonlee for this list:
Tier 1: Banned
Mewtwo
Mew
Tier 2: Mainstays For All Teams
Tauros
Snorlax
Chansey
Exeggutor
Starmie
Alakazam
Tier 3: Other Standards
Golem
Slowbro
Jynx
Lapras
Zapdos
Rhydon
Gengar
Persian
Tier 4: Borderline Standard
Venusaur
Sandslash
Clefable
Dodrio
Jolteon
Hypno
Articuno
Dragonite
Victreebel
Kangaskhan
Raichu
Cloyster
Tier 4a: Pokemon that suck in standard but are too good for uu..
Gyarados
Mr. Mime
Moltres
Tier 5: UU Pokemon. But practical in standard battles.
Charizard
Raticate
Nidoking
Ninetales
Wigglytuff
Venomoth
Dugtrio
Golduck
Tentacruel
Tangela
Pinsir
Kingler
Electrode
Nidoqueen
Machamp
Weezing
Muk
Kabutops
Arcanine
Tier 6: Pokemon mostly unuseable in standard, but good in UU.
Blastoise
Parasect
Primeape
Poliwrath
Rapidash
Magneton
Scyther
Omastar
Hitmonlee
Lickitung
Flareon
Electabuzz
Magmar
Butterfree
Arbok
Vileplume
Dewgong
Marowak
Porygon
Aerodactyl
Vaporeon
Tier 7: Pokemon that just suck.
Pidgeot
Hitmonchan
Fearow
Onix
Ditto
Seaking
Seadra
Farfetch’d
Golbat
Beedrill
The Agility Glitch
This is one of the more useful glitches in RBY. Once a pokemon is paralyzed, it speed is reduced. However, if Agility is used afterwards it nulls the speed loss, and you will have double your original speed. You still have the chance to be fully paralyzed, however.
Important Changes
Some things work differently in RBY. Here are the most important:
Special Stat: The Special Attack and Defense of a pokemon are combined into one stat, called “Special”. This makes moves like Amnesia really good as they raise both Special Attack and Special Defense.
Sleep: Pokemon do not attack the turn they wake up. Thankfully this was changed in the later versions, it is very annoying.
99.6%: This is the accuracy of all 100% moves. This can really bite you in the bum sometimes.
OHKO moves: Only work if you are faster. Not dependant on base stats.
Freeze: Pokemon do not thaw. Only a fire move will thaw a frozen pokemon.
Substitute: This move does not block status moves. Also a pokemon does not die if it used explosion on a sub. See Vineons guide for more info.
Hyper Beam: If a pokemon is KO’d with this move, there is NO recharge time.
Counter: Only counters NORMAL and FIGHTING moves.
Light Screen and Reflect: Only work on the pokemon that used it.
Blizzard: 90% accuracy makes it a formidable move.
**For a complete and detailed list, see Vineon’s RBY changes guide.
Secondary Strategy: Wrap/Fire Spin
Other than a standard team, these teams are the other type of commonly used team in tournaments. They focus on trapping moves, as they work different in RBY. Moves such as Wrap, Clamp and Fire Spin trap the opponent for 2-5 turns, making them unable to attack. They can still switch, but you will just end up switching into another Wrap, Clamp or Fire Spin. You have to hope it misses. The strategy behind these teams is to paralyze everything and to abuse these moves, as if you miss you will be faster and can just trap them again next turn. If you are facing a team like this, you need to be very careful and avoid paralysis at all costs. These teams can work very well in the right hands.
Here are some common pokemon that use this technique, other than the aforementioned Dragonite:
Cloyster
~Clamp
~Blizzard
~Explosion
~Surf
Clamp is the strongest of the trappers, but only Cloyster learns it. Clamp until weak and use either Blizzard or Surf as a finisher.
Moltres
~Fire Spin
~Agility
~Fire Blast
~Hyper Beam
This can work even if the opponents team is NOT all paralyzed, so watch out. After an Agility it outspeeds everything. And can Fire Spin appropriately. Once again KO with the appropriate finisher
Victreebel
~Sleep Powder
~Swords Dance
~Wrap
~Hyper Beam
This can get painful. Sleep Powder will force them to switch as you Swords Dance. This makes Wrap really pack a punch.
As you can see these teams are not to be underestimated and can really cause problems.
This concludes my guide. All the knowledge of how to become a great RBY battler is right here. Hopefully this will bring many new battlers to this great genre. A BIG thanks to Vineon, Justin, Hipmonlee for their previous information I was able to compile as well as to the RBY greats for making this such a competitive genre of pokemon J I hope you all will enjoy RBY as much as I do!
-Jackal
(If I forgot anything PLEASE post and let me know)