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Glen-i

Getting into Competitive Pokémon

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Just now, Glen-i said:

Welp, guess you can't! Which is weird. Don't see why that'd be a bad thing to just battle someone

Gonna have to call it off, @RedShell. Sorry. I'm up for some raiding though.

Yeah, very strange design choice that.

OK, I’ll join for some raid battles.

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Why are stall teams so popular? Can't be that fun to play. Funny when you out-stall them though.

Forgot to max a last minute substitutions Dynamx level. :blank: Won a few games anyway.

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11 minutes ago, Ike said:

Why are stall teams so popular? Can't be that fun to play. Funny when you out-stall them though.

Ugh... Tell me about it. Ferrothorn is the only reason I decided to run a Charizard for this, because I knew it'd show up a lot.

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@Glen-i I gave your rental team a try, first match didn't go so well. A Galarian Corsola wiped the entire team, didn't even get to see the other 2 Pokemon the opponent had. It kept using this move which drained my attack and replenished its health. Its ability disabled my moves too. Not sure if there's anything I could've done to counter it?

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27 minutes ago, Mandalore said:

Not sure if there's anything I could've done to counter it?

I believe Ghost type moves are the best way to deal with Corsola, especially Dynamaxed. That’s usually what kills my one at least. :heh: 

But yeah, Corsola can be pretty horrible to battle. With the right setup/tactics it’s incredibly OP.

Anyway, I just had a really long and entertaining battle which I’m almost certain has resulted in some Japanese person destroying their Switch! :laughing: It came down to my Shuckle vs their Umbreon and it was a back and forth of poisoning and healing until they ran out of PP. Must have been infuriating. :D 

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10 hours ago, Mandalore said:

@Glen-i I gave your rental team a try, first match didn't go so well. A Galarian Corsola wiped the entire team, didn't even get to see the other 2 Pokemon the opponent had. It kept using this move which drained my attack and replenished its health. Its ability disabled my moves too. Not sure if there's anything I could've done to counter it?

Wait, did you bring that team to the Battle Tower or an online match?

Edited by Glen-i

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10 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Wait, did you bring that team to the Battle Tower or an online match?

Oh, I was standing in the battle tower but playing online. The first guy I spoke to in the tower told me to access Vs from the menu.

I'll give it another try tonight.

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On 09/12/2019 at 7:24 AM, Mandalore said:

Oh, I was standing in the battle tower but playing online. The first guy I spoke to in the tower told me to access Vs from the menu.

I'll give it another try tonight.

Yeah, that team was not built for online battles at all!

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Collected my 50 BP for entering the competition. Were there any additional rewards for achieving a high rank? I only managed a rating of 1504. :heh: 

@Glen-i, how did you do?

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1 hour ago, RedShell said:

Collected my 50 BP for entering the competition. Were there any additional rewards for achieving a high rank? I only managed a rating of 1504. :heh: 

@Glen-i, how did you do?

Hah, I came 1501. I only ended up playing on the Friday.

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11 hours ago, RedShell said:

Collected my 50 BP for entering the competition. Were there any additional rewards for achieving a high rank? I only managed a rating of 1504. :heh: 

@Glen-i, how did you do?

No, there's nothing extra for placing high. That seems to be a ranked battles thing.

I think I was around 1520-ish when I finished. Haven't checked though. I don't like Singles much. The game (and my team) is clearly balanced more around Doubles, you get more imaginative teams there thanks to the wide variety of moves and strategies that it provides.

That said, I'll be finally able to actually use the team I raised in exhibition battles and max raids now.

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This is a really useful guide. Thanks for putting together. 

I have played Pokemon since the start yet have never done competitive battling. One thing I’ve found in Sword and Shield battling (not from personal experience, just watching YouTube) is that people seem to favour Pokemon who have interesting abilities. 
There’s lots of Pokemon who need to know protect, light screen, baton pass, trick room - all the moves I don’t think twice about replacing or not letting my Pokemon learn. :D

For the main game, they’re generally not needed, but I’m learning more about why they are beneficial in competitive battling.

