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Glen-i

Getting into Competitive Pokémon

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So I went ahead with my first competitive battle (double battle) after spending an age getting a team together! 

I won! And then proceeded to lose the next one due to a really annoying team of a Corsola and Corviknight which kept using roost whilst the Corsola lowered my attack and healed itself with some move of some sort. 

I knocked out its Ferrorthorn which it Dynamaxed with my Malamar, but as soon as it got into its healing and status lowering it was game over. I didn't have a Pokémon with a super effective move sadly so I had no chance. 

Still, live and learn an all that! 

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8 hours ago, Aneres11 said:

So I went ahead with my first competitive battle (double battle) after spending an age getting a team together! 

I won! And then proceeded to lose the next one due to a really annoying team of a Corsola and Corviknight which kept using roost whilst the Corsola lowered my attack and healed itself with some move of some sort. 

I knocked out its Ferrorthorn which it Dynamaxed with my Malamar, but as soon as it got into its healing and status lowering it was game over. I didn't have a Pokémon with a super effective move sadly so I had no chance. 

Still, live and learn an all that! 

Ah yes, Corsola's Strength Sap is a move that both lowers the target's attack and heals Corsola by whatever number the attack stat of the opponent is. So essentially, if you're using a strong physical attacker, you're gonna really struggle.

It works both ways though, use a Pokémon with rubbish attack and Corsola won't be able to heal as much. For that reason, good counters tend to be strong special attackers such as Hydreigon or Gengar or tanky Pokémon that can use Toxic like Toxapex.

Fighting Corviknight is a lot more straight forward. Special based Fire and Electric Pokémon ruin it and if you can get a burn or paralysis on it, all the better. If your Pokémon is actually slower than Corviknight, you can take advantage of it using roost and smack it with a Ground or Fighting type attack whenever it tries to pull a roost.

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Wow. I am terrible at competitive Pokémon. 

Either that or people are just much better. Probably a bit of both. 

I must have got lucky in my first match last night. :D

People just seem to have a response to every Pokémon move, combo stat change the lot. Takes the fun out of it. :p

I might throw the towel in haha. 

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8 hours ago, Aneres11 said:

Wow. I am terrible at competitive Pokémon. 

Either that or people are just much better. Probably a bit of both. 

I must have got lucky in my first match last night. :D

People just seem to have a response to every Pokémon move, combo stat change the lot. Takes the fun out of it. :p

I might throw the towel in haha. 

What's your team consist of? And what moves do they have? I might be able to give a few pointers.

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1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

What's your team consist of? And what moves do they have? I might be able to give a few pointers.

Will post it up later when I get in from work. 

I don't think it's a strong team. I have no real strategy. 

Someone used a Rhyperior last night and Dynamaxed it - I had Dynamaxed my Malamar who had already had a sharp increase in its attack due to its ability and Brick Break and when I used the dynamax fighting move against Rhyperior it did virtually nothing.

 

Does that thing have crazy high defence or something? I wouldn't mind but it was a rank one casual match!! 

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7 minutes ago, Aneres11 said:

Will post it up later when I get in from work. 

I don't think it's a strong team. I have no real strategy. 

Someone used a Rhyperior last night and Dynamaxed it - I had Dynamaxed my Malamar who had already had a sharp increase in its attack due to its ability and Brick Break and when I used the dynamax fighting move against Rhyperior it did virtually nothing.

 

Does that thing have crazy high defence or something? I wouldn't mind but it was a rank one casual match!! 

Have you faffed about with EV trained on your Pokemon? I imagine most who are entering competitive battles, even at the lower end, have probably maxed the stats of their Pokemon. Even more so now that it's stupidly easy to do thanks to the exploits the game has.

Edited by Hero-of-Time

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Just now, Hero-of-Time said:

Have you faffed about with EV trained on your Pokemon? I imagine most who are entering competitive battles, even at the lower end, have probably maxed the stats of their Pokemon. Even more so now that it's stupidly easy to do thanks to the exploits the game has.

Yup did all of that goodness. 

I haven't done the breed for nature thing, which could help but it's just so long winded. I may have to though if I want to be serious. 

People just seem to be really clever with their teams though. I've been really impressed at some of the movesets in double battles and how certain Pokémon pair together well. It's made me sit there and think "why didn't I think of that" :D

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21 minutes ago, Aneres11 said:

Yup did all of that goodness. 

