Poll of the Day > Is there a hidden side to Pokemon battling I don't know about?

(+) Yeah! (+)

i was just under the impression the best thing you can do for the meta game is just go onto Smogon, figure out the best move sets and EV spreads for a particular Pokemon, give your Pokemon the best IVs, and youre all set for battle.

but now I see people talking about trick room teams, this team, that team. Set up sweepers, wall breakers, etc.

I was gonna go online and just battle people for the fun of it but if everybodys gonna have these way advanced strategies I will stand no chance lol.

How do you get into this advanced level of battling? And is literally everybody online into this kind of shit?

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Team synergy is VERY important. It isn't all about strong attackers. I mean it will get you far, but building a team that works together will get you further.

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But how do you even know what to build around?

for example Im in the battle tower - have three Pokemon: gyarados, arcanine, and ludicolo.

botj gyarados and arcanine come in with an intimidate, theyre max speed and attack in terms of EVs and IVs.

but Im guessing my rain dance ludicolo doesnt have synergy with arcanine cos flare blitz is weakened by the rain?

how do I even know where to start with building a team

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Just find something that interests you.but I will say every team at the very least need a tank that can tank a hit from a sweeper and set up a counter for it.


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Well I really like the idea of having rain dance for my ludicolo with rain dish and leftovers. Giga drain and scald, meaning I can generally outlive most Pokemon.

meaning I can try to set up a rain dance team? And try to make a gyarados a rain dance sweeper?

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meaning I can try to set up a rain dance team? And try to make a gyarados a rain dance sweeper?

ludicolo has max special defence, and my Steelix is pretty good defensively too.

You can use Gyarados as a rain dance sweeper, as STAB water moves coming from gyarados hits like a truck.

Don't throw in any defensive pokemon for the sake of it. Lets see, Ludicolo is weak against Flying, Poison and Bug, Steelix seems like a pretty solid pick but I'm sure you can find a better steel type which is competitively viable. I prefer something like Ferrothorn (if its available in Sword/Shield).

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Ferrothorn is available and has some serious defensive stats, dont see myself using it anytime soon though cause Im not a fan of the design.

A cursing Aggron is my favourite Pokemon ever but alas no Aggron in SS. I really do like defensive Pokemon though hence Aggron and Ludicolo being my favourites. I guess I could throw in an Umbreon for defence, wish, and heal bell?

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yeah team comp is really important, you can find more detailed compositions in the smogon forums or even just watch high level play and steal their teams, thats where most people start

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im still an amateur but ill share my gameplan if it helps any
my team centers around my using my defensive core of spd ferrothorn and def toxapex to pressure with chip damage and hazards and switching into dragupult on rapid spin, morpeko on pychic type moves and gyarados on ground type moves and whittling their team down till i can sweep with my max airstream gyarados
having switch ins to my opponents answers to my defensive options that are fast and have u-turn (pult and peko) allow me to open holes in my opponents team till their checks are gone and someone can sweep
oh and my main man hitmonchan with boots handles hazard removal

this is in 6v6 tho in 3s i just shorten it to tox pult gyara with the same plan

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Hmmm that sounds like a tough team. Toxapex and Ferrothorn sounds like a good combo if you have stealth rock on one and toxic spikes on the other.

Thing is do I have any chance of winning when I go online with my really amateur team?

Im running gyarados, arcanine and ludicolo. If its 6v6 Id have to add in charizard, Steelix, and Vikavolt.

I kinda wanna jump into battles with other super amateurs but I get the sense Ill get swept and itll be no fun.

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cant attest to switch online too much but if you play pokemon showdown you should be fine with the other low ladder players
also ludicolos rain mixed with char and arcanine is no good, try for a sun team if you wanna use those tbh, use torkoal or ninetailes with drought, solar power charizard if you have it

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Arcanine and Charizard were on the team more as a carryover from my story mode, I wouldnt mind switching them for other pokes more suited to rain dance.

maybe something like Ferrothorn, gyarados, ludicolo, Vikavolt, and two others?

pelipper for drizzle and something else... tbc I guess?

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definitely peliper for drizzle, you will want an offensive swift swimmer to take advantage of the rain too, make sure to have your inherent water heaviness in mind when making the movesets for your team, no point in making a team that all dies to thunderbolt, having vika and thorn helps, just make sure you can actually kill the electric types, not just switch into them

edit: barraskweda is an amazing swift swim mon, and seismitoad is a great bulky water type that handles electric pokemon with ease

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It's all about the format.
Smogon's format is horrible (6v6s). There's a reason why GF doesn't include it in their games anymore.
I am focused on 3v3s right now. My team is Vikavolt, Barraskewda and Grimsnarl (with 3 fillers, because I'm an idiot and can't counterplay) right now.

