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The outpredicted team

obi

formerly david stone
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Imagine you have to make a team, except this team will be used in the most unusual format. Your opponent has your computer hacked so that he knows what move you're going to make. What kind of team would you make under such circumstances? What would you avoid?

I'd avoid Choice items, except perhaps on a finisher with a move that has decent coverage. Life Orb would also be dangerous, because losing 10% of your own HP while not necessarily doing that much to them (they could just switch around to resistances). Stall and Baton Pass teams appear to be the best bet. Switching it best accomplished with U-Turn and Baton Pass rather than outright switching, so you can delay your choice until it's too late.
 
When you run into a Walrein under Hail, don't you know what it's going to do, even without magic hacking? I know I have a pretty good idea. Doesn't make it any easier to take down. Sounds like a good strategy for this hypothetical situation.
 
I'd use Spikes/Stealth Rock/Toxic Spikes along with a couple of Ghosts to make it a pain for them to keep switching something in to take the attack that they know you're going to use.

Really, if they don't have a mixed sweeper, it won't be that hard for you to just keep switching back and forth between a couple of walls, not taking much damage in the process.
 
Metronome team FTW! (lol)

Jokes aside, Dugtrio would be a great asset to said team, you would not switch him in EVER, you would use it as total REVENGE, only when one of your party members has died, come in, trap and kill, hell any good player knows whats coming when Duggy Dugg Dug comes in.
 
Have 3+ Pokemon with Explosion!? Crazy! No, wait. That's one of my Shoddy teams...

Anyway, like I said before, but more general, use Pokemon that everyone knows already. They still clearly work, even though they're not surprising much anymore. Or, just mix up the items and EVs enough that you do weird damages.
 
Metronome team FTW! (lol)

Jokes aside, Dugtrio would be a great asset to said team, you would not switch him in EVER, you would use it as total REVENGE, only when one of your party members has died, come in, trap and kill, hell any good player knows whats coming when Duggy Dugg Dug comes in.
If you have Dugtrio, they're sure to plan ahead and use levitators and flying types.
 
Well, Choice items would be alright, provided that you don't use move types that have immunities, because then if they know what move you're going to make, they'll just switch over to a pokemon that's immune to that move and you'll be screwed. Although, items such as Muscle Band and Wise Glasses are much more appealing in this type of format.

I'd definitely just stick Protect on all my pokemon, so that I know what the hell the opponent is doing. Plus although I wouldn't do this in normal play, Mud Slap/Flash would be quite nice since you can at least slow down the opponent with them.

A bulky Encorer such as Shuckle would stuff set-ups and make them repeat for 4-8 turns which pretty much forces them to switch out.

Like you said Obi, U-Turn would be great, since if they know you're going to swtich, at least you're still doing some kind of damage.

Dugtrio would be quite nice in this, because it really doesn't require much prediction to use anyway and if the opponent is trapped and Duggy has something super-effective on them, there's not much they can really do about it.

That's what I've got for this topic.
 
There's quite a few pokes that have levitate or flying though..also, all they have to do is make a team that isn't weak to dugtrio. I mean, it's type coverage and base atk isn't that great. =\

But you are right about it being useful. =P
 
Imagine you have to make a team, except this team will be used in the most unusual format. Your opponent has your computer hacked so that he knows what move you're going to make. What kind of team would you make under such circumstances? What would you avoid?

I'd avoid Choice items, except perhaps on a finisher with a move that has decent coverage. Life Orb would also be dangerous, because losing 10% of your own HP while not necessarily doing that much to them (they could just switch around to resistances). Stall and Baton Pass teams appear to be the best bet. Switching it best accomplished with U-Turn and Baton Pass rather than outright switching, so you can delay your choice until it's too late.
In other words, you're in the battle tower lol.:naughty:

Seriously, seconding entry hazard spamming. Have a Dugtrio as well. Duggy will prompt fliers who get hit pretty hard by Stealth Rock.
 
Imagine you have to make a team, except this team will be used in the most unusual format. Your opponent has your computer hacked so that he knows what move you're going to make. What kind of team would you make under such circumstances? What would you avoid?
Wait a min! That's a trick question! If your opponent KNOWS what move you're going to make, then there's no way you can win. All he has to do is wait for you to make a move then make his according to yours! o_O
 
Why does Dugtrio automatically mean they're going to bring out a flyer/levitater? Doesn't it usually go Adamant to help it kill things? There's still quite a bit that can just outspeed it anyway, and then there's stuff that carries Scarf. I'd bring out my Sceptile or something to scare it off.
 
It's perfectly winnable, its just palyign against the in game AI, but they have EVs and movepools that don't suck, and will switch.


Play mixed sweeper heavy, with lots of moves that hit at least neutral, that way if they switch they're going to be taking some damage. A good revenge killer is essential, duggy and CB weavile with persuit would be good. And lead with bronzong to set up stuff, and give it a lum berry so it can't get status'd first turn to at least get up stealth rock.
 
If you think about it, you really can't win, the whole game is based around prediction, it's basically a 99% chance of winning. But I think the best thing to do really would be to use a lot of super-strong pokes and just beat them up till you die
 
Lots of U-turn, and pokemon with good resists. Hopefully you can bounce to the right pokemon each time. Basically an exercise where you need almost-perfect prediction.

I needa try this sometime. Send a text file with my team on it to my opponent, see how it goes :) Great idea.
 
Haha, I think I could still defeat my opponent even if they know my team. I have faith in my Pokemon. Now I know that you guys will say that's stupid, but yeah, faith's a part of winning sometimes.

Oh well, if they know your Pokemon, they'll be able to counter you no matter what, so, how about a Shedinja? With plenty of Pokemon that own the pants off of anything that hits the Wonder of a Pokemon that is Shedinja.
 
The best bet imo is a stall team. Most stall Pokes are predictable anyways, as far as sets go, so moves aren't that much more.

So I'd probably go along the lines of:

Blissey
Tentacruel
Hippowdon
Suicune
Skarmory
Tyranitar

Mostly everyone can predict move for move what most will do, besides Tyranitar, who is mostly there to try to kill off Ghosts who avoid Rapid Spin. Of course, you seem to miss your own ghost to block other Rapid Spinners, which can or would probably go over Suicune, but anyways, you'll wear them out. Sometimes you might just have the team advantage. Just because they know what you'll do doesn't mean they can always stop it. =[
 
If your opponent knows your every move, he would always have control of the battle.

The only way you could stand a chance is if you played luck heavy so that luck controls the battle in place of him.
 
I wonder if Obi's presenting this question because everyone knows/is using his stall team now. :P

Anyway somehow you'd have to make a game plan that you can execute under any conditions. Maybe using dependable pokemon who will act out their missions without fail. Some that come to mind are the likes of Yanmega/Ambipom-ish. Pokes, and a team, that have a specific game plan and have the speed/sturdiness to accomplish it. Focusing on damage might not be the way to go, as if you are constantly being out-predicted type-wise, the damage you can expect to deal won't be dependable.

A Pokemon like Mixed Tar who can stay in on a lot of switch ins might be really valuable near the end-game for a team whose opponent knows it inside-and-out.
 
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