Resource VGC: Ask a Simple Question, Get a Simple Answer

[Makima]

I always hear VGC players shittalk the Showdown ladders - I really wonder why. Is it true that the quality of games are better on cartridge? What do you guys think

Both Showdown and cartridge ladder have their own benefits.

Showdown is great for testing teams and finding out what you're comfortable with before obtaining it in game. It's much easier to make changes to your team on showdown, and you can play more games in a given amount of time allowing for you to get more experience. The UI displays a lot more information making it easier to understand what's going on, and there are replays so you can watch back your matches and learn from them - something which on cartridge requires a capture card and significantly more time.

Once you have your team mostly finished and want to test it to see if you need any final touch ups, cartridge is likely better. There's a wider variety of players in terms of region on cartridge. In particular, you will find many more Japanese players on cartridge compared to Showdown. Since the Japanese metagame has noticeable differences from the western/"Showdown" metagame, it's essential that you get cartridge experience against a wide variety of players. Not to mention cartridge is what you'll be playing on for official tournaments, so getting used to it and learning the nuances of the UI and what you need to remember yourself is essential to maximize your performance.

As far as quality of the games goes, it really depends. Everyone on showdown is here to play competitively. Because it's easier to switch teams, you'll see more gimmicky teams, but that's typically at lower ladder and they at least have an idea of what they're trying to do. Since the cartridge is also in the hands of people who know little-to-nothing about competitive Pokemon, you will often in the early tiers get opponents who don't even have their Pokemon EVed or are using their first playthrough teams. Once again there's pros and cons to both.

I think most top players (at least western ones, showdown isn't as popular in Japan) utilize both Showdown and cartridge. Typically, when people dislike Showdown it is a moral disagreement or they are not used to the platform. Ex. something I see commonly is people saying that there is more hax on Showdown, failing to account for the higher volume of games which means there will be more hax naturally. I think this is a perfect case of someone who isn't used to the platform. As for morals, some people don't like supporting unofficial parties. To each their own.

 

[smogon account]

will we see another dodrio cup or similar team event soon?
it's a lot easier for me to play vgc with people so I'm curious

 

[zeus408]

hello guys i am having issues with countering pengy's team. my friend is using it and im trying to figure out a counter. i was told to use this team https://pokepast.es/1e23a6489b177988 but it aint workin out. this is pengy's team https://pokepast.es/3335491889a38978 and the issue is that the kyo or rillaboom always manages to stay alive regardless if i even add this zapdos: https://pokepast.es/c8afa69bfd425cf2 to counter the rilla and kyo

 

[lopertus]

Hi! I want to get into IRL VGC this next season with SV, but I am as lost as Waldo when it comes to the process.

After reading vee's thread and Flying Press Article, some light has been shed, yet there are still a few things I do not get. These are the Leagues, Challenges and Midseason Showdowns. I do not know the utilities of these and how to join/participate, and the Play!Pokemon does not say much.

Would someone be so kind of explaining them to me, and why I needed for future larger events (i.e. regionals and internaitonals)?

Thanks a lot :)

 

[zeus408]

so i got here three different sets for zacian and it says the 2nd zacian beats the other two.
1st zacian :
Zacian @ Rusted Sword
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 252 HP / 76 Atk / 28 Def / 4 SpD / 148 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Iron Head
- Substitute
- Sacred Sword
- Protect
2nd zacian :
Zacian @ Rusted Sword
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Iron Head
- Close Combat
- Substitute
- Protect
zacian 3: Zacian @ Rusted Sword
Ability: Intrepid Sword
Level: 50
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 68 HP / 172 Atk / 12 Def / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Play Rough
- Iron Head
- Sacred Sword
- Protect

 

[Sapphire]

so i got here three different sets for zacian and it says the 2nd zacian beats the other two.

zeus408 Every EV spread is designed for something different, whether that be for picking certain KO, living certain attacks from opposing Pokemon, or hitting certain speed tiers. Spreads are better or worse depending on what your team needs. The damage calculator should mostly be used for single hits, and not back-and-forth interactions, as the calculator wasn't really designed for that. The speed in the damage calculator is mostly used for speed-based interactions such as Electroball. I'm also not quite sure what your question is with your post, so maybe my answer isn't quite what you're looking for lol