• Vikavolt always goes out first. He exists to try and kill the first Pokemon that gets sent out. This (mainly) works. If he can't kill the first Pokemon, no big deal. He's sashed so is always likely to get at least 1 hit in.
• Barraskewda is my Dynamax abuser. He will kill at least 2 of my opponent's Pokemon, and can dent any Dynamax that comes out (most people don't use their first Pokemon for Dynamax). He's my Pivot, because he can effectively revenge kill whatever Vikavolt doesn't, and has the move pool to most likely kill whatever the opponent sends out after.
• Grimmsnarl is my finisher. I have a very specific way of stalling out Dynamax with him (Prankster Substitute). He then is bulky enough (usually) to be able to fire off two Sucker Punches against whatever the enemy has.

My problem right now (because I'm bad) is that I get shut down pretty hard by Dragapult, who happens to be the most popular Pokemon in 3v3 Singles right now and can easily mess up my strategy if I don't kill him before he can Max Wyrmwind my Barraskewda (which means I have to be in the rain when he comes out). I used to lead with Pelipper for the Drizzle, and this was much more consistent. In doubles I do a similar strategy (Pelipper + Barraskewda lead then go into Grimmsnarl / something else).

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^ are you playing online or on the Pokemon showdown thing?

im super scared of dragapult, and dont really wanna use one myself, how do you kill them?

also Whats your vikavolt running?

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pult is so good because he can run a lot of sets, each with their weaknesses but you really dont know what they are running till they act
he doesnt have a good move for toxapex and he isnt terribly bulky so try to make it difficult for him to come in so easily
often times people will switch him in expecting rapid spin since he is ghost and blocks it so having a move for that on your spinner helps alot, ice punch on my hitmonchan for example

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Back in my day there were only 750 pokemon, IDK these NEWthings!!!

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TheSlinja posted...

pult is so good because he can run a lot of sets, each with their weaknesses but you really dont know what they are running till they act
he doesnt have a good move for toxapex and he isnt terribly bulky so try to make it difficult for him to come in so easily
often times people will switch him in expecting rapid spin since he is ghost and blocks it so having a move for that on your spinner helps alot, ice punch on my hitmonchan for example

Toxapex looks sick from what I see on smogon. You could set up toxic spikes and spikes with Toxapex? then just stall dragapult till it faints? Oh wait - doesnt dragapult know thunderbolt? Lol

I just played on Pokemon showdown too - won 1 and lost 1. Somebody got off a spikes x3, toxic spikes, and sticky web. Didnt even know you could stack them like that.

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FatalAccident posted...

^ are you playing online or on the Pokemon showdown thing?

im super scared of dragapult, and dont really wanna use one myself, how do you kill them?

also Whats your vikavolt running?

I only play online, and I'm really not good. Couldn't even get to Master Ball Rank.
My Vikavolt has Thunder Bolt, Bug Buzz, Flash Cannon and Energy Ball. I was thinking of adding Roost somewhere but idk.

Lokarin posted...

Back in my day there were only 750 pokemon, IDK these NEWthings!!!

Lucky for you there's only 400 now.

FatalAccident posted...

Toxapex looks sick from what I see on smogon. You could set up toxic spikes and spikes with Toxapex? then just stall dragapult till it faints? Oh wait - doesnt dragapult know thunderbolt? Lol

That's not how you use Toxapex. You do something like Recover / Toxic / Scald.

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without a choice item pult cant actually 2 hit kill pex with bolt, and with protect black sludge recover regenerator pult struggles hard to actually kill pex, and if they do have a choice item then you can switch into something resistant and regenerator will fix your pex right up

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tldr: Toxapex is indestructible.

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Wait so can I actually play 6v6 with Pokemon online on the Switch? Or am I wasting my time training up more Pokemon lol cos its limited to 3v3

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Okay, so whats the best entry hazard remover in gen 8? Best Pokemon would have been Pelipper to defog but thats not available this gen - I could add a turtonator with rapid spin? Give it overheat and draco meteor to make it more then just a rapid spinner?

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excadrill, cinderace, corvinight, mandibuzz (also a good dragapult counter)
if you use cinderace put the heavy duty boots on him so he doesnt take 25% from stealth rocks

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Hmmm Cinderace only uses court change, meaning whatever hazards Ive given the opponent move to my side of the field? Which isnt great.