I haven't done the breed for nature thing, which could help but it's just so long winded. I may have to though if I want to be serious. 

People just seem to be really clever with their teams though. I've been really impressed at some of the movesets in double battles and how certain Pokémon pair together well. It's made me sit there and think "why didn't I think of that" :D

It's why i've never bothered with the competitive scene. Moves which I find useless turn out to be pretty viable in these types of battles. I hate all the Pokemon switching that goes on in these things and my method of getting rid of things like stat boosting moves and going for all out attack would get torn apart by those who are in the know. I'm quite content in just destroying the AI within the game with my method. That's good enough for me. :p  

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1 hour ago, Aneres11 said:

Someone used a Rhyperior last night and Dynamaxed it - I had Dynamaxed my Malamar who had already had a sharp increase in its attack due to its ability and Brick Break and when I used the dynamax fighting move against Rhyperior it did virtually nothing.

 

Does that thing have crazy high defence or something? I wouldn't mind but it was a rank one casual match!! 

Not only does Rhyperior have insane Defense, it also has an ability called Solid Rock that lowers the damage it takes from Super Effective moves. So that Fighting move might have only been doing 50% extra damage instead of double the damage.

Although I can't be certain it would have that ability. Lightning Rod is also a fine ability for Rhyperior in double battles.

Combine that with the fact that Dynamax temporarily doubles HP and you've got a veritable brick wall. The obvious strategy would be to use Special Water or Grass moves, but you have to be careful there. If a Rhyperior is running an Assault Vest and gets a Sandstorm going, it's Special Defense will actually be higher than it's Defense.

I've tricked a lot of people last generation with that particular strategy.

When you say Rank 1 Casual Matches, do you mean the Casual Battles or Ranked Battles? Casual Battles don't have any form of ranking, so you could get matched up with anyone. And any Pokémon is allowed there. So you're going to see a lot of Legendaries be used.

Ranked Battles are much more likely to pair you up with someone more your level as it looks for people who are at the same rank as you. A lot of the crazy good players have probably progressed to the higher ranks by now.

Don't be too disheartened. You'll just need to tweak your team a bit. No-one makes a great team on their first attempt.

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11 hours ago, Aneres11 said:

Wow. I am terrible at competitive Pokémon. 

You are not alone. :heh: I actually seem to be getting worse too, can’t even get out of Poké Ball tier this season! :shakehead

I’ve switched back to using some of the rental teams now as I tend do a bit better (or just have more luck) when using them. I’d recommend trying that for a while if you’re really struggling with your own Pokémon teams.

53 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

It's why i've never bothered with the competitive scene. Moves which I find useless turn out to be pretty viable in these types of battles. I hate all the Pokemon switching that goes on in these things and my method of getting rid of things like stat boosting moves and going for all out attack would get torn apart by those who are in the know. I'm quite content in just destroying the AI within the game with my method. That's good enough for me. :p  

Yeah, I pretty much never use status moves as it usually backfires and then feels like I just wasted an opportunity to attack (or defend), which would’ve been more beneficial. ::shrug: Am always impressed (and annoyed :laughing:) by how some people are able to incorporate them so well, but strategy and tactics have never been my strong point. And with the sheer amount of variables in Pokémon now, it’s basically mission impossible for someone with my attention span/memory to be good at the game anyway. :hehe: 

I still enjoy it though, so it’s all good. :) 

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I'm going to get a different team going tonight (or start to) and try and go from there. 

You've all made me feel better so thanks! I am definitely adding a Rhyperior to my team though - sounds insane in the right set up! 

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43 minutes ago, Aneres11 said:

I am definitely adding a Rhyperior to my team though - sounds insane in the right set up! 

My recommendation for the ability is dependant on the format. If you're doing Single Battles, definitely go for Solid Rock. If you're doing Doubles, consider whether you want to go for Lightning Rod instead, just be careful not to have Rhyperior's teammate rely on Electric moves, otherwise Rhyperior will just absorb your own Pokémon's moves and that's no good.

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I finally made it back to Great Ball rank on single battles. And I owe it all to the tough rental team, specifically that sandstorm hippo thing. :heh: Man, that Pokémon is nuts! :o Seems to be a good counter to a lot of the popular choices in singles too. 

