This is an article I wrote a while back over at another forum, before I left it. Bentendo has reccomended that I post it here, so after getting Anti's blessing, here I am. I've edited it a bit, so it's pretty much good to go (when I C/Ped, though, it changed all my double-spaces to single-spaces, so sorry if it's a bit hard on the eyes...).
Strategy Over the Course of a Competitive Battle
There are essentially three main parts of strategy during a competitive battle: your team, making the right the best choices you can, and prediction. Yes, the last two sound very similar, but I'll expand on those in a bit. First, I'm going to go over how a team can help you win.
Note: Assume throughout this entire that your opponent, whenever mentioned, knows what he's doing.
Your Team:
First off, all your team gives you during a battle is an advantage or a disadvantage, and defines how you can act upon that. If your team consists of the three Hoenn starters and the three Kanto starters, then you are automatically off to a disadvantage. That doesn't necessarily mean that you will lose, it just means that you will have to be at the top of your act, making the best choices and the most accurate predictions. Luck also affects this, but not to as large of a degree, unless it's at a critical point in the battle. But for now, pretend that luck doesn't exist.
The best thing you can do for this department is to make your team as flexible and adaptable as possible, while also having enough singularity to exist if one or two important members get taken out. You don't want to use a Trick Room team with every Pokemon having extremely slow speed, because if your Bronzong gets unexpectedly taken out by a TyraniBoah's Fire Blast early in the game, then all your opponent has to do is put your special wall to sleep, Nasty Plot with Azelf, and proceed to OHKO the rest of your team. If you're running a Baton Pass team, you want to make sure that you have an anti-PHazer to make sure that your stat-upped Pogeys don't get switched out. You want to make sure that you have a wall breaker (which includes tons of type coverage from both the physical and special spectrums) so that a stall team, which are very common nowadays, doesn't lol in your face. You want to have something to status your opponents, so that you have the advantage to set up and Baton Pass, and you want to have something to put that Blissey in its place if it tries to Aromatherapy that status away.
There's a saying - "you can counter some of the metagame all the time; you can counter all the metagame some of the time; you can't counter all of the metagame all of the time". This is an example of how important it is to be able to counter some of the most prominent threats there are out there. Some of these are Gyarados, Heracross, Heatran, Azelf, and ?!?Skarmory!?! Yes, Skarm is a threat. If you don't have a Taunter or PHazer, it can set up SR, three layers of spikes, and then proceed to spike-shuffle you like there's no tomorrow. If you don't have a Gyarados counter, and your only Pokemon with an Electric move is Magnezone, and you try to switch into that Gyarados, you're dead. He'll either Dragon Dance and outspeed you with Earthquake, or he'll attack expecting a switch, taking out a large chunk of your health, and alerting him to the fact that that's your only "counter". Basically, you want to be able to counter as much of the important stuff as you can, while also being able to carry out your game plan. This brings me onto the next subject.
If you have a "role" team (where you just gather a bunch of Pokemon that you like/look cool to fill certain roles such as physical/special sweeper, without adding synergy or strategy to the team), then you'll have a problem with this part. Your team should be able to realistically carry out a plan, because even if you face some funny team full of UU-BL Pokemon, but he has a game plan and you don't, you will more often than not be standing on thin ice. An example would be how Abomasnow, a borderline OU/BL Pokemon, is among the top-used in Shoddy Battle. It has its niche, and even though all of its base stats are sub-par, its ability allows the team to have a goal, be that to stall ("32 turns of hail Stallrein" Walrein) or to take advantage of the abilities or moves that are affected positively by Hail. On any other team, where it's just placed there to fill a role, then it's just dead weight, and, because it has no purpose other than to be different/look cool, it will drag your team down and possibly cause you to lose.
Making the best choices you can:
This part ties in closely with prediction, but there are a couple major differences. First, good choices (this could also be referred to as long-term thinking) are what you should be doing throughout the entire battle and help you maintain your position where you currently are in the win/lose part. Prediction mainly helps you gain an advantage so that your choice have a greater effect, and are to be used when you do not have the advantage, because if you don't have the advantage, and even though you're still making good choices battle-wise, you're chances of wining are going down the drain. Good choices rely somewhat on prediction, but usually just thinking about your opponent's team allows you to make the best choices. I'll now go on about what I mean by "good choices".
Here's a simple example. Say that your Starmie just died from a CBWeavile's Pursuit. Now, say that all your opponent has left is that Weavile and a Gliscor. Now, say that all you have is a CBMetagross and a mixed Lucario with a Life Orb. Now, you have to decide what to send in. What do you think? Write it down somewhere.
Now, I'll go over the choices. If your first impulse was to send in Metagross, and you did send in Metagross, then you're wrong. If you sent it in, expecting to Bullet Punch that Weavile to death, then you're done for, because all he has to do is switch in that Gliscor, which will take lol damage from your weak Bullet Punch, and then will kill you (or your Lucario if you then decided to switch it out to save Metagross) with a STAB Earthquake. If, once your Metagross is dead, your Lucario survived and nailed it with HIdden Power Ice, that Weavile will come in and OHKO you with Brick Break. If you sent in Lucario instead of Metagross in the beginning, you could Vaccuum Wave the Weavile and kill it. If he switched to Gliscor, you could OHKO with Hidden Power Ice, and then switch to Metagross to easily take on the Weavile. That way, you're almost assured to win, where you would not otherwise.
That was a pretty simple example, they can get a lot more complicated, considering that we only took into account two of the opponent's Pokemon. When, at the beginning of a game, there's a full six Pokemon, you'll have to think it out a lot longer. It's pretty easy once you get the idea, though.
Prediction:
As earlier noted, prediction is mainly used when you are at a disadvantage, when you have a Pokemon in and you expect them to think about switching (which is a possible advantage or disadvantage), if you have to switch and their Pokemon can either hit both super-effectively what you switch and and what you have out currently (which is a disadvantage), or if it can disable what you switch in with a status or move such as Taunt/Substitute/etc (which is also a disadvantage).
Prediction, in the same way that choices rely on it, relies on choices/thinking about the opponent's team. In a really simple description, prediction is just a much more potentially-costly form of making a good choice.
Pretend that there is an advantage scale in competitive battling. It looks like a horizontal number line, somewhat like this:
<<-5<-4<-3<-2<-1<0>1>2>3>4>5>>
You and your opponent's teams decide where each of you start on the line. If you lead with a Metagross (AgiliGross or CBGross, not mixed), and your opponent leads with a Swampert, then you are at the disadvantage, because your only STAB attack on it is not very effective. Thus, your starting position on that line is -1. Similarly, if your positions are reversed, then you start at 1. If you both have a Swampert out, or a similar situation, like a Skarmory and a Hippowdon lead, then you both start at 0.
Long-term thinking allows you to move up the scale, and so does as prediction, but the biggest difference is that you have control of whether you move up or not. With prediction, you have the possibility of moving up, but so does your opponent, so it's not entirely in your control. That being said, prediction requires concentration, good judgement and knowledge of your opponent's team, and an insight to your opponent's battle style. If you know your opponent thinks he has balls (using "he" for anatomical correctness ), then you may as well predict that he'll try the cockiest or most dangerous prediction which, if he is correct, will give him the most advantage movement upwards. If you know that your opponent is a conservative battler, then you'll want to go for the most advantage-upping move. If you know your opponent is like you, then you basically have to double-guess yourself, essentially leaving you a 50/50 chance of being right, leaving it best to play that turn conservatively.
To sum it up:
This is not a guide that gives you a step-by-step method of making the best team ever, the best prediction skills, or the best insight how the metagame is played. It is mearly an article that will help you understand what you're doing wrong, what you're doing right, and how you can do better. If you want help building your team, go look at some of the RMTs in the RMT board by some of Smogon's senior members. If you want prediction, go memorize some Pokemon analyses, so that you know all the common sets for certain Pogeys, team types, and on and on. I really, really, REALLY reccomend lurking at Smogon, through all the threads, looking through all the back pages, etc. Besides that, there's only one thing that you can do to improve your playing. Battle.