I was thinking of Corviknight but Im bored of the one I used in story mode. Any issues with the turtonator idea? Hell only be weak to fairy and dragon type moves from what I can see.

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court change is amazing lmao, you can even use him instead of a entry setter
turtonator kinda just sucks, he is super slow, not very powerful and weak to rocks while really needing an item other than boots to get the most out of him, not a very good pokemon, an even worse hazard spinner

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its pretty much fighting games version of "juggling" your opponents with combo attacks then you'll find out most people have the same strats and moves they use

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Pick your favorite boy
Find pokemon that cover it's weaknesses or can set it up for stronger attacks
???
Lose cuz yer a scrub.

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I think Ive got a rain dance team to try out, wonder if its viable. What do you think @TheSlinja@Judgmenl@spooky96@hypnox ?

Toxapex, Pelipper, Gyarados, Vikavolt, Ludicolo, Mudsdale

My ass is really susceptible to a ohko thunderbolt from a Rotom hence why Ive got Mudsdale in there, although he could easily hit it with a hydro pump. But hes in there as a physical attacker with earthquake and to take a thunderbolt if I predict correctly (also for stealth rocks).

I still wanna try messing around with adding in a Ferrothorn for Mudsdale though.

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Looks good, try it out a few games and see.

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Seems fine for the most part, you could throw in a fast attacker in there somewhere.

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Are you talking about the secret bedroom games couples play like hide the pokeball, and poke e man etc?

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if mudsdale doesnt work out I would def try seismitoad, also ill play you (on showdown or on switch) if you want

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what I used to do is just put together a random team, play a dozen matches and try to analyze why you lost. for example, you consistently have no counter to sweeper mon X, look up its counters on Smogon and try to integrate mon Y on your team. or if you're taking too much damage from hazards maybe you need a spinner or something.

it used to be easier to build in gen 4 when you had to have a Lead and the only wall was skarmbliss. things done changed

TheSlinja posted...

if mudsdale doesnt work out I would def try seismitoad, also ill play you (on showdown or on switch) if you want

Im gonna spend the day breeding up but yeah Ill battle you on Switch tomorrow if youre free.

thanks guys

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If you want some good practice with EV training and competitive battles, Pokemon Showdown is an excellent battle simulator where you simply move sliders to distribute EV points. That way you can get into the pokemon meta game without throwing tons of work into a pokemon you arent sure if you will end up using.

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pull up im trying to throw hands

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There are different strategies. So best team depends on what strategy you want. And each pokemon has a role to fill as well.

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TheSlinja posted...

pull up im trying to throw hands

Bruh Im still training.. my team is nowhere near ready lols but Ill give u a lil something something

idk how to battle friends though, do I need your friend code or something?

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you do need friend codes i believe, also how are you training, the game has crazily reduced the time necessary to train, my current team hasnt fought in a single random battle or hatched from an egg but is all lv 100 perfect ivs and evs

friend code is 2455 3961 5507

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TheSlinja posted...

you do need friend codes i believe, also how are you training, the game has crazily reduced the time necessary to train, my current team hasnt fought in a single random battle or hatched from an egg but is all lv 100 perfect ivs and evs

friend code is 2455 3961 5507

IVs I understand but how you get perfect EVs without training lol

gonna finish up battle tower and Ill be ready. Youll have to tell me what to do with the friend code cos idk

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I think he just means they have EVs fully invested and properly allocated (technically there isn't such a thing as "perfect" EVs, since you can design a Pokemon to suit your need, but it won't cover every case). You can feed Pokemon vitamins now to fully EV train them and they never even have to enter battle (prior to Sword/Shield, you were limited on the number of vitamins you can feed). There is also Pokejobs, which you can do without ever having to train (you can speed that up a lot with Pokerus and the weight items/macho brace).

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yeah you just grind battle stadium with gmax meowth (or use watt exploit ;]) for money and buy vitamins, use bottlecaps for IVs, and use exp candies for levels, i had a shitton of candies from doing hundreds of raids tho, btw 5 star raids guarntee at least 4 perfect ivs on that pokemon

friend code you enter in the profile page of the switch

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Well Ive sent you the request, come battle me homie

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Some Japanese girl just ragequit on me lmfao

Maybe next time dont spam dragapult

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sorry I ended up leaving shortly after posting, ill be back later hopefully, at least you arendoing well it looks like lol

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Well its nearly bedtime for me. Just accept the friend req and Ill holla next time were online at the same time.

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