PGD: Happy Birthday, Red!

[Reizilla]

What makes Digimon Digimon is the fact that It sucks.

Fixed for all of the tl;dr'ers out there.

 

[Espy Rose]

Fixed for all of the tl;dr'ers out there.

This, mostly.

Even with all of this, I can still say with confidence that DW2, the best of the bunch, is still crap compared to most other games in the PS1 library.

Only Digimon game that mattered was Rumble Arena, and that one fell short in the one area that mattered most: Multiplayer.

 

[Vale]

This, mostly.

Even with all of this, I can still say with confidence that DW2, the best of the bunch, is still crap compared to most other games in the PS1 library.

Only Digimon game that mattered was Rumble Arena, and that one fell short in the one area that mattered most: Multiplayer.

I played Boom Bubble Rumble Arena 2, but not the first one.

 

[Espy Rose]

Rumble Arena 2 is so bad compared to 1.

 

[Vale]

I remember some of the characters seeming incredibly broken. Was this just me being bad at the game?

 

[~Radiance~]

Digimon was cool when it was out, but i felt it was always overshadowed by pokemon in every way.

I did like screaming crimson lightning and hiting people with jump ropes as a kid though, that part i did enjoy.

 

[Vale]

One of the Dittos in my box was mislabeled, so I now have ~20 Staryu with perfect Attack stats.

 

[Player -0]

So, I heard you guys like Torchix.

 

[~Radiance~]

im still working on my goomy. im getting so lazy with this **** man.

oh also yesterday i caught a pancham in FS that was shiny, had 31 ivs in att, sp def, and speed.

its nature was plus speed minus att. gg life

 

[Sinister Slush]

Am I like the only one that thinks Goodra has a small resemblance of Yoshi?

 

[Reizilla]

Small resemblance.

 

[KayLo!]

Very, very small.

 

[Espy Rose]

Like the size of a molecule.

 

[redfeatherraven]

Or Espy's dignity. Nah, I ain't gettin into it tonight.

I only ever had the Digivices, so I can't weigh in on any of the DIgimon talk. I can with all confidence say the first couple generations of Digivices were the **** though.

Also, starting to see a few of you crop up in my 3DS, quite pleased with that. And one such person is this chap, who I should now reply to:

How much do you know? If you have previous experience, I'll assume you understand the basics of team building. Would you just like a list of some of the more viable Pokemon and strategies. What kind of advice would you like?

I want to be the very best, like no one ever was.
I made the joke once. And now I'm all done with it.

In seriousness, I don't know ****. Not ****. My team-building strategy parallels my ramen-cooking strategy, in that I keep adding things that sound good in theory until it becomes either awesome or far too spicy for anyone's tastes.

Current goal is fairly simple: I'd like to take a nice, solid, versatile team with a low learning curve and beat the crap out of things. I'd like any and all advice that could put me closer to that goal.

Let's be fair and treat me as an absolute beginner, since the field's changed enough to make it best to start from scratch. Besides Smogon, where would you point a newbie?

 

[ぱみゅ]

About Digimon Rumble Arena: Renamon mirror match was the stupidest possible matchup.

 

[Espy Rose]

Renamon was broken.

 

[~Radiance~]

i love goodra a lot, its my fav pokemon for sure this year

hmmm is FZ biased in any way at all? HOW COULD I BE?!?!

3rd gen fav- latias
5th gen fav- hydreigon
6th gen fav- goodra

all i do is dragon

 

[Espy Rose]

A long time ago, I said that TG was the worst thing to ever post in this thread.
You're tempting me to change that decision.

 

[Spelt]

Can I help with the changing of that decision?

 

[Reizilla]

Worst thing to post in this thread was ponies.

 

[~Radiance~]

A long time ago, I said that TG was the worst thing to ever post in this thread.
You're tempting me to change that decision.

was that directed at me? I honestly couldnt tell, and I read TG as Tokyo Gamer and was under the impression you were thinking I was worse than him in level of annoyance.

I really hope that isnt the case

 

[Espy Rose]

@Rei: Yeah but you eat asparagus.

 

[KayLo!]

was that directed at me? I honestly couldnt tell, and I read TG as Tokyo Gamer and was under the impression you were thinking I was worse than him in level of annoyance.

I really hope that isnt the case

Considering you were the only person to post after him....

Yes, he was talking to you. & yes, that's exactly what he was saying.

But it's Grumpy Grandpa Espy, so I wouldn't take it too seriously.

 

[Espy Rose]

No no Klo. That post was definitely genuine. Like the gray hairs growing on my head.

 

[Reizilla]

Anyone have a Tyrunt or Hydreigon with Dark Pulse that I can borrow real quick?