Hi! I want to get into IRL VGC this next season with SV, but I am as lost as Waldo when it comes to the process.

lopertus In terms of IRL events, there are 3 "categories" of events that you can join as long as you register in time (No need to qualify): Locals, Regionals, and Internationals.
Placing well in these events will award you CP, which is needed to attend the World Championships at the end of the year. If I recall correctly NA requires 400 CP to qualify, and everywhere else around the world requires 300. Asia has its own systems that you would have to individually look into if you want to join the circuit. You don't need to win an event to earn CP, but placing higher will get your more CP.

You can sign up for these events through the rk9.gg portal, when signups open. A great way of getting updates is through Twitter since the official Pokemon twitter has updates on when signups open. Just periodically check the Pokemon website when the event you want to go to is approaching so you can sign up and attend! For locals, you don't even need to sign up! Just make sure you have a trainer ID when you arrive at the site.

Locals: Midseason Showdowns and Premier Challenges are events that we call "local" events, as they are generally quite easy to access and are readily accessible, meaning you hopefully don't have to book a flight to attend. They are usually much smaller than regionals, but they happen more frequently. These events are worth going to as they still award a decent amount of CP, which could go a long way in terms of getting your worlds invite, as well as generally costing less to attend. (entry fees and travel/lodging). To answer your question, these events are not required to attend Regionals or Internationals, and you don't need to sign up beforehand.

Regionals: Regional events are a lot bigger than locals, and could have upwards of 600 people attending! (Looking at you San Diego) Regionals are much more organized than locals, with official castors, streams, all that good stuff. These events are generally two day events, with Swiss rounds on Day 1 and top cut (top 8) happening on Day 2. These events have no qualification needed to attend, so as long as you register in time you can go! These events offer a sizable amount of CP depending on your placement, and is a huge factor to most peoples' qualifications to Worlds. Also Regionals are great opportunities to meet fellow members of the community!

Internationals: Although these are named after the continent it is located, anyone can attend! Besides the World Championship, these events are the biggest events of the year, with 3 days of Pokemon action and lots of CP to be won. Since there's only one event per continent, chances are you will have to travel (fly) to attend, making it tough for some to attend. You can kinda think of these like enhanced regionals, more swiss rounds, more side events, more CP to be won, etc. Definitely worth going to, the experience is amazing! (Attesting for events when I've never gone to an IRL, the irony)

If you have any further questions, just let us know! I kinda just gave a brief rundown of each type of event and what they do so I might not have answered all of your concerns lol

 

[doublesoul]

Hi all! I'm getting back into VGC with S/V and plan on doing some IRL events. My only problem is...I now live in Japan. I know the process for VGC locals/majors in the US, but ever since I moved to Japan, I haven't been able to find much information, though it's likely because I'm not searching the right keywords.

Does anyone here live or have lived in Japan and done VGC stuff? What's the process? Do you have any helpful links to calendars or registration portals? Thanks in advance.

 

[zee]

Hi all! I'm getting back into VGC with S/V and plan on doing some IRL events. My only problem is...I now live in Japan. I know the process for VGC locals/majors in the US, but ever since I moved to Japan, I haven't been able to find much information, though it's likely because I'm not searching the right keywords.

Does anyone here live or have lived in Japan and done VGC stuff? What's the process? Do you have any helpful links to calendars or registration portals? Thanks in advance.

Unfortunately for myself and the majority of users around here, all of our experience is with regions managed by TPC international, while the Japanese circuit is managed solely by TPC. As such I don't have any circuit resources on hand, but historically Japanese qualifications are based on placements at the invite-only nationals, which you qualify for via online tournaments in the spring. If you're interested I could put you in contact with some Japanese players on Twitter who may know more, just shoot me a PM.

 

[Othkurik]

Where can I find a community / communities to do testing and teambuilding outside of just spamming vgc ladder?

