Resource VGC: Ask a Simple Question, Get a Simple Answer

how often do tournaments run here? i just missed out on joining the Swiss tourney but i'd absolutely love to get in on one soon
 
how often do tournaments run here? i just missed out on joining the Swiss tourney but i'd absolutely love to get in on one soon
For the current format it tends to be one every 2.5 months ish, cause of how long they take to run. If you’re quick you might be able to ask if you can still join Swiss, by joining at 0-1 or something. Other than that there are old gen smogon vgc tournaments which are run roughly every month, other smogon format tournaments and vgc tournaments hosted regularly on sites like victory road and limitless.
 
Was Gigantamax ever usable in gen 8 VGC? If yes, which Gigantamax Pokemon had niches, which formats/regulations were they usable, and what were the niches?
 
Was Gigantamax ever usable in gen 8 VGC? If yes, which Gigantamax Pokemon had niches, which formats/regulations were they usable, and what were the niches?

To answer your first question, absolutely!

Second question, it was generally the forms whose attacks did the lasting damage after that were the most successful. They’d launch some attacks, get some passive damage for their team mates to clean up late game. Charizard, Blastoise, Coalossal, and for a time Venusaur all did this well. Another strong G Max form was Lapras, as G Max Resonance lets it set Aurora Veil regardless of weather.
 
In Reg I, why is Solgaleo usually outclassed by Ho-Oh and Lunala? What can they do that Solgaleo can't?
Solgaleo and Lunala have a lot in common, however the reason Lunala is used is nothing regulation specific. Firstly, Lunala is better offensively speaking than Solgaleo. Ghost-STAB is much more valuable and spammable than Solgaleo’s Steel-STAB. There are better Psychic-type moves on the special side (expanding force, psychic, psyshock) than on the physical side (zen headbutt, psychic fangs. Additionally, Solgaleo has no comparable coverage move to Meteor Beam, which is like a really good move and allows it to OHKO incineroar. There are options like Close Combat and Earthquake, but these have their drawbacks, and simply aren’t as strong. In terms of support, both Solgaleo and Lunala have some really good options (namely Trick Room and Wide Guard). You may be inclined to think that Solgaleo is a better abuser of these moves, as it has better defensive typing. However, Lunala has an amazing defensive ability in Shadow Shield (Clear Body is good offensively for Solgaleo as it blocks intimidate, but this just puts it on ‘level-footing’ with Lunala, who also is not vulnerable to intimidate). Shadow shield is like really really good!!! As important is the fact that Lunala is immune to Fake Out. Both these facts are important on this Pokémon specifically, as it means you are not forced to run protect, which helps with Lunala’s 4 move syndrome (when a Pokémon wants to run more than 4 moves). Solgaleo also wants to run more than 4 moves. However, it also REALLY wants to run protect, to get around Fake Out, and to avoid dying to strong double ups. If you try and think about what 4 moves you can run on Solgaleo, you are constantly running into issues. If you have to run protect, do you drop Trick Room or Wide Guard? Which offensive moves do you run? A steel move and Close Combat? That just sounds like a bad Zamazenta! A psychic move and Close Combat? That does not sound scary at all!

TLDR: Solgaleo is both worse at dealing damage and supporting its team than Lunala! It is completely outclassed.

Ho-Oh and Solgaleo aren’t really comparable Pokémon, but what I will say is that Ho-Oh is used due to the context of the meta. It has good synergy with Miraidon which I can talk about if your interested, and is a decent restricted sun abuser as a natural fire type not named Reshiram. It also helps that rock type moves are not common at all.
 
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Ho-Oh and Solgaleo aren’t really comparable Pokémon, but what I will say is that Ho-Oh is used due to the context of the meta. It has good synergy with Miraidon which I can talk about if your interested, and is a decent restricted sun abuser as a natural fire type not named Reshiram. It also helps that rock type moves are not common at all.
I asked about Ho-oh because I was talking to someone else who wanted a fairy resist, and I wanted to know why Ho-oh is usually a better fairy resist than Solgaleo.
 