 

[~Radiance~]

Well thats ok, I dont really take offense to things anymore so ill let it slide. though I suppose my non-sequitors could be a little confusing or aggitating.

also rei, I dont need a bagon anymore because i found a friends helioptile to breed goomys with. If you want a goomy with its hidden ability though let me know

edit: also I can let you borrow my tyrantrum if you want. ill teach it dpulse for ya

 

[Vale]

INCOMING WALL OF TEXT FOR REDFEATHERRAVEN

Team Building 101

Metagame​

The metagame of the 5th Generation revolved around controlling a weather condition (rain, sandstorm, sun). However, the abilities Drought, Sand Stream, and Drizzle have all been nerfed, so going into 6th Gen, there isn't a set precedent. However, the abilities of entry hazards (Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Stealth Rock) have not been nerfed (to my knowledge), so you will be seeing those often.​

​

Stealth Rock​

Almost all competitive teams involve a Stealth Rock user. If you're unfamiliar with the move, it deals 12.5% (1/8) of a Pokemon's HP whenever it switches in.​

However, being a Rock type move, it applies weaknesses and resistances. The sole existence of this move has limited the ability of 'mon such as Charizard, Moltres, and Yanmega.​

​

Rapid Spin​

This move is one of the sole outs to Stealth Rocks. It instantly clears the field of all entry hazards your opponent has set up, but keeps your own. However, some teams, such as those with many Rock and Steel types, may not need to use a Rapid Spinner.​

General Tips​

• A team should have no more than three Pokemon with a weakness to the same type (this is a limit. Two and lower are optimal).
• A team should have outs to the most popular 'mon in the metagame (irrelevant for now)​
• A team should have Pokemon that fill different roles (exceptions covered later on). For example, a team of six physical sweepers may automatically lose against a single Skarmory or Avalugg.​

Roles​

Pokemon tend to fall into three types of roles, and those roles are further divided. Each role features Physical (Attack/Defence specialisation), Special (Sp.Atk/Sp.Def specialisation) and Mixed (strong in both fields).​

​

Sweepers: The primary attacking forces of a team. Sweepers are meant to come in, (optionally) boost their stats with a move, and then lay waste to the opponent's team with powerful attacks that hit a variety of Pokemon for Super-Effective damage.​

A good example of a physical sweeper is Blaziken. After it comes in, it can use Swords Dance, followed by protect. You now sit at +2 attack and +2 speed (from Speed Boost). Flare Blitz and High Jump Kick will OHKO most anything that tries to stop it, especially after a Mega Evolution. Of course, note the recoil risks.
A good example of a special sweeper is Latios. With a life orb attached, Draco Meteor will OHKO anything that doesn't resist it. It boasts the speed and power to revenge kill effectively. In addition to hit-and-run tactics with Draco Meteor, it has access to other powerful moves, such as Surf and Psychic.
A good example of a mixed sweeper is Infernape. It has access to both Nasty Plot and Swords Dance, but also has a base 104 stat in both without a boost. This makes it unpredictable to the opponent, and moves such as Flamethrower (special) and Close Combat (physical) have the ability to counter the titans of physical and special defence, such as Skarmory and Blissey.

Tank: A major problem with sweepers is frailty. A single priority move or good hit will take it out. This is where tanks shine. Usually, tanks exchange the blazing speed of sweepers for high defence or special defence, allowing them to take hits.​

As it was mentioned earlier in the thread, we'll use Avalugg as our example of a tank. An already high attack and defence can be boosted by Curse. After a few boosts, anything outside of a critical hit is not going to be KOing it from the physical side.
The attack stats aren't always matched by the defence stat, however. Slowbro is a notable example, featuring high defence and passable Special Attack. It also has access to the move Calm Mind, which patches up any holes in special defence and raises Special Attack to a more threatening level. The hidden ability, Regenerator, allows it to leave battle and come back in with restored health, making it an MVP in long battles.
Mixed tanks are those with high defence and special defence. Swampert is a great example. It has passable defencive stats and a 110 attack stat. With only one weakness, to a type that has been rarely employed in past metagames, Swampert has the ability to annoy the opponent and deal damage. It has the ability to run support moves, such as Stealth Rocks, but can also set up with moves like Curse.
Just because it is one of my favourites, I'll mention Porygon2 as another mixed wall. With an eviolite and 252/252 investment in the defenses (neutral nature), the stats reach 418 and 433, respectively. It also has a base 105 Special Attack to work with to fire off Ice Beams, Discharges, and Thunderbolts; the ability to heal with Recover; and the power to spread status with Toxic or Thunder Wave.

Wall: Pokemon that focus on support more than dealing damage. Examples of support moves are rapid spin*, stealth rocks, light screen, reflect, thunder wave, and toxic. They focus on grinding down the opponent and helping out the other members of the team.​

An example of a physical wall would be Skarmory. It has the ability to lay down Spikes/Stealth Rocks (Stealth Rocks is not available for Skarmory until Pokebank, however), can force switches with Whirlwind, can recover with Roost, and can deal damage with Drill Peck or Brave Bird.
The most iconic special wall is Chansey, a gen 1 staple and star user of the Eviolite. Even Focus Blast, a fighting type move with 120 base power, has trouble getting a OHKO on Chansey, bar a few of the most powerful users. Chansey can use Wish to heal any teammate completely for free, spread status with Thunder Wave or Toxic, heal with Softboiled (or Wish), and deal steady damage with Seismic Toss.
Cresselia is the first example that comes to mind as a mixed wall. Cresselia boasts a base 120HP, 120Def, and 130Sp.Def. When combined with recovery in Moonlight and the ability to support the team with Reflect and Light Screen, Cresselia can be very difficult to take out. A base 75 Special Attack isn't great, but STAB psychics can still leave a dent on weaker Pokemon.


*rapid spin is also seen on Sweepers, such as Starmie. Some people take advantage of the switches that occur when a sweeper is brought in to clear their field.

Some teams focus on overlapping roles as much as possible in order to achieve victory. I'll discuss the two main versions of those teams now.

Overlapping Roles: Hyper-Offense​

This type of team focuses on straight sweepers. The goal of this team is to establish momentum and overwhelm the opponent's defences. This team is generally filled with fairly fragile Pokemon, so disturbing the momentum is a quick way to wipe out one or more of their team. Prediction is important when playing hyper-offense, but moves such as U-Turn and Volt Switch are utilised to allow one to switch out without wasting a turn of potential damage. Setu-up sweepers are also important. Using moves such as Swords Dance or Nasty Plot allows for one to power off attacks that can break through the walls they encounter. The offensive Pokemon used tend to share similar counters, with the mindset that if one of them takes out that wall, they'll have a clean path to victory. They also tend to have one Pokemon on the team that sets up Stealth Rock to wear the opponent's team, set up Reflect/Light Screen to provide defence during their sweep, and/or something with a move such as Momento that allows for a "free" switch in once the job is done.​

A hyper-offense team may look something like this:
Azelf
Infernape
Alakzam
Volcarona
Lucario
Latios

Overlapping Roles: Stall​

Although your comment sounds like you'd stay away from running this team, you should know how they work.​

These teams focus on running multiple defensive walls and special walls, with potentially one "clean-up" sweeper. They focus on laying down hazards and using phazing moves (e.g. roar, whirlwind) and walls to force switches. One member of the team may also employ Perish Song to finish the game with certainty.​

An example of a stall team may look something like this:
Tyranitar
Skarmory
Blissey
Cradily
Tentacruel
Ferrothorn

Finishing Thoughts​

Based on what we can find in Pokemon X/Y currently, here are basic suggestions for Pokemon to use. Try to find ones that fit your style.

Physical Sweeper: Lucario, Blaziken, Scizor
Physical Tank: Aegislash, Avalugg, Mega Mawile
Physical Wall: Skarmory
Special Sweeper: Alakazam, Mega Gengar, Starmie
Special Tank: Goodra
Special Wall: Blissey
Other notable Pokemon of various roles include Gliscor, Greninja, anything with a Mega Evolution (although some are much better than others), and most Legendary Pokemon.


Example Team: Tyranitar, Garchomp, Aegislash, Starmie, Scizor, Gengar
The biggest weakness right of the bat is a triple weakness to Ground (if Mega-Gengar is used), but otherwise demonstrates a basic team that can deal with a variety of conditions. It has strong attack power all around and some bulky 'mon in Aegislash and Tyranitar. Both Physical and Special moves are represented. Tyranitar can use Stealth Rock, learning it as an egg move by breeding with the Tyrantrum family.

This guide is mostly just how to design the team. I probably left things out, but feel this should be enough to start. Learning how to make predictions and otherwise "play" the game is enough to be a separate wall of text. I believe Smogon is the best site for learning about things, but I'm sure Serebii and Marriland are decent. If you use Pokemon Online, each server tends to have their own forum, which is bound to have some kind of information. If anything is inaccurate in this, due to changes in 6th gen mechanics or otherwise, I figure other people will point it out.

 

[~Radiance~]

quite the extensive knowledge here Vale. What is your experience like with doubles teams? I was looking for someone to make a dubs team with but my knowledge is almost soley limited to singles. In short im asking if you want to make a doubles team lol.

 

[Vale]

quite the extensive knowledge here Vale. What is your experience like with doubles teams? I was looking for someone to make a dubs team with but my knowledge is almost soley limited to singles. In short im asking if you want to make a doubles team lol.

I have less formal experience with double battles, but I have knowledge of basic combos and have a few ideas floating around in my mind. I wasn't aware, however, that double battles were now team battles--is that what the multibattle is? I'd definitely be up for teaming with you, though.

 

[~Radiance~]

yea multibattle is now team battle afaik. My only general knowledge is that things like earthquake are fun when you have a levitator or a flying type, same goes for surf on a pokemon that has protect or is otherwise just resistant/bulky towards it.

I dont have any particular build im looking at atm though I would like to fit goodra/latias/hydreigon in there

 

[Vale]

Is each player limited to three Pokemon in a multibattle (total 6 per team)?
A gimmick that is yet not fully explored involves the use of the move Frost Breath and the ability Anger Point. Demonstrated by one of the trainers in the Battle Maison, a Delibird can score a critical hit on an ally Tauros, who then proceeds to gain a +6 attack stat, thanks to its hidden ability. Tauros can then use an Area of Effect move (Earthquake) to hit the opposing team hard. Of course, this has some obvious counters, and is reliant on both of them being alive.

I was thinking of doing something similar. Using a bulky Togekiss with Follow Me, we could potentially secure multiple turns for a Pokemon to use Swords Dance or Nasty Plot. When Togekiss faints, a second fast sweeper (e.g. mega blaziken) could come in and the two could wreck havoc.

Running Goodra, Latias, and Hydreigon is going to give us a strong weakness to opposing Dragons and Fairy types. However, if that is the team you want to run, I can design my team to compliment them. Alternatively, and I think it would be better, would be if I were to control one of the three (e.g. Hydreigon), and you used the third slot to have a tank that resists opposing Dragon/Fairy attacks (Mega Mawile? Aegislash?)

Important questions about team battles that wouldn't apply to standard doubles:
Do we both get to mega-evolve once, or is that shared between the team?
Can we both run a copy of the same Pokemon, or is that shared between the team?

 

[~Radiance~]

to answer your questions:

Yes we both can have one mega each, we can each mega evolve something
Shared copies I am not sure about

also: I was not suggesting to use 3 dragons heavens no, that is way too much dragon/ice weakness. I was saying i want to use one of the three.

I like the idea of anger point crit manipulation. Id love to try that. We can put a team together and see what happens. Add me on skype so we can chat easier, my name is LatiasLulu.

Ill be free in a few hours or so to chat, Im working on a paper atm.

 

[Vale]

to answer your questions:

Yes we both can have one mega each, we can each mega evolve something
Shared copies I am not sure about

also: I was not suggesting to use 3 dragons heavens no, that is way too much dragon/ice weakness. I was saying i want to use one of the three.

I like the idea of anger point crit manipulation. Id love to try that. We can put a team together and see what happens. Add me on skype so we can chat easier, my name is LatiasLulu.

Ill be free in a few hours or so to chat, Im working on a paper atm.

Alright, we'll definitely want to take advantage of the ability to use two Megas.
I used to run 4drag2mag, so I wasn't too concerned about having three on a team if the rest complimented it.
I already forsee some problems with the strategy (e.g. delibird sucks, they can also use flying types to get around earthquake. Tauros is slow, needs to be choiced). However, we might want something with an "always-crit" move somewhere on the team in order to get past curse walls.
My Skype username reveals personal details. I'll have to make a new one, should make it soon.

 

[ぱみゅ]

And here I thought I was the only one that enjoyed Doubles more than Singles c:

 

[~Radiance~]

Ok well when you modify it/make a new one add me so we can discuss this topic more.

Im in grad school so most of my weekends are spent working on papers, but I have weekends free every now and then and am usually free even on those busy weekends in the evening.

Yea Kyo, ive always been interested in dubs because you can play with friends, im just not very familiar with the meta of it at all haha. Of course my singles meta was just lead infernape with SR and Fakeout and like 5 sweepers

 

[Vale]

You should tell us how to play doubles.

@Latias,
I remembered an old account I used to use. Username is "gearwheels", but I think I set the name that appears to Clockwork.

 

[ぱみゅ]

I don't know about Doubles meta either lol
I just know I like it because I can think outside the box.
Tailwind, Surf, Blizzard, Wide Guard.... There are LOTS of new moves that can be used, and I sure like to experiment a lot with boosts and multiple-target attacks.

 

[Angiance]

[insert contribution to the conversation]

 

[Sinister Slush]

I can't remember my old Smogon name but it definitely had Icicles in it.

 

[KayLo!]

For the (very, very) brief time I did Pokemon battles, I was always a fan of stall teams and crithax. Togekiss was my absolute favorite. <3 With either Bronzong or Leadfernape in front. Dragonite was a fav too. & I always tried in vain to build teams around Venusaur.

Also dabbled in Trick Room, which was fun when it caught people off guard.