 

[ApertureB]

Hey, will the rule changes be implemented on the vgc simulator shortly? Excited to see what it changes.
Kinda major because the sim arent using the current rules.

For those who are unaware of the rule change:
Directly from the Public Rulebook, " The 2023 Video Game Championship Season will utilize an open team list format. Players are required to provide a legible and accurate list of the Pokémon that comprise their team. All Pokémon information provided on the team list (see below) will be made available to the opponent except for the Pokémon’s stats (Speed, etc.)."

As of now showdown has no way to emulate an official VGC battle. The current listed name of the type of battle on showdown is, "S/V Doubles: VGC 2023 Series 1" which is incorrect due to its different ruleset from current VGC rules. and would qualify it as Battle Stadium rather then VGC as of now.
Rule change is major because the information that is required to be shared drastically changes how situations play out.

 

[InfinitytoBeyond]

hi i have a question does mirror herb tatsugiri work when the opponent has mirror herb on dondozo's boosts in the actual games?

 

[smogon account]

Neutral natures are optimal because of corner case scenarios with pinch berries and trick/bug bite/pickpocket, right?

 

[vibivgc]

hey, I don't know if I'm the ten thousandth person to ask this or not so sorry if I am, but will showdown ladder be implementing open teamsheets?

 

[Vinc2612]

Neutral natures are optimal because of corner case scenarios with pinch berries and trick/bug bite/pickpocket, right?

No opponent will ever trick you a pinch berry thinking "haha, that will teach them to build with neutral natures!"

But if your Pokémon use any of those (also pick up, there are probably others) you should aim for neutral nature + relevant mint.

 

[smogon account]

No opponent will ever trick you a pinch berry thinking "haha, that will teach them to build with neutral natures!"

I may run trick rotom and steal another player's berry though!

thanks :)

 

[milkmimo]

How does Tera form with something like Pixelate? If I Tera form Sylveon for Hyper Voice, does the Tera affect the base type or the Fairy type?

 

[ApertureB]

How does Tera form with something like Pixelate? If I Tera form Sylveon for Hyper Voice, does the Tera affect the base type or the Fairy type?

Tera changes you to the type selected but you keep STAB from the previous ones.

 

[Take Azelfie]

What Garchomp spreads are people running besides max speed? are there any particular spreads that look interesting, especially for steel type chomps

 

[Pyritie]

How does Tera form with something like Pixelate? If I Tera form Sylveon for Hyper Voice, does the Tera affect the base type or the Fairy type?

fairy tera would give you a hyper voice boost, normal tera would not

 

[zferolie]

So ive been working on an in game vgc team. After 3 days i caught my shiny salazzle, and now trying to find a flareboost drifblim raid. In the meantime, i was wondering how you guys felt about drifblim, with either tailwind or trick room.

Was talking abit with another user here, but felt i wanted to ask here too. Team is salazzle, drifblim, pawmot, kingambit, gastrodon, and appleton. I am debating on either a trick room set with drifblim with flare orb, shadow ball, trick room, strength sap, and trick. Or a tail wind set with flare orb, sahdow ball, icy wind, strength sap, and tailwind. I have was to deal with donsozo thanks to gastrodon and clear smog, and salazzle with overheat and eject pack for a high damage then pivot to something, and pawmot with fake out helps with taunters.

I know its not the most meta pokemon but want to try an make this team work, and just torn between the trick room set or tailwind set

 

[ChrystalFalchion]

So ive been working on an in game vgc team. After 3 days i caught my shiny salazzle, and now trying to find a flareboost drifblim raid. In the meantime, i was wondering how you guys felt about drifblim, with either tailwind or trick room.

Was talking abit with another user here, but felt i wanted to ask here too. Team is salazzle, drifblim, pawmot, kingambit, gastrodon, and appleton. I am debating on either a trick room set with drifblim with flare orb, shadow ball, trick room, strength sap, and trick. Or a tail wind set with flare orb, sahdow ball, icy wind, strength sap, and tailwind. I have was to deal with donsozo thanks to gastrodon and clear smog, and salazzle with overheat and eject pack for a high damage then pivot to something, and pawmot with fake out helps with taunters.

