What fundamentals should I know for competitive?

[jujii]

I finished all four regions and have made several 3/4x31s to prepare for comp. However, I realized that I don't know many fundamentals of the game. Can anyone help answer some of my following questions about team building before I waste a lot of my pokeyen breeding mons that can't go well together?

• How should I pick my team's typing?
• Is having a weather or stealth rocks/spikes pokemon necessary?
• Are there pokemon that should be specifically paired with others?
• Is it hard to win battles with non OU pokemon?
• How bad is it to have 2 mons with the same type on a team?
• How to know what to lead with?

 

For reference, right now, I have Lucario, Zoroark, Milotic, Chandelure, and Haxorus bred up to at least 3x31. How do I know if they go well together or not?

Edited December 17, 2021 by jujii

[caioxlive13]

Well, i will try to answer to you , and sugest a decent hyper offense team for OU.
 

• How should I pick my team's typing?
  
  Focus on stats, to pick decent functions for your team. 
  First, separate in Big Groups:
   - Offense: Your Attacking Mons, that will attack with great power and clean opposing team
   - Defense: Your Defensive Mons, that will hold attacks from opponent.
   - Support: Your Mons that will set someting to help team, like Screens or Defog/Rapid Spin to clean hazards.
  Second, try to select mons to accord with these groups, according to a pre-selected formation. If want a balanced, then is 3-1-2(3 offense, 1 support and 2 wall) 
  And Third, separate Individual Functions, like Revenge Killer and Pivot.
  
  If you seen that your team becomes helpless to a type, then you try to put someone that resist to it. Using the five mons that you have. You have two that are weak to fight(Lucario and Zoroark), but chandelure cover it as well. However, you have two mons that are weak to Ground(Lucario and Chandelure) and none to resist it.
• Is having a weather or stealth rocks/spikes pokemon necessary?
  
  Not in 100% of time, but some weathers will help you. Example: Your team is weak to Fire, so Rain help you.
  
  Hazards, better use only Stealth Rock to break sash, but if want, can use others.
  
   
• Are there pokemon that should be specifically paired with others?
  
  Well, these combos can be over well, depending of case. Example: Chansey + Darmanitan , is a Extremelly good combo, that you heal bell and wish to help darmanitan to use your 140 Base Atk, if well trained: 200+ Atk, 300+ with Choice Band, to sweep.
   
• Is it hard to win battles with non OU pokemon?
  
  Yes, but it's not impossible. Cucco Productions make this frequently, it's rare see him using a team that accord with tier.
   
• How bad is it to have 2 mons with the same type on a team?
  
  You keep weak to one type. Example: a Fighting Monotype is Clearly weak to Flying and Psychic. so, anyone that have attack with this types can be a trouble.
   
• How to know what to lead with?
  
  This accord to your style of game and which mons you use.
  
  If you're cautelous, then put a wall first, trying to "predict" which mon your opponent could use.
  If you're free spirited, and like a good ofensive pressure, then put a Stronger mon of your Lead.
  If like screen, your screener is the first member to enter.
  
  
  The Hyper Offense team:
  
  Rotom - Supporter, you use to Clean Hazards.
  Set: Hidden Power Ice(Rotom Defoger doesn't have this, so it's good to suprise garchomps.)/Volt Switch/Hydro Pump/Defog.
  Item: Leftovers
  Darmanitan - Physical Attacker. Set: Flare Blitz/Rock Slide/U-turn/Superpower .
  Item: Choice Scarf or Choice Band
  Mienshao - Physical Attacker.
  Set: U-Turn/Close Combat(DO NOT USE High Jump Kick, better don't depend of RNG broken of game.)/Rock Slide/Fake Out .
  Item: Life Orb 
  Ability: Regenerator
  Hydreigon - Special Attacker.
  Set: Dragon Pulse/Dark Pulse/Surf/Flamethrower .
  Item: Choice Specs, Choice Scarf, Leftovers or Life Orb
  Gengar - Special Attacker.
  Set: Sludge Bomb/Shadow Ball/Focus Miss(Focus Blast) or Nasty Plot/Thunderbolt .
  Item: Black Sludge or Focus Sash
  Chansey - Supporter.
  Set: Wish/Protect/Seismic Toss or Psywave/Heal Bell .
  Item: Eviolite.
  Ability: Serene Grace
  
  Spreads:
  
  IV: 
  
  x = Doesn't Matter
  31 = Better 31
  0 = Leave the most close of 0 possible
  
  EV: 
  252 = MAX
  0 = Don't train
  4 = Train a Little if you want.
  
  Rotom - Nature Bold
  IV: 31/0/31/31/31/x
  EV: 252/0/252/4/0/0
  Darmanitan - Nature Jolly(or if you want to use Scarf, Adamant)
  IV: 31/31/x/x/x/31
  EV: 4/252/0/0/0/252
  Mienshao - Nature Jolly
  IV: 31/31/x/x/x/31
  EV: 4/252/0/0/0/252
  Hydreigon - Nature Timid
  IV: 31/0/x/31/x/31
  EV: 4/0/0/252/0/252
  Gengar - Nature Timid
  IV: 31/0/x/31/x/31
  EV: 4/0/0/252/0/252
  Chansey - Nature Bold
  IV: 31/0/31/31/31/x
  EV: 252/0/252/4/0/0
  
  Order of IV and EV: HP/Atk/Def/Sp. Atk/Sp. Def/Speed
  
   
• Answering some questions about Hyper Offense team:
  
  - Why 0 Atk on some mons like Rotom and Chansey?
   This is for minimize Foul Play damage and damage from Hitting themselves in confusion. Moves that cause confusion and Foul play, aren't too common in High Ladder, only in UU you can see some umbreons with Foul Play, but tiers have Low Ladder, and don't expect nothing that make sense from him.
  
  - What i should do with chansey, without Toxic/Thunder Wave?
  When you found time to this, use wish , then switch into Darmanitan, to heal him. You can heal chansey if needed(Only use protect, except if opponent have a mon that clearly have a buff move(Example: Swords Dance, Hone Claws, Dragon Dance, Bulk Up, Nasty Plot or Quiver Dance.).
  
  - What i should do with the rest of IVs that you marked with x?
  If you have money, try to leave him above 20, except someones like Sp. Atk on Mienshao and Darmanitan. Some mons are so paper(Paper mon = Mon with low defenses) that on him, 31 on defense and special defense, didn't make any difference. The mons that are the most paper from OU acttually are:
  1° - Darmanitan - 55 defense and 55 Special Defense.
  2° - Infernape and Mienshao (Tied) 60 defense and Special Defense
  3° - Lucario - 70 defense and 70 Special defense

Edited January 5, 2022 by caioxlive13

[JeanMarc]

Alright, I'm going to answer all of those questions fairly quickly:

 

How should I pick my team's typing?

You shouldn't really be picking based on typing, and more based on roles. Whether you're picking something to be able to take hits from a certain Pokemon, or to be able to pressure a certain Pokemon, or as a win condition by being able to set up and sweep. Your goal with your 6 is to cover as much as you can.

 

Is having a weather or stealth rocks/spikes pokemon necessary?

Neither are technically necessary, but here's what you lose out on when you give up on both options:

-If you don't run weather, it means that if your opponent is running weather, you have to endure whatever they've got in that weather. While you can build your team around that, a lot of the time, especially against rain, it will give you a hard time to take on the pressure.

-When you have entry hazards, it means that you will receive punishment for switching through passive damage. Not running entry hazards means that your opponent can switch comfortably to a Pokemon that can take hits from your pretty well without really getting any consequences for it. It means that your stall matchup will be quite worse.

 

Are there pokemon that should be specifically paired with others?

Short answer: yes, weather abusers pretty much always have to be run with weather setters.

 

How bad is it to have 2 mons with the same type on a team?

If they properly fill roles that your team needs, then it's not a big deal.

 

How to know what to lead with?

It usually comes with experience.

 

Is it hard to win battles with non OU pokemon?

Most of the time, Pokemon are OU because they fill very useful roles, and are the best at doing the role they're filling. Some Pokemon under OU can fill a specific role well even if it isn't OU, but most of the time, it's going to be worse at the same role as an OU Pokemon, or the role it can fill isn't useful or needed in the tier.

 

If you want to have a good idea of what works together and what doesn't, watch high rank ladder games or replays from past tournaments in-game, and try to see what they use together and try to understand the reasoning for their decisions. If you start to understand, teambuilding becomes much easier.

[Paul]

The largest mistake I see newer PvP players have is understanding what they're trying to accomplish when they're playing. Adding on to what others have said, PvP is not about taking 6 strong pokemon and trying to power your way through the tier, each pokemon on your team is there to fill a specific role, counter a specific threat in the tier, or support the pokemon you built your team around.

 

For me, I like to take 1 Pokemon that I want to win with and use the other 5 slots as ways to open opportunities for that Pokemon. For example, if I want to win using a Swords Dance Scizor, I need to build the rest of my team to account for what Scizor struggles to deal with in OU. To answer some of your questions, I'll use SD Scizor as my example and explain why some of your questions are so important.

 

-- This is not a team I've actually used, just an example of how to build around one Pokemon. This team has flaws and Is something I just came up with while writing this.

 

For starters, besides just breaking focus sash and punishing switches as others correctly mentioned, entry hazards are extremely useful for giving your 'win condition' the opportunity to sweep. For example, I know a +2 Scizor deals 65-75% damage to Garchomp with Bullet Punch. This means in order for my plan to work, I need to guarantee Garchomp is below 75% before I can safely setup with Scizor, and entry hazards can help with that immensely. Scizor also has a near impossible matchup against Skarmory and Cofagrigus depending on your moveset, so I need to take that into account while building my team. I could add a Magnezone to trap Skarmory/Scizor/Ferrothorn, a Pelipper+Kingdra to guarantee I have options against Scizor's 4x weakness to fire, a Hydreigon to force Cofagrigus to switch out and prevent other defensive threats from healing using Taunt, etc. Those other slots are all built to give Scizor the best possible chance of winning with Sword Dance, and every move I make during a game will be me calculating how I can make Scizor's sweep easier. Addressing your question about what to lead with, if you have a clear goal (in this case it's SD Scizor) you should (with experience) be able to identify what threatens your strategy the most & what you need to keep healthy during the course of the game and what you need to kill. Hypothetically, if my opponent has a Skarmory and Volcarona, I know I need to keep my Magnezone/Pelipper/Kingdra healthy in order to support Scizor, so I'll have to lead with whatever I chose as my last 2 Pokemon. (This does vary game-to-game, as Pelipper is a great lead in some matchups but struggles if there's a Rotom or certain other threats)

 

Building around 1 Pokemon isn't the only way to play, as this is close to the 'balance' playstyle. Hyper offense, bulky offense, stall, and others can be built in different ways giving you multiple different ways to win. However that requires you to identify what your win condition is based on your opponent's team, and that's rather difficult for a new player. I'd choose one Pokemon you like and try to build a team using the other 5 slots to support it, and look through the usage stats along with matchmaking/tournament games to get a better understanding of what that Pokemon needs help dealing with. On top of this, I personally have never built a team that never needed adjustments. Whether it's changing an item, a move, or an entire Pokemon, you should be adjusting your team multiple times before it's 'perfect' so don't feel down on yourself if you build something that doesn't seem to work. The first rain team I built on PokeMMO only has 3/6 of the same Pokemon as my current rain team has.

 

I tried to cover most of the basics but 2 other things I forgot to mention; EVs and IVs.

 

A lot of Pokemon are fine with 252/252/6 EVs, but you should always ask yourself if there are unneeded EVs in one place, or missing EVs in another. Continuing with the Scizor example, my first SD Scizor had very little speed, and I quickly found out that Milotic's Scald burn killed any chance I had of setting up if I played against one, so I tried a Scizor with 116 HP/252 Attack/140 Speed to guarantee I outspeed uninvested Milotic, among other things, and found more success. (I don't recall if 140 was the exact speed but you get the point) With IVs, I highly recommend against going full 4/5x31 to start. As I mentioned, you should be adjusting your team and switching out Pokemon numerous times. This can become very pricey if you don't have the funds to breed 20+ perfect Pokemon, so I recommend going for 2x31 3x25+, putting the 2 31's in the most important stats. A Kingdra with 27/0/27/31/27/31 will be nearly identical to a 5x31 while saving you hundreds of thousands of dollars. Once you know what Pokemon work well, you can sell the current variant and upgrade to perfect breeds from there.

 

I hope you read this and came out a little bit smarter but there really is a lot to cover and I tried to fit in everything I could without writing you a book.