Hi, I think this is the right place to ask this.

What's a good answer to Snealer in Champions Reg M-A? My team is super weak to it, and I've only been able to outplay it with smart switches and some luck.
 
In champions what would be a good guts eq partner for mega scovillain because 252+ Atk Ursaluna Earthquake vs. 252 HP / 252+ Def Scovillain-Mega: 58-70 (33.7 - 40.6%) -- guaranteed 3HKO
That's way too much damage than I'm willing to take. The ursaluna isn't even burned yet and it still does <1/3HP
 
Ursaluna isn't in Champions at the moment. You have some really limited options. Heracross and Conkeldurr are the only two options with both Guts and Earthquake, at least as far as I can think of.
 
So I've got my ass whooped like really hard in a Double ranked battle in champions. I started with a Incineroar-Ddnite to flinch and setup tailwind. Rival had Milotic and Kingambit, so intimidate buffed Both of them. Turn 3 and I clearly saw that it was lost from the start.

Simple question, how can I learn about specific counters and strategies about specific Pokemons. In this example I was like, okey I want to learn propers ways to counter Kingambit.

How can I start?
 
So I've got my ass whooped like really hard in a Double ranked battle in champions. I started with a Incineroar-Ddnite to flinch and setup tailwind. Rival had Milotic and Kingambit, so intimidate buffed Both of them. Turn 3 and I clearly saw that it was lost from the start.

Simple question, how can I learn about specific counters and strategies about specific Pokemons. In this example I was like, okey I want to learn propers ways to counter Kingambit.

How can I start?
Frankly, playing a lot. Learning type matchups, abilities, etc so that you know them by heart is a great start. This allows you to start thinking about what kinds of things beat them, what to avoid, etc. Your opponent saw you had incineroar with Intimidate, so they brought mons with abilities that work well into that. That basic thought process is all you need to start. If you want more specifics, you're probably best checking out competitive youtube channels like Wolfe, Cybertron, and James Baek. You can also ask more specific questions and we can do our best to answer those, either here on in the vgc room on pokemon showdown.
 
Hi! I'm having trouble finding some resources that I'm sure exist somewhere, but I don't know how to find them.

I feel like I need some general master list for matchups (what is good/bad against what) in the context of VGC doubles, just to familiarize myself with them. Something simple like "A beats B, B beats C and D, ...". I'm sure all experienced players already have that knowledge in their heads, but I've never seen it actually written down somewhere. Does anyone know of such resource existing anywhere?
 
Hi! I'm having trouble finding some resources that I'm sure exist somewhere, but I don't know how to find them.

I feel like I need some general master list for matchups (what is good/bad against what) in the context of VGC doubles, just to familiarize myself with them. Something simple like "A beats B, B beats C and D, ...". I'm sure all experienced players already have that knowledge in their heads, but I've never seen it actually written down somewhere. Does anyone know of such resource existing anywhere?
It is not written down anywhere (there are just too many relationships) but essentially type matchups will tell you 90% of relationships. It doesn’t help that Pokémon can be trained to win a matchup it would ordinarily lose, or that specific position can change a matchup (Mega Gengar would ordinarily beat Mega Floette, but if the Floette player has tailwind up and Mega Gengar has low HP it’s no longer the case).
 
Frankly, playing a lot. Learning type matchups, abilities, etc so that you know them by heart is a great start. This allows you to start thinking about what kinds of things beat them, what to avoid, etc. Your opponent saw you had incineroar with Intimidate, so they brought mons with abilities that work well into that. That basic thought process is all you need to start. If you want more specifics, you're probably best checking out competitive youtube channels like Wolfe, Cybertron, and James Baek. You can also ask more specific questions and we can do our best to answer those, either here on in the vgc room on pokemon showdown.
Thank you. I get it. It's amazing how different everything works in VGC format in comparison with the games in general.

And I've played a lot of doubles in battle Maison for example. But it doesn't mean shit here lmao.

Anyway. it's still a fun experience. Thanks for your time
 
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