Pokemon Teams: Which ones do you Choose and Why?

[Gizametalman]

Out of complete boredom, I feel curious about this topic.
With 807 different species of Pokemon, I'm pretty sure that choosing a team to rule them all is not just hard for me, but for all of us who plays the series just for fun or for serious competition.
This post is just to discuss why we choose just those 6 Pokemon and why we leave 800 more out of our team.

My favourite team has been always this:

- Alakazam: I love his Psychic Moves, in my opinion, Alakazam with 4 Psychic type moves and Speed raised to its max, turns him into a Solid Powerhouse in certain occasions.

- Machamp: Gotta love Karate Chop, Low Sweep and Brick Breaker.

- Fearow: Drill Peck is one of my favourite moves ever. With the fact that it can also learn dark type moves alongside with Fly, it can be annoying for Specials and Physical attacks to hit in the first place.

- Steelix/Aggron: When not against Water and Fire Types, these two has tremendous resistance to Physical attacks. Can beat most of the Gyms out there with one of those Pokemon. With moves like Earthquake and having a decent Attack Stat, be confident that even a 4° Earthquake can take out any rival.

- Beedrill: Fury Attack, Double Needle, Poison Sting, Pursuit. The first two attacks multiple times, with the added bonus of Poisoning the Target. When not choosing a Flying move, Pursuit makes it a little better against resistant types.

- Gyarados: Having the ability to learn Flying and Dragon moves along with Surf, makes Gyarados a must have to me.

Other Pokemons I would love to have too are:

- Gengar [Special Moves]
- Dragonite [Dragon Moves]
- Kingler [1-HIT KO moves]
- Scizor [Steel + Bug is pretty good]
- Ledian [Meteor Punch looks nice]
- Golem [I like turtles...and Ground Types]
- Aerodactyl [Love Dinosaurs]


Which ones do you choose?

 

[ThoD]

To be honest, I have literally every single mon, battle ready and with at least 5 different competitive sets, but hardly ever use most. I have grown terribly bored of competitive since it's too easy and 99% of the people are just copy-pasting sets from Smogon without even knowing why some stuff is good and why some aren't, so most of the time I'll literally pick 6 random mons from my boxes before battle and battle with them, but even with terrible compatibility between one another I still win...

Still, my main team is a slight variation of the one that almost got me two world championships (2008 and 2010), which is:
-Dragonite (lead) with Outrage, Dragon Dance, Waterfall and Aerial Ace holding a Lum Berry (Yache Berry in gens 4-5)
-Tyranitar (offensive special wall) with Crunch, Rock Slide, Fire Punch and Iron Head holding Assault Vest (Chople Berry in gens 4-5)
-Alakazam (special attacker) with Psychic, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball and Dazzling Gleam (Shock Wave in gen 4-5) holding Life Orb
-Garchomp (physical attack) with Dragon Claw, Iron Head, Earthquake and Rock Slide holding Brightpowder for that extra scumminess
-Mega Aggron (offensive physical wall) with Iron Head, Rock Slide, Brick Break and Earthquake (Avalanche instead though whenever allowed) holding Aggronite *
-Latios (special attacker) with Dragon Pulse, Shadow Ball, Surf and Psychic holding Weakness Policy **

* In my old team for World's (gen 4) and until gen 6 I was instead using bulky offensive Drapion with Cross Poison, Knock Off, Endure and Sleep Talk (lots of sleep back in the day since in 2008 Darkrai was legal in prelims) holding Enigma Berry.

** Since Latios from Emerald (transfer) isn't allowed in competitions anymore and the meta has changed too, I've replaced it with Espeon with Dazzling Gleam, Shadow Ball, Psychic and Trick Room (last thing you would expect from a fast mon, used to counter Trick Room teams for at least a turn) holding Focus Sash.

Although, while that's my "main" team, I have only lost 4 times with it and have won 15600 times, so I've just gone with a Mono-Ice team lately just so I can lose more often (Ninetails, Jynx, Sandslash, Bearctic, Mamoswine and Vanilluxe)

 

[SG854]

Out of complete boredom, I feel curious about this topic.
With 807 different species of Pokemon, I'm pretty sure that choosing a team to rule them all is not just hard for me, but for all of us who plays the series just for fun or for serious competition.
This post is just to discuss why we choose just those 6 Pokemon and why we leave 800 more out of our team.