The EV / IV stats have always been confusing to me, but they make more sense now after reading the attached. 
Im going to spend some time breeding (caught a Ditto last night) to get some Pokemon with moves that can only be learned this way. I also want to breed to gain abilities - but is this possible? 
 

If I am breeding a Pokemon with a certain ability with a Ditto, will the child have the same ability or could it gain the Pokemon’s other ability? If that makes sense. So if I want Whimsicott to have Prankster but the one I’m breeding has Infiltrator, will the child naturally be born with Infiltrator, or is it assigned one of those abilities at random?  
 

I am quite excited to give it a go! 

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3 hours ago, Aneres11 said:

 

Im going to spend some time breeding (caught a Ditto last night) to get some Pokemon with moves that can only be learned this way. I also want to breed to gain abilities - but is this possible? 
 

If I am breeding a Pokemon with a certain ability with a Ditto, will the child have the same ability or could it gain the Pokemon’s other ability? If that makes sense. So if I want Whimsicott to have Prankster but the one I’m breeding has Infiltrator, will the child naturally be born with Infiltrator, or is it assigned one of those abilities at random?  
 

I am quite excited to give it a go! 

Abilities are random, but you can change it using an Ability Capsule which you can buy using BP which you get from either battling online or via the Battle Tower.

This doesn't apply to Hidden Ability which can be passed down and has it''s own set of rules which I don't remember but it's not guaranteed, and you can't use an Ability Capsule to get.

I find a lot of gen 8 'mons don't really have any egg moves worth passing down. 

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Very cool @Glen-i, I might give it a serious try (again) this generation. Tried so with USUM and ended up with a somewhat balanced Alolan Ninetales, Garchomp and Golisopod team. But the competitive fighting scene still didn’t fully click with me, the level of competition is so high, it’s almost scary. 
 

If I’m going for it, I want to build a team with one or more unexpected & underused Pokemon. I like to surprise opponents with underused teams and tactics. Any suggestions? :)

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12 hours ago, markderoos said:

If I’m going for it, I want to build a team with one or more unexpected & underused Pokemon. I like to surprise opponents with underused teams and tactics. Any suggestions? :)

The thing is with underused Pokémon is that they tend to be underused for a reason. Normally, there's another Pokémon available that does the role better.

That said, remember that when we talk about tiers, people are normally referring to Smogon, which focuses entirely on Singles format. If you want to play the unexpected Pokémon card, you might have more success in doubles. You'd be amazed how often people ignore the less popular Pokémon because they're not seen as much of a threat, only to get blindsided by it. Did this all the time with Buzzwole last generation. 2019's World Champion used a Togedemaru to similar effect.

I also used a Hawlucha back then as well, specifically one with the unburden ability. Sent it out with a Tapu Koko's Electric Terrain and used an electric seed to boost it's defense and activate that same ability.

Of course, Tapu Koko isn't in Sword and Shield, so you either have to rely on a Dynamax electric move or have a Pincurchin with Electric Surge instead.

Edited by Glen-i

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On 06/01/2020 at 7:23 AM, Glen-i said:

The thing is with underused Pokémon is that they tend to be underused for a reason. Normally, there's another Pokémon available that does the role better.

Yep, this is the unfortunate truth. As someone that likes and frequently uses unpopular Pokémon, I have lost many battles as a result of having an underpowered or defensively weak team. :( 

It’s a shame, but in order to have any kind of prolonged success in competitive battles you basically have no choice but to make use of the top tier Pokémon.

I’ve recently been breeding/training up more and more of these Pokémon, and while there’s no doubt I’m able to win more consistently with them, it’s just not as fun as using my “cute ’til I die” teams. :D 

I’m pretty sure nobody will agree with me on this, but I actually think the entire training and battle system could do with a bit of a reboot. Make it so the stats aren’t set in stone, that any Pokémon in the game could somehow become competitively viable.

The problem with everything being so mathematical and precise as it is now, is that the game loses the element of surprise, it forces the majority of players down the same path. 

I have no idea how, or if, it could even be done, but if it was possible to have a more organic and variable system in place, whereby people couldn’t simply go on a website and see exactly what stats or moves a certain Pokémon has, I think the battles would be far more interesting and entertaining.

But anyway, speaking of mathematical precision... :p 

Does anyone know how this game determines the outcome of a battle when both players are down to their last Pokémon and the time runs out?

I was in such a battle recently, where it ended up as Toxapex vs Toxapex and neither one of us could really do anything. :heh: When the countdown ended it said that I’d won, which didn’t really seem fair but I’ll take it. :grin: Or did it perhaps say the same thing to my opponent?

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47 minutes ago, RedShell said:

Yep, this is the unfortunate truth. As someone that likes and frequently uses unpopular Pokémon, I have lost many battles as a result of having an underpowered or defensively weak team. :( 

It’s a shame, but in order to have any kind of prolonged success in competitive battles you basically have no choice but to make use of the top tier Pokémon.

I’ve recently been breeding/training up more and more of these Pokémon, and while there’s no doubt I’m able to win more consistently with them, it’s just not as fun as using my “cute ’til I die” teams. :D 

I’m pretty sure nobody will agree with me on this, but I actually think the entire training and battle system could do with a bit of a reboot. Make it so the stats aren’t set in stone, that any Pokémon in the game could somehow become competitively viable.

The problem with everything being so mathematical and precise as it is now, is that the game loses the element of surprise, it forces the majority of players down the same path. 

I have no idea how, or if, it could even be done, but if it was possible to have a more organic and variable system in place, whereby people couldn’t simply go on a website and see exactly what stats or moves a certain Pokémon has, I think the battles would be far more interesting and entertaining.

But anyway, speaking of mathematical precision... :p 

Does anyone know how this game determines the outcome of a battle when both players are down to their last Pokémon and the time runs out?

I was in such a battle recently, where it ended up as Toxapex vs Toxapex and neither one of us could really do anything. :heh: When the countdown ended it said that I’d won, which didn’t really seem fair but I’ll take it. :grin: Or did it perhaps say the same thing to my opponent?

Yeah, it sucks seeing the same Pokémon in online all the time.

It goes by who had the most HP left.

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1 minute ago, Ike said:

It goes by who had the most HP left.

You know what, I’m pretty sure we both had full HP when it ended though. :D

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1 minute ago, RedShell said:

You know what, I’m pretty sure we both had full HP when it ended though. :D

Oh, I have no idea then. ::shrug:

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18 hours ago, RedShell said:

You know what, I’m pretty sure we both had full HP when it ended though. :D

 

18 hours ago, Ike said:

Oh, I have no idea then. ::shrug:

I'm not entirely certain on this, but you might have won because you had more of "Your Time" left than the opponent.

Either that, or you actually did have more HP, as in your Toxapex had more HP EV's/IV's than your opponent.

I'm gonna try and give @Serebii a shout, because if anyone knows...

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1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

 

I'm not entirely certain on this, but you might have won because you had more of "Your Time" left than the opponent.

Either that, or you actually did have more HP, as in your Toxapex had more HP EV's/IV's than your opponent.

I'm gonna try and give @Serebii a shout, because if anyone knows...

They must use the percentage otherwise that wouldn't work, Pokémon with higher base HP stats would always win.

I'd say it probably was the timer.

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15 hours ago, Dcubed said:

Oh no... The Genies are coming back!

Boy, if you think adding 200-ish old Pokémon would help diversify the competitive scene, you are all dead wrong.

No genies was the one silver lining to the Pokédex cut. I'm not happy about them returning.

Anyway, this is obligatory.

5a8.jpg

It was rarer to see a match where someone didn't have those exact Pokémon.

Edited by Glen-i
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Next online competition has been announced.

galarnewcomers.jpg

It's a Doubles Format that, as the name suggests, only allows Pokémon that were introduced in Sword and Shield. Zacian, Zamazenta and Eternatus are banned still.
This also allows for Pokémon that got a Galarian Form, so you can use Pokémon like Corsola. The competition starts on the 31st of January, so get your team registered before then. You get 50 BP for completing one match.

I have a few Galarian Pokémon ready to go, but not a full team, so I'm gonna have to work on that.

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