I know its not the most meta pokemon but want to try an make this team work, and just torn between the trick room set or tailwind set

Drifblim sucks. There is no reason to use it on your team. It's not powerful enough to be a good offensive Pokemon (not to mention badly outclassed by Gholdengo and Gengar), and it's not bulky enough to be a good utility mon. Prankster Murkrow is the best Tailwind support mon. If you want your Tailwind user to do other things too, Hydreigon and Kilowatrel can work. It's too fast and fragile to make use of Trick Room itself, and even with Flare Boost low SpA and weak STABs mean it still won't be going too much damage:
252+ SpA Burned Flare Boost Ghost Tera Type Drifblim Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 136-160 (74.3 - 87.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO.

TL;DR - there is nothing Drifblim can do that something else can't do better.

 

[zferolie]

Drifblim sucks. There is no reason to use it on your team. It's not powerful enough to be a good offensive Pokemon (not to mention badly outclassed by Gholdengo and Gengar), and it's not bulky enough to be a good utility mon. Prankster Murkrow is the best Tailwind support mon. If you want your Tailwind user to do other things too, Hydreigon and Kilowatrel can work. It's too fast and fragile to make use of Trick Room itself, and even with Flare Boost low SpA and weak STABs mean it still won't be going too much damage:
252+ SpA Burned Flare Boost Ghost Tera Type Drifblim Shadow Ball vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Garchomp: 136-160 (74.3 - 87.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO.

TL;DR - there is nothing Drifblim can do that something else can't do better.

Yesssh thats a lot of negitives for drifblim. Doesnt it have some positives, like strength sap being the best recovery in the game, or beimg able to trick away your flame orb to basically make a pokemon useless good?

Anyway, i wanted a ghost type here that also could be immune to ground, as my team has 3 ground weak pokemon and i always try to fit a ghost type into every team i make, just a self rule i have since i love ghosts. Not really many other choices there. What else could be a good trick room setter for this team, or is tailwind better?

 

[ChrystalFalchion]

Yesssh thats a lot of negitives for drifblim. Doesnt it have some positives, like strength sap being the best recovery in the game, or beimg able to trick away your flame orb to basically make a pokemon useless good?

Anyway, i wanted a ghost type here that also could be immune to ground, as my team has 3 ground weak pokemon and i always try to fit a ghost type into every team i make, just a self rule i have since i love ghosts. Not really many other choices there. What else could be a good trick room setter for this team, or is tailwind better?

Not really I'm afraid, Strength Sap is nice but Arbolivia can use it better since it actually has solid bulk. Trick + Flame Orb is generally redundant, you might as well just use Will-O-Wisp. If you want a Ground immunity (which is always nice to have with Garchomp being so good), I'd suggest replacing Salazzle with Rotom-H. I know shiny Salazzle looks great, but sadly she's just not good in a meta full of Tatsudonzo and Garchomp. Wanting a Ghost type that's immune to Ground is super specific, but if that's what you need use Oricorio-Ghost. You could even pair it with Quakquavel or Volcarona for some fun Dancing stuff (wouldn't recommend this at a proper tournamnet, but could be fun on ladder).

Trick Room can be very threatening in this format, though it does have some heavy drawbacks, mainly stacking Ghost and Dark weaknesses since most of the Pokemon that can set Trick Room are Ghost / Dark type.

 

[zferolie]

Not really I'm afraid, Strength Sap is nice but Arbolivia can use it better since it actually has solid bulk. Trick + Flame Orb is generally redundant, you might as well just use Will-O-Wisp. If you want a Ground immunity (which is always nice to have with Garchomp being so good), I'd suggest replacing Salazzle with Rotom-H. I know shiny Salazzle looks great, but sadly she's just not good in a meta full of Tatsudonzo and Garchomp. Wanting a Ghost type that's immune to Ground is super specific, but if that's what you need use Oricorio-Ghost. You could even pair it with Quakquavel or Volcarona for some fun Dancing stuff (wouldn't recommend this at a proper tournamnet, but could be fun on ladder).