Battling will help you improve your consistency, your knowledge of your team's abilities, and insight to how opponents battle. That, overall, is what will help you the most once you get started. Have fun reading this wall of text, and I'd appreciate it if you posted
.
Good luck battling,
Bam
Strategy Over the Course of a Competitive Battle
There are essentially three main parts of strategy during a competitive battle: your team, making the right the best choices you can, and prediction. Yes, the last two sound very similar, but I'll expand on those in a bit. First, I'm going to go over how a team can help you win.
Note: Assume throughout this entire that your opponent, whenever mentioned, knows what he's doing.
Your Team:
First off, all your team gives you during a battle is an advantage or a disadvantage, and defines how you can act upon that. If your team consists of the three Hoenn starters and the three Kanto starters, then you are automatically off to a disadvantage. That doesn't necessarily mean that you will lose, it just means that you will have to be at the top of your act, making the best choices and the most accurate predictions. Luck also affects this, but not to as large of a degree, unless it's at a critical point in the battle. But for now, pretend that luck doesn't exist.
The best thing you can do for this department is to make your team as flexible and adaptable as possible, while also having enough singularity to exist if one or two important members get taken out. You don't want to use a Trick Room team with every Pokemon having extremely slow speed, because if your Bronzong gets unexpectedly taken out by a TyraniBoah's Fire Blast early in the game, then all your opponent has to do is put your special wall to sleep, Nasty Plot with Azelf, and proceed to OHKO the rest of your team. If you're running a Baton Pass team, you want to make sure that you have an anti-PHazer to make sure that your stat-upped Pogeys don't get switched out. You want to make sure that you have a wall breaker (which includes tons of type coverage from both the physical and special spectrums) so that a stall team, which are very common nowadays, doesn't lol in your face. You want to have something to status your opponents, so that you have the advantage to set up and Baton Pass, and you want to have something to put that Blissey in its place if it tries to Aromatherapy that status away.
There's a saying - "you can counter some of the metagame all the time; you can counter all the metagame some of the time; you can't counter all of the metagame all of the time". This is an example of how important it is to be able to counter some of the most prominent threats there are out there. Some of these are Gyarados, Heracross, Heatran, Azelf, and ?!?Skarmory!?! Yes, Skarm is a threat. If you don't have a Taunter or PHazer, it can set up SR, three layers of spikes, and then proceed to spike-shuffle you like there's no tomorrow. If you don't have a Gyarados counter, and your only Pokemon with an Electric move is Magnezone, and you try to switch into that Gyarados, you're dead. He'll either Dragon Dance and outspeed you with Earthquake, or he'll attack expecting a switch, taking out a large chunk of your health, and alerting him to the fact that that's your only "counter". Basically, you want to be able to counter as much of the important stuff as you can, while also being able to carry out your game plan. This brings me onto the next subject.
If you have a "role" team (where you just gather a bunch of Pokemon that you like/look cool to fill certain roles such as physical/special sweeper, without adding synergy or strategy to the team), then you'll have a problem with this part. Your team should be able to realistically carry out a plan, because even if you face some funny team full of UU-BL Pokemon, but he has a game plan and you don't, you will more often than not be standing on thin ice. An example would be how Abomasnow, a borderline OU/BL Pokemon, is among the top-used in Shoddy Battle. It has its niche, and even though all of its base stats are sub-par, its ability allows the team to have a goal, be that to stall ("32 turns of hail Stallrein" Walrein) or to take advantage of the abilities or moves that are affected positively by Hail. On any other team, where it's just placed there to fill a role, then it's just dead weight, and, because it has no purpose other than to be different/look cool, it will drag your team down and possibly cause you to lose.
Making the best choices you can:
This part ties in closely with prediction, but there are a couple major differences. First, good choices (this could also be referred to as long-term thinking) are what you should be doing throughout the entire battle and help you maintain your position where you currently are in the win/lose part. Prediction mainly helps you gain an advantage so that your choice have a greater effect, and are to be used when you do not have the advantage, because if you don't have the advantage, and even though you're still making good choices battle-wise, you're chances of wining are going down the drain. Good choices rely somewhat on prediction, but usually just thinking about your opponent's team allows you to make the best choices. I'll now go on about what I mean by "good choices".
Here's a simple example. Say that your Starmie just died from a CBWeavile's Pursuit. Now, say that all your opponent has left is that Weavile and a Gliscor. Now, say that all you have is a CBMetagross and a mixed Lucario with a Life Orb. Now, you have to decide what to send in. What do you think? Write it down somewhere.
Now, I'll go over the choices. If your first impulse was to send in Metagross, and you did send in Metagross, then you're wrong. If you sent it in, expecting to Bullet Punch that Weavile to death, then you're done for, because all he has to do is switch in that Gliscor, which will take lol damage from your weak Bullet Punch, and then will kill you (or your Lucario if you then decided to switch it out to save Metagross) with a STAB Earthquake. If, once your Metagross is dead, your Lucario survived and nailed it with HIdden Power Ice, that Weavile will come in and OHKO you with Brick Break. If you sent in Lucario instead of Metagross in the beginning, you could Vaccuum Wave the Weavile and kill it. If he switched to Gliscor, you could OHKO with Hidden Power Ice, and then switch to Metagross to easily take on the Weavile. That way, you're almost assured to win, where you would not otherwise.
That was a pretty simple example, they can get a lot more complicated, considering that we only took into account two of the opponent's Pokemon. When, at the beginning of a game, there's a full six Pokemon, you'll have to think it out a lot longer. It's pretty easy once you get the idea, though.
Prediction:
As earlier noted, prediction is mainly used when you are at a disadvantage, when you have a Pokemon in and you expect them to think about switching (which is a possible advantage or disadvantage), if you have to switch and their Pokemon can either hit both super-effectively what you switch and and what you have out currently (which is a disadvantage), or if it can disable what you switch in with a status or move such as Taunt/Substitute/etc (which is also a disadvantage).
Prediction, in the same way that choices rely on it, relies on choices/thinking about the opponent's team. In a really simple description, prediction is just a much more potentially-costly form of making a good choice.
Pretend that there is an advantage scale in competitive battling. It looks like a horizontal number line, somewhat like this:
<<-5<-4<-3<-2<-1<0>1>2>3>4>5>>
You and your opponent's teams decide where each of you start on the line. If you lead with a Metagross (AgiliGross or CBGross, not mixed), and your opponent leads with a Swampert, then you are at the disadvantage, because your only STAB attack on it is not very effective. Thus, your starting position on that line is -1. Similarly, if your positions are reversed, then you start at 1. If you both have a Swampert out, or a similar situation, like a Skarmory and a Hippowdon lead, then you both start at 0.
Long-term thinking allows you to move up the scale, and so does as prediction, but the biggest difference is that you have control of whether you move up or not. With prediction, you have the possibility of moving up, but so does your opponent, so it's not entirely in your control. That being said, prediction requires concentration, good judgement and knowledge of your opponent's team, and an insight to your opponent's battle style. If you know your opponent thinks he has balls (using "he" for anatomical correctness ), then you may as well predict that he'll try the cockiest or most dangerous prediction which, if he is correct, will give him the most advantage movement upwards. If you know that your opponent is a conservative battler, then you'll want to go for the most advantage-upping move. If you know your opponent is like you, then you basically have to double-guess yourself, essentially leaving you a 50/50 chance of being right, leaving it best to play that turn conservatively.
To sum it up:
This is not a guide that gives you a step-by-step method of making the best team ever, the best prediction skills, or the best insight how the metagame is played. It is mearly an article that will help you understand what you're doing wrong, what you're doing right, and how you can do better. If you want help building your team, go look at some of the RMTs in the RMT board by some of Smogon's senior members. If you want prediction, go memorize some Pokemon analyses, so that you know all the common sets for certain Pogeys, team types, and on and on. I really, really, REALLY reccomend lurking at Smogon, through all the threads, looking through all the back pages, etc. Besides that, there's only one thing that you can do to improve your playing. Battle.
Battling will help you improve your consistency, your knowledge of your team's abilities, and insight to how opponents battle. That, overall, is what will help you the most once you get started. Have fun reading this wall of text, and I'd appreciate it if you posted
Good luck battling,
Bam
