I just recently started playing online against other trainers, I've really been strictly local play up until this week. Been examining the serebii and smogon tiers and team setups and roles. I want to ask if I should use pokemon strictly in OU tier, or if I can mix and match. Really, as of now, the ou team I'm considering is Jellicent, Garchomp, Politoed, Toxicroak, Ferrothorn, and Reuniclus. Is this a viable team, I'm very open to suggestions and any advice for newbies, however, I am a stickler for style, and I prefer to play with pokemon from my own personal list of ones I actually like, not just throwing in a celebii or blissey only for functionality, it's no fun having a cut and paste team as I've noticed some have that I've played against.
-
Welcome to Smogon! Take a moment to read the Introduction to Smogon for a run-down on everything Smogon, and make sure you take some time to read the global rules.
-
Congrats to the winners of the 2023 Smog Awards!
New to Pokemon competitive play
- Thread starter Animunculus
- Start date
Welll you can start by looking at some copy/paste teams as you call them and pick apart how they work and what the critiques from the forum members looks like to get an idea of how to evaluate your own team from a more learned perspective. Biuilding from roles isn't always the best idea. You kind of start with an idea of how you want to win and then make that winning condition feasable with the right mons. A lot of OU is going to be many of the same pokemon in diffrent 6-man teams so you'll get used to being able to guess what they'll have for moves based on what you see from the team preview after a fairly short period of time if you pay attention.
The way tiers go is you can use anything in that tier or the tiers lower. So UU in OU but no OU in UU of course. There are plenty of UU and even RU mons that see use in OU and work just fine. They tend to take on more specialized roles, though, like Amoonguss for (mainly)Keldeo and Gastro for a select 4-5 mons also. Those are my thoughts on lower tiered mons in the higher tiers. A good player like qSeasons used a Tangrowth and a Sharpedo to effect just fine but it's about what your team needs and how you find the best ways you're most confident in to win to facilitate those needs. If you have a knack for using a crtain mon but it's in a lower tier then that's fine, really.
Another word of advice is you'll notice certain groups of poke'mon like Gliscor, Skarmory, and Bronzong are kind of in the same grouping. Then there are bulky waters, fast physical attackers, slower, bulky physical attackers. It's fine to think in roles but I also consider groups as well when I think poke'mon. Those are just a few ideas and I hope I've answered some of your questions.
Also: Jelly/Chomp/Toed/Croak/Ferro/Reuni is fine but how do they work together as a team? How do they create your winning condition? Do you feel there's any dead weight? Do you have momentum issues prhaps? Does your Jelli-Thorn core do enough to pave the way for your offensive mons? Are you using the right politoed for your team? -- You don't have to answer, but those might be some questions.
The way tiers go is you can use anything in that tier or the tiers lower. So UU in OU but no OU in UU of course. There are plenty of UU and even RU mons that see use in OU and work just fine. They tend to take on more specialized roles, though, like Amoonguss for (mainly)Keldeo and Gastro for a select 4-5 mons also. Those are my thoughts on lower tiered mons in the higher tiers. A good player like qSeasons used a Tangrowth and a Sharpedo to effect just fine but it's about what your team needs and how you find the best ways you're most confident in to win to facilitate those needs. If you have a knack for using a crtain mon but it's in a lower tier then that's fine, really.
Another word of advice is you'll notice certain groups of poke'mon like Gliscor, Skarmory, and Bronzong are kind of in the same grouping. Then there are bulky waters, fast physical attackers, slower, bulky physical attackers. It's fine to think in roles but I also consider groups as well when I think poke'mon. Those are just a few ideas and I hope I've answered some of your questions.
Also: Jelly/Chomp/Toed/Croak/Ferro/Reuni is fine but how do they work together as a team? How do they create your winning condition? Do you feel there's any dead weight? Do you have momentum issues prhaps? Does your Jelli-Thorn core do enough to pave the way for your offensive mons? Are you using the right politoed for your team? -- You don't have to answer, but those might be some questions.
Yes, thank you, that was a perfect answer. I only meant copy and paste in that in the few (only about 25 battles) I attempted I saw alot of the same teams and movesets that I would see in videos, though I know alot of these can be found on the serebii and smogon site, so I'll probably ending using the recommended movesets on these sites. Thank you for your comprehensive response. I wasn't quite sure how these tiers operated, though from your answer, it seems like it's equal parts luck as it is skill as no 6 'mon team could be prepared for every situation.
Now on an extra note about why I chose whom I did for an OU team, I feel until i have more experience I needed to use less role specific members. Ferrothorn makes a nice hazard mon, Spikes, leech seed, stealth rock, etc. Jellicent, my go to wall, with nice status effects and hazing like will o wisp, Dry Skin /w rain toxicroak for a decently bulked sweeper or maybe a nasty plot for a surprise special sweeper, Reuniclus for a trick room set that I may find a way to substitute an Octillery in for, Garchomp as another nice sweeper with heavy hitting moves like Outrage. Now you mentioned the right kind of Politoed, as I'm sure you've noticed several holes on my amateurishly put together team :P, what would you recommend? Also as Chandelure is my favorite pokemon of all time at the moment, I'd like to find a way to fit him in somehow, a timid run seems best for speed, but modest also seems like it would work, the shadow tag ability seems like it would pretty fierce in any tier.
Now on an extra note about why I chose whom I did for an OU team, I feel until i have more experience I needed to use less role specific members. Ferrothorn makes a nice hazard mon, Spikes, leech seed, stealth rock, etc. Jellicent, my go to wall, with nice status effects and hazing like will o wisp, Dry Skin /w rain toxicroak for a decently bulked sweeper or maybe a nasty plot for a surprise special sweeper, Reuniclus for a trick room set that I may find a way to substitute an Octillery in for, Garchomp as another nice sweeper with heavy hitting moves like Outrage. Now you mentioned the right kind of Politoed, as I'm sure you've noticed several holes on my amateurishly put together team :P, what would you recommend? Also as Chandelure is my favorite pokemon of all time at the moment, I'd like to find a way to fit him in somehow, a timid run seems best for speed, but modest also seems like it would work, the shadow tag ability seems like it would pretty fierce in any tier.
Dr Ciel
Banned deucer.
If I were you, I would look in this thread to see what Pokémon work & what doesn't.
I had no idea Chandelure was banned from OU due to shadow tag, I knew ot was good but not THAT good :P.
Pikachuun
the entire waruda machine
Shadow Tag isn't released yet. Just saying -3-
I had no idea of that either... damn I'm behind. Sorry lol. I just got a 3ds for x and y, and I couldn't play online with a DS lite for some reason so I never bothered with online info of any kind, including dream world. But I guess it's for the best, I'd rather Chandy be UU than Uber.
I'm not exactly "new" to competitive play but I'm thinking about coming back after a long hiatus since gen 4. Are there some good resources to learn how competitive play has changed since then? In particular I'm curious how has team preview affected the way people build teams? For example, has the role of lead died out? do you typically have a single lead or do you have multiple Pokemon that can serve the dual function of a lead? Things like that.