Trick Room can be very threatening in this format, though it does have some heavy drawbacks, mainly stacking Ghost and Dark weaknesses since most of the Pokemon that can set Trick Room are Ghost / Dark type.

I may be wrong but doesn't having 150 base HP considered decent bulk, even with low defensive stats, or is it's defenses TOO low?

I was considering Will-o-wisp, but i thought that having a way to garuntee a burn on a primary target, plus remove their item, would be nice. Especially with Garchomp running around, removing their item plus burning them pretty much ruins the garchomp. Plus I was gonna run Ice Beam on Gastrodon to help take out the garchomps.

Yeah... I know Salazzle is gonna have issues with Dodonzos and Garchomps, that was one reason I had Gastrodon on this team to pretty much hard counter Dodonzo for her, but garchomp would still be annoying. I still wanna try and make her work because I've been wanting this shiny since sun and moon and finally have her.

I actually do run oricorio ghost in another team that isn't meta but super fun. Oricorio, Shiny Florges, Volcorona, Bisharp, Clodsire, and Palafin. Double dance into baton pass to Florges, that Tera grass to get flower veil is fun when it works. That have swapping Palafin out into Oricorio while Bisharp sword dances, who gets that swords dance, then passes it back to hero form Palafin. Clodsire is there to annoy with Yawns and water absorbing Dondozo. I do know I am asking alot for a ghost thats also resistant or immune to ground. otherwise my only resistant to it is Appleton, who I was thinking of running like Garganctle, iron defense, body press, leech seed, recover. that would wall garchomp pretty fericely, especially if I burned them. I know I cannot touch ghold though with that set but i have others to deal with ghold.

I did notice that the majority of trick room setters are weak to either ghost or dark. If I just use Drifblim hes the only one weak to the 2 types. I see that Stantler learns it too, and well... doesn't technically Stantler evolve? so it could hold evolite? probably not a great pokemon still but thats an interesting idea.

I hope I'm not coming off as ignoring your suggestions, far from it. I do really like what you are saying. I'm just trying to figure out how to best make this team work if possible, maybe not tourny winning but fun. If I have to swap out drifblim in the end I will. go for a different trick room or tailwind setter, like Murkrow if i have to. Just felt that Drifblimb could mess with pokemon pretty well and throw people off

 

[smogon account]

So ive been working on an in game vgc team. After 3 days i caught my shiny salazzle, and now trying to find a flareboost drifblim raid. In the meantime, i was wondering how you guys felt about drifblim, with either tailwind or trick room.

Was talking abit with another user here, but felt i wanted to ask here too. Team is salazzle, drifblim, pawmot, kingambit, gastrodon, and appleton. I am debating on either a trick room set with drifblim with flare orb, shadow ball, trick room, strength sap, and trick. Or a tail wind set with flare orb, sahdow ball, icy wind, strength sap, and tailwind. I have was to deal with donsozo thanks to gastrodon and clear smog, and salazzle with overheat and eject pack for a high damage then pivot to something, and pawmot with fake out helps with taunters.

I know its not the most meta pokemon but want to try an make this team work, and just torn between the trick room set or tailwind set

drifblim has a niche but it's not really with flare boost
psychic seed unburden drifblim gives it a fast tailwind that lets you match the prankster tailwind users pretty easily, but the downside of course is that it has to be paired with indeedee. This isn't the worst thing if you run offensive indeedee tho

as for salazzle it's pretty underutilized right now
it's a fast fake out support mon that can't be taunted. I was running heat wave for a while but eject pack + overheat is a really good set for it, it gives you a super strong nuke and free pivot out, and intimidate can't blow the eject pack early on salazzle

so we'd be looking at drifblim+indeedee+salazzle which is already a bunch of changes to your team, but I think kingambit works reasonably well with those three at least. Then you would want a second ground immune/resist I think, so while appletun is not the best grass type it could technically work, since it's a water resist as well
personally I think hydreigon would work a bit better, but you can make appletun work