Think I’m going to have to try and catch/breed one of those for my own team soon. :hehe:

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6 minutes ago, RedShell said:

I finally made it back to Great Ball rank on single battles. And I owe it all to the tough rental team, specifically that sandstorm hippo thing. :heh: Man, that Pokémon is nuts! :o Seems to be a good counter to a lot of the popular choices in singles too. 

Think I’m going to have to try and catch/breed one of those for my own team soon. :hehe:

This guy?

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31 minutes ago, RedShell said:

I finally made it back to Great Ball rank on single battles. And I owe it all to the tough rental team, specifically that sandstorm hippo thing. :heh: Man, that Pokémon is nuts! :o Seems to be a good counter to a lot of the popular choices in singles too. 

Think I’m going to have to try and catch/breed one of those for my own team soon. :hehe:

Didn't expect Hippowdon to work well. Tyranitar is normally the go-to Pokémon for Sandstorm Silliness.

Probably threw a lot of people off just by it showing up. Which is always great.

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1 hour ago, Glen-i said:

Didn't expect Hippowdon to work well. Tyranitar is normally the go-to Pokémon for Sandstorm Silliness.

Probably threw a lot of people off just by it showing up. Which is always great.

Could’ve just been luck too (quite a lot of this game is IMO) but funnily enough I actually did manage see off at least a couple of Tyranitar with the tough hippo team as well. :grin: 

Anyway, something interesting about the in-game rental teams is that absolutely none of the Pokémon on them have a beneficial nature. :hmm: Looking at the stats they all appear to be EV trained in the standard way, but every single one of them has a neutral nature.

Wonder what’s up with that? :blank:

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54 minutes ago, RedShell said:

Wonder what’s up with that? :blank:

Probably to encourage people to build their own team.

Anyway, my Galar Only Team is ready for the Online Competition in over two weeks time. I'd like to take them for a test spin, so would anyone be up for a doubles battle sometime after the Smash Livestream?

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4 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Probably to encourage people to build their own team.

That make sense I guess. Doesn’t really encourage me though, as I tend to do better with the rental teams anyway! :laughing:
 

7 minutes ago, Glen-i said:

Anyway, my Galar Only Team is ready for the Online Competition in over two weeks time. I'd like to take them for a test spin, so would anyone be up for a doubles battle sometime after the Smash Livestream?

Don’t really have my specific team ready for that yet, but if you don’t mind facing a team that’s potentially outside of the competition ruleset then I’m up for that.

Just keep in mind that it probably won’t be much of a test. :hehe: 
I won’t be offended if you’d rather wait for a challenge from a competent Pokémon trainer instead. :heh: 

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Just now, RedShell said:

That make sense I guess. Doesn’t really encourage me though, as I tend to do better with the rental teams anyway! :laughing:
 

Don’t really have my specific team ready for that yet, but if you don’t mind facing a team that’s potentially outside of the competition ruleset then I’m up for that.

Just keep in mind that it probably won’t be much of a test. :hehe: 
I won’t be offended if you’d rather wait for a challenge from a competent Pokémon trainer instead. :heh: 

Nah, it's fine. Didn't expect most people to be ready for that.

How about 3-ish?

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Absolutely sick of seeing Dragapult. 

Every single person uses it. Bore off. 

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3 minutes ago, Aneres11 said:

Absolutely sick of seeing Dragapult. 

Every single person uses it. Bore off. 

Yeah, I’m always amazed on the super rare occasion that I don’t encounter one in ranked battles.

Hopefully at least some of the future competitions will ban it. :heh: 

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31 minutes ago, RedShell said:

Yeah, I’m always amazed on the super rare occasion that I don’t encounter one in ranked battles.

Hopefully at least some of the future competitions will ban it. :heh: 

Just gonna get an Avalugg and throw that out against one :D. 

But then they'd probably have some sort of stat reducing move that turns me -6 stages and knock me out with a single tackle or something. Lol. 

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I finished my in-game team's stats+moves, well I'm sure I'll tweak it, but anyway I had a few casual online battles. Won two with a bit of luck, and lost three others, barely denting the opponent's team lol.

I don't have much competitive experience, and I've quickly learnt that a team of sweepers doesn't cut it, so I definitely need to add some strategy to my team, and figure out how to counter stuff that's currently destroying my team. xD

I happend to encounter and catch a shiny 5 star Runerigus  in a Max Raid the other day, so I might raise it to set up Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes.

Edited by Sckewi

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