My favourite team has been always this:

- Alakazam: I love his Psychic Moves, in my opinion, Alakazam with 4 Psychic type moves and Speed raised to its max, turns him into a Solid Powerhouse in certain occasions.

- Machamp: Gotta love Karate Chop, Low Sweep and Brick Breaker.

- Fearow: Drill Peck is one of my favourite moves ever. With the fact that it can also learn dark type moves alongside with Fly, it can be annoying for Specials and Physical attacks to hit in the first place.

- Steelix/Aggron: When not against Water and Fire Types, these two has tremendous resistance to Physical attacks. Can beat most of the Gyms out there with one of those Pokemon. With moves like Earthquake and having a decent Attack Stat, be confident that even a 4° Earthquake can take out any rival.

- Beedrill: Fury Attack, Double Needle, Poison Sting, Pursuit. The first two attacks multiple times, with the added bonus of Poisoning the Target. When not choosing a Flying move, Pursuit makes it a little better against resistant types.

- Gyarados: Having the ability to learn Flying and Dragon moves along with Surf, makes Gyarados a must have to me.

Other Pokemons I would love to have too are:

- Gengar [Special Moves]
- Dragonite [Dragon Moves]
- Kingler [1-HIT KO moves]
- Scizor [Steel + Bug is pretty good]
- Ledian [Meteor Punch looks nice]
- Golem [I like turtles...and Ground Types]
- Aerodactyl [Love Dinosaurs]


Which ones do you choose?

Its like saying why you choose to marry 1 person and leave out 7.6 billions of others, about half of which are women.

I switch teams a lot. I don't stick with the same 6 all the time. I get bored with the same teams so I mix it up. I like to experiment with different poke's a lot too. Even using bad teams.

This was a random team I assembled months ago looking at my last save. I haven't played competitive in a while.
araquanid
pelipper
mimikyu
kangaskhan
dragonite
zygarde

 

[Gizametalman]

To be honest, I have literally every single mon, battle ready and with at least 5 different competitive sets, but hardly ever use most. I have grown terribly bored of competitive since it's too easy and 99% of the people are just copy-pasting sets from Smogon without even knowing why some stuff is good and why some aren't, so most of the time I'll literally pick 6 random mons from my boxes before battle and battle with them, but even with terrible compatibility between one another I still win...

Still, my main team is a slight variation of the one that almost got me two world championships (2008 and 2010), which is:
-Dragonite (lead) with Outrage, Dragon Dance, Waterfall and Aerial Ace holding a Lum Berry (Yache Berry in gens 4-5)
-Tyranitar (offensive special wall) with Crunch, Rock Slide, Fire Punch and Iron Head holding Assault Vest (Chople Berry in gens 4-5)
-Alakazam (special attacker) with Psychic, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball and Dazzling Gleam (Shock Wave in gen 4-5) holding Life Orb
-Garchomp (physical attack) with Dragon Claw, Iron Head, Earthquake and Rock Slide holding Brightpowder for that extra scumminess
-Mega Aggron (offensive physical wall) with Iron Head, Rock Slide, Brick Break and Earthquake (Avalanche instead though whenever allowed) holding Aggronite *
-Latios (special attacker) with Dragon Pulse, Shadow Ball, Surf and Psychic holding Weakness Policy **

* In my old team for World's (gen 4) and until gen 6 I was instead using bulky offensive Drapion with Cross Poison, Knock Off, Endure and Sleep Talk (lots of sleep back in the day since in 2008 Darkrai was legal in prelims) holding Enigma Berry.

** Since Latios from Emerald (transfer) isn't allowed in competitions anymore and the meta has changed too, I've replaced it with Espeon with Dazzling Gleam, Shadow Ball, Psychic and Trick Room (last thing you would expect from a fast mon, used to counter Trick Room teams for at least a turn) holding Focus Sash.

Although, while that's my "main" team, I have only lost 4 times with it and have won 15600 times, so I've just gone with a Mono-Ice team lately just so I can lose more often (Ninetails, Jynx, Sandslash, Bearctic, Mamoswine and Vanilluxe)

That last part is edgy as fuck.
But it's good to know how diverse this Game is when it comes to serious matters as Competitive play.

I honestly, am not interested in Competitive play, so most of the Items, Abilities and Natures are completely out of my interest.
Also, congracts for being one of the most complete Pokemon players in the world. That surprises me a lot.
When I was a kid, I never thought Pokemon would turn in the rocket science that it is today.

 

[ThoD]

That last part is edgy as fuck.
But it's good to know how diverse this Game is when it comes to serious matters as Competitive play.

I honestly, am not interested in Competitive play, so most of the Items, Abilities and Natures are completely out of my interest.
Also, congracts for being one of the most complete Pokemon players in the world. That surprises me a lot.
When I was a kid, I never thought Pokemon would turn in the rocket science that it is today.

What do you mean edgy? I just have been using that team for a decade, of course I'll have a ton of victories when it's so OP, enough to get me so bored sick of winning that I want to lose more often! Btw, want to know how I perfected my team back in gen 4? I would lend my team to my sister who knows NOTHING about Pokemon more than a couple of Pokemon names and partial type matchups. Well, I would battle her using full competitive legendary teams until she started beating me 6-0, lol! Try it out if you want a good competitive team, works!

Back in D/P/Pt age, you didn't really bother with competitive breeding and all that stuff, just got best one you could and went with it. Also, hardly anyone ever switched out, unlike how it is nowadays where people swap out every second turn, ruining the fun. For example, I won't ever swap out no matter what, Azumarill vs my Tyranitar? I stay in! Xerneas vs my Garchomp? I stay it! It's MUCH more fun! In World's in 2008 there was even a limit of 3 switches per battle! In 2008's I got top 4 and 2010's top 8, then stopped bothering to compete, since it started getting boring. B/W did some interesting stuff with Hidden Abilities, but the games were so terrible that I quit Pokemon completely until almost the time ORAS was out... As for how Pokemon has evolved into a huge thing, I know, didn't expect it either. I expected something at the scale of how Digimon was around 2002, nothing like what we got now!

 

[Hells Malice]

I've never taken Pokemon too seriously since it's not really a balanced, competitive game. It'd be awesome if one day Gamefreak actually cared enough about the competitive side of it to make it remotely fun or interesting.

Anywho I tend to just go with cute pokemon, with a pokemon or two I find cool sometimes. I think my team on Sun/Moon ended up being like 3 grass types...rip.
But what I generally aim for are

Gardevoir (yeah yeah, I liked her before I knew the freaks who also like her qq)
Liligant (legit cutest pokemon)
Arcanine/Charizard (I waffle between the two)
Flygon

and usually end up just filling in the blanks tbh. An eeveelution usually makes its way in at some point.

 

[RustInPeace]

I would like to get into more competitive, but don't have much motivation, patience, and/or time. Playing on Showdown kind of doesn't help, some pricks there. Also, while ripping off Smogon for sets, I rather do things trial and error rather than be coached by someone. That being said, these 6 were hardly ever together, but they produced the most success. Or I just like them too much on a competitive level.

Togekiss - Ever since I got a Tri-Attack Togepi with Serene Grace on XD: Gale of Darkness, I got really attracted to Togekiss' specialties. Namely, Serene Grace, before the Fairy change, that move had STAB and a higher chance of getting burn, paralysis, freeze. For Battle Frontier, I relished in that. Its main attraction is Air Slash, paraflinching. Cheap? Maybe, but I love that strategy.

Umbreon - Wish/Foul Play/Protect/Toxic. Umbreon's bulky, takes advantage of physical threats, wears down with Toxic, I prefer Wish over Moonlight for recovery, plus Leftovers. I like that strategy and I feel like Umbreon's one of the best for that long game.

Mega Mawile - Great physical movepool, great pre-Mega ability to wear down threats before Huge Power kicks in. I like using it. I never could get Swords Dance up and running, I usually go all attacks, but that was Gen 6. With Gen 7, I think I can get Swords Dance in.

Salamence - If Uber/AG tier legends count, (Mega) Rayquaza would have this slot. Otherwise I love using this in Battle Tree. Dragon types are my favorites, basically if I can't use Rayquaza (my all time favorite pokemon), then this comes in.

Alakazam - I haven't really used it competitively, but before Rayquaza, this was my favorite pokemon, and very elusive as a child because I could never obtain it unless on Stadium 1/2 rental. I didn't have the means to trade with people or myself. Pure special attacking glass cannon, nothing more or less.

Latios - Favoring dragons again and this one has sentimental value. I caught one of these on MLK Day 2005, nicknaming him "Dream." He probably had shitty stats and nature, but since then Latios has been way up there. Special attacking beast too, a combo of my two favorite types, Psychic and Dragon.

Honorable mentions: Gardevoir, Heatran, Lucario, Greninja, Tyranitar, Lugia, Xerneas, Primal Groudon, Zapdos, Machamp, Porygon2, Tapu Lele, Garchomp, Mega Lopunny, Arceus, Aegislash, Shaymin-Sky, Mimikyu.

 

[ThoD]

I've never taken Pokemon too seriously since it's not really a balanced, competitive game. It'd be awesome if one day Gamefreak actually cared enough about the competitive side of it to make it remotely fun or interesting.

Anywho I tend to just go with cute pokemon, with a pokemon or two I find cool sometimes. I think my team on Sun/Moon ended up being like 3 grass types...rip.
But what I generally aim for are

Gardevoir (yeah yeah, I liked her before I knew the freaks who also like her qq)
Liligant (legit cutest pokemon)
Arcanine/Charizard (I waffle between the two)
Flygon

and usually end up just filling in the blanks tbh. An eeveelution usually makes its way in at some point.

The main reason competitive isn't fun anymore is because now we have a crapload of broken OP things or broken stall walls and that takes away all the fun. It used to be fun using stuff like Qwilfish, but take that into OU and it will be dead before it's even fully sent out of it's ball! Everyone just uses the aforementioned OP things and the competitive scene has turned more generic and dull than ever!

 

[Gizametalman]

I've never taken Pokemon too seriously since it's not really a balanced, competitive game. It'd be awesome if one day Gamefreak actually cared enough about the competitive side of it to make it remotely fun or interesting.

Anywho I tend to just go with cute pokemon, with a pokemon or two I find cool sometimes. I think my team on Sun/Moon ended up being like 3 grass types...rip.
But what I generally aim for are

Gardevoir (yeah yeah, I liked her before I knew the freaks who also like her qq)
Liligant (legit cutest pokemon)
Arcanine/Charizard (I waffle between the two)
Flygon

and usually end up just filling in the blanks tbh. An eeveelution usually makes its way in at some point.

Classic, choosing a team based on how they look. I've done that sometime.
I even had the whole Eve team in Crystal and some random ones to fill the team.
When it comes to cuteness, Totodile, Larvitar, Togepi and Tediursa are the ones I choose.

 

[anhminh]

I like to do some theme for my story team but I always swap some of them in the end and break the theme because I tire of see them failing me over and over again (which is pretty easy consider that I being cheap and rarely buy potion nor bother to use one). If it look good though that wouldn't be a problem but if it look ugly then there is really high change it get a warm place in the box.

My team so far in USUM which consist of Gen VII Pokemon only:

- Incineroar: I was consider to choose Primarina but I already choose her in SM and I don't want to soft reset again for a female one, the owl isn't an option because Lilligant and Tsareena already fight for that spot. Have to say I don't like him very much, look too much Fire/Fighting for me and I always hate Fire/Fighting Pokemon. Only keep him because the Z-move look kinda cool.

- Tsareena: She won just because the theme, I would always go with Lilligant otherwise because she will always be the cutest Pokemon for me.

- Raichu: She look so cute with that jelly bean eyes and those Togetic wing-ears. She die a lots though but I still keep her around because she cute.

- Bewear: My favorite champ, tough as hell with those fluffy hair so there is no change he will leave my team.

- Sandslash: He was in last minute because I figured out my team have no answer for Fairy-type and Dragon-type yet. He look ok and rarely die so he is safe... for now.

- Pelipper: His spot used to belong to Araquanid, and before that is an Wishiwashi. I only end up using Pelipper because he have perfect accurate Hurricane and make my Raichu Thunder 100% accurate. He had U-turn and Roost so I won't change him again.

 

[ov3rkill]

Mix and match the different the cute Pokemon. Just kill the others through cuteness and adorableness.

You can't go wrong with the original Pikachu, Mew, Vulpix, the Eeveelutions, etc.
Togepi, Togekiss, Charmander, Jigglypuff, Fennekin, Emolga, just too many cute ones to list among others.

 

[Deleted member 377734]

an extremely powerful special sweeper I've come across lately is Xuritree, equip it with a focus sash, and give it Tail Glow, energy ball, thunderbolt and Hidden power dragon, and it can sweep most teams away, as a bonus, Beast Boost even raises it's spec attack after each knockout,
an extremely powerful physical sweeper is Mega Scizor with the ability Technician, and a moveset of Bullet punch/ swords dance/ roost and x-scissor . Those are my two favorite pokemon right now.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

other honourable mentions are :
Haxorus.
Greninja- Ash
Mega Tyrantar.
Ferrothorn.
and Kyurem White.

 

[Deleted User]

an extremely powerful special sweeper I've come across lately is Xuritree, equip it with a focus sash, and give it Tail Glow, energy ball, thunderbolt and Hidden power dragon, and it can sweep most teams away, as a bonus, Beast Boost even raises it's spec attack after each knockout,
an extremely powerful physical sweeper is Mega Scizor with the ability Technician, and a moveset of Bullet punch/ swords dance/ roost and x-scissor . Those are my two favorite pokemon right now.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

other honourable mentions are :
Haxorus.
Greninja- Ash
Mega Tyrantar.
Ferrothorn.
and Kyurem White.

How did you manage Hidden Power dragon? I would go with HP Ice considering it's only weakness is ground, but I guess you cover that with Energy Ball

 

[Gizametalman]

an extremely powerful special sweeper I've come across lately is Xuritree, equip it with a focus sash, and give it Tail Glow, energy ball, thunderbolt and Hidden power dragon, and it can sweep most teams away, as a bonus, Beast Boost even raises it's spec attack after each knockout,
an extremely powerful physical sweeper is Mega Scizor with the ability Technician, and a moveset of Bullet punch/ swords dance/ roost and x-scissor . Those are my two favorite pokemon right now.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

other honourable mentions are :
Haxorus.
Greninja- Ash
Mega Tyrantar.
Ferrothorn.
and Kyurem White.

I don't know that one Xuritree. I'm just starting to Play Pokemon Ultra.
I finished Sun with a decent team... I mean, for the game, so I completely bypassed pretty much all the Pokemans out there.
Mudbray was my favorite and has gained a special place in my heart.
But nice tactic with Scizor. Gotta try to add Roost sometime. That and an Steel type move.

 

[SG854]

I've never taken Pokemon too seriously since it's not really a balanced, competitive game. It'd be awesome if one day Gamefreak actually cared enough about the competitive side of it to make it remotely fun or interesting.

That's where tiers come in, and the arguments, "he should be banned. No he should be banned, I hate tiers you guys a stoopid."
People trying to balance the game and argue over who should be where.

I would like to get into more competitive, but don't have much motivation, patience, and/or time.

I tried doing the legit way of breeding and training. After a while I said fuck it, i'm pokegening. Its such a sloth to do it legit. Plus the amount of time to build one team, which I would rather use to learn about the world, history, or play a different game. I want to get straight to the battling without the long pointless wasteful processes training, time I would rather use to improve myself playing the piano or basketball or learning more about the world around me.

The main reason competitive isn't fun anymore is because now we have a crapload of broken OP things or broken stall walls and that takes away all the fun. It used to be fun using stuff like Qwilfish, but take that into OU and it will be dead before it's even fully sent out of it's ball! Everyone just uses the aforementioned OP things and the competitive scene has turned more generic and dull than ever!

On paper competitive does seem cool because of this in depth system and many things to get into. In practice it gets dull quick, the same strategies, using the same moves, it gets boring, so I try to make it fun by using the worst teams I could use and switching it up.

I remember I saw a Verlisify video and he was complain about pokegen. I remember building a team legit, then felt like shit afterwards using that team in battle because I was like, that was it, thats all, all that wasted time and pokemon die so quick, such a waste of time, and the team I used I got bored with really quick. No way I'm making a new team legit, fuck it I'm pokegening. I don't know how they and Verlisify can be proud of playing legit. I would rather improve myself as a person and take singing lessons then play competitive pokemon legit.

 

[Ryccardo]

My main 2 memorable teams were the ones I used in Gen 2 and 4:

Feraligatr (starter, ofc)
red Gyarados (shiny!!!11)
Suicune (all cool kids had to have at least 1 legendary, its type and design certainly made me like it)
Poliwhirl (not sure if it evolved in Poliwrath)
Noctowl, later Xatu
random filler (usually Graveler or Goldeen or egg of the day)

Infernape (starter)
Alakazam (from GTS)
Swampert (from Ruby -- strongly hated how they made Surf also hit your allies, and still do)
Crobat (traded with a real life friend to get Pokerus, ended up my first level 100)
Staraptor
Roserade (substitute for the Luxray I loaned to a friend, on new year's 2008, for some help beating the league - we live 8 km apart but I'm too lazy to ask for it back )

 

[RustInPeace]

I remember I saw a Verlisify video and he was complain about pokegen. I remember building a team legit, then felt like shit afterwards using that team in battle because I was like, that was it, thats all, all that wasted time and pokemon die so quick, such a waste of time, and the team I used I got bored with really quick. No way I'm making a new team legit, fuck it I'm pokegening. I don't know how they and Verlisify can be proud of playing legit. I would rather improve myself as a person and take singing lessons then play competitive pokemon legit.

That's one of the best arguments for genning/hacking/cheating ever. I do admit to doing things semi-legit, doing the breeding and catching of legends, but through RNG. Best of both words, taking advantage of hacking tools and basically gaming the system to get what you want. Of course that doesn't make my battling skills any better, but ah well.

 

[ThoD]

an extremely powerful special sweeper I've come across lately is Xuritree, equip it with a focus sash, and give it Tail Glow, energy ball, thunderbolt and Hidden power dragon, and it can sweep most teams away, as a bonus, Beast Boost even raises it's spec attack after each knockout,
an extremely powerful physical sweeper is Mega Scizor with the ability Technician, and a moveset of Bullet punch/ swords dance/ roost and x-scissor . Those are my two favorite pokemon right now.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

other honourable mentions are :
Haxorus.
Greninja- Ash
Mega Tyrantar.
Ferrothorn.
and Kyurem White.

Try Z-Hypnosis Xurkitree, you won't be disappointed, +1 in speed and opponent asleep at your mercy! Also, Technician won't boost X-Scissor so it stays at 80 base power, while Bug Bite gets boosted from 60 to 90 base AND eats the opponent's berry!

How did you manage Hidden Power dragon? I would go with HP Ice considering it's only weakness is ground, but I guess you cover that with Energy Ball

I know, I don't get the HP Dragon either, if he wants to hit Dragons, why not go with Dazzling Gleam which also hits Dark?:/

That's where tiers come in, and the arguments, "he should be banned. No he should be banned, I hate tiers you guys a stoopid."
People trying to balance the game and argue over who should be where.



I tried doing the legit way of breeding and training. After a while I said fuck it, i'm pokegening. Its such a sloth to do it legit. Plus the amount of time to build one team, which I would rather use to learn about the world, history, or play a different game. I want to get straight to the battling without the long pointless wasteful processes training, time I would rather use to improve myself playing the piano or basketball or learning more about the world around me.


On paper competitive does seem cool because of this in depth system and many things to get into. In practice it gets dull quick, the same strategies, using the same moves, it gets boring, so I try to make it fun by using the worst teams I could use and switching it up.

I remember I saw a Verlisify video and he was complain about pokegen. I remember building a team legit, then felt like shit afterwards using that team in battle because I was like, that was it, thats all, all that wasted time and pokemon die so quick, such a waste of time, and the team I used I got bored with really quick. No way I'm making a new team legit, fuck it I'm pokegening. I don't know how they and Verlisify can be proud of playing legit. I would rather improve myself as a person and take singing lessons then play competitive pokemon legit.

I got a lot to say about what you said... Tiers is NOT balancing the game AT ALL, tiers, smogon ones especially, are just made so that people can use the exact same Pokemon and ban the things that beats them, so they can feel a little better for themselves! Why was Thundurus, Tapu Lele or Terrakion never banned to Ubers for example? Any way you think about it, those mons are OP! Same for basic Blaziken with Speