Hello, just in case some people don't know (since I don't post..) I am Cameron, your Gaming Director!
Interest has grown surrounding the competitive game that is Pokemon, so what better way to fuel it than to start a weekly tourney throughout the rest of this semester? I haven't gotten around to structuring how it will work out, but I figured that I should garner some attention first, so if anyone is interested just post here and bring your own ideas as well to making this thing better! My current plan is to switch each week according to the tiers, i.e first week overused, second week underused, and third week ubers.
We'll be using shoddy battle, which is an online simulator. It's a java based program, and you can get it from here:
www.shoddybattle.comNever played competitive Pokemon before? Unsure on how to go about building a pro team? All the advice you'll ever need is here, with a detailed analysis of
every single Pokemon in existence (and yes, I have read all of them! =D):
www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon For those who haven't played, I might go into some detail of what competitive play is like. In simple terms, you are to make a team of 6 pokemon and to battle it out with another person. However, this is much deeper than the average person would think. Your opponent is not a computer, and can and will probably think like you do (assuming the same level of intelligence). For example, is your Charizard up against an impeding Blastoise that threatens to K.O you with a Surf? Now when you play to win,
you do not stay in and click Fire Blast as you will die (if you have Substitute up, then Belly Drum away =D). You switch to your Venusaur to absorb that surf, and blast it out with an Energy Ball on the next turn. Yes, the opponent will also probably switch to his Charizard but therein lies the true beauty of competitive Pokemon;
prediction.When making a team, you have to note that they can all be classified into through three groups:
Offensive, Balanced, and Stall. Offensive teams are the easiest to make but are the riskiest to use, comprising of Pokemon that generally hit hard and fast but die equally as easily. Stall teams are really boring and should only be made once you have a thorough knowledge of the game. They are ultimately though the most successful with its goal of essentially defending the crap out of the other team until they pretty much die from using Struggle as they run out of PPs. Balanced teams are somewhere in between. As such I highly recommend on starting with an offensive team so they're the most fun to play with as well.
What makes a team stall, offensive of balanced though? It is because every Pokemon is different due to stats, type, and ability that it is so. Sweepers (i.e. Charizard) are Pokemon with high offensive stats that are designed to 'sweep' a team. They often also have 'set up' moves to enable such sweeping, like Swords Dance which doubles your attack stat to deal double damage onwards. Think about it. Tanks/Walls (i.e. Blastoise) are designed to sponge hits and to deal some damage back, acting as a pivot point for your team. A wall is just an even more defensive and offensively weaker tank. Then there's Support, Pokemon that can heal others via Leech Seed and Wish, land status with Thunder Wave/Sleep Powder, or set up residual damage through Spikes/Stealth Rock.
Like fighting games, Pokemon are given certain tiers decided largely on its popularity and usage. They are ranked
Ubers, Overused (OU), Underused (UU), and Neverused (NU). In Ubers you can choose whoever you like, in OU Ubers are banned, in UU Ubers and OU are banned, etc. That's not to say a pokemon in UU is necessarily crap, it's just that they're not as popular. Of course there are some downright bad pokemon, like Golduck, Parasect, and Wigglyftuff, hence being in NU. These can be checked out here:
www.smogon.com/dp/tiers/Oh and don't forget items! If you're unsure of what to put, leftovers is
always a good choice. The next most popular would have to be Choice items. Now while they may seem stupid as they limit you to one move and one move only until you switch out again, they're invaluable in providing the offensive grunt to breaking down that dreaded stall. I guess this would also be a good time to explain damage mechanics as well. As we all should know (seriously, better), each attacking move is assigned to a certain
base power. This is why Hydro Pump is stronger than Surf, with the former having a Base Power of 120 and the latter 95. Moves also have accuracy levels assigned to them, hence why Surf is better in the long run (usually) as the 80% accuracy (i.e. 1/5 chance of missing) is too costly at times that comes along with Hydro Pump. Anyway, this base power is
increased by a multiple of 1.5 when it is a move of the same type. This is known as
STAB (Same Type Attack Boost), and is why Fire Blast is stronger on Fire types, and less so on every other type. Choiced items work in the same way, that they increase a stat by a
multiple of 1.5. Choice Band boosts attack, Choice Specs boosts special attack, and Choice Scarf boosts speed. This is what makes the trade off of a one move limitation so worth it. Imagine using a Charizard with a Choice Specs. Let's also pretend that Sunny Day is up and that it iss also down to 1/3 or its HP for awesomeness' sake. With its ability, Blaze, all fire moves are further multiplied by another 1.5, and with Sunny Day, another 1.5X. With STAB, that's another 1.5X. With Specs, again another 1.5X. Altogether this is 1.5x1.5x1.5x1x5x120,
equaling a whopping base power total of 607.5. That's the power of more than two explosions! While this situation will hardly ever occur and its effectiveness actually depreciates in the number of turns it would have taken to set this up, never underestimate the power of Choiced items.
As you can see, there is seriously a lot to think about when playing competitive Pokemon. If you have any outstanding questions feel free to ask and I will gladly answer them. Now, join, or else I shall be very upset with the 45 minutes I took in writing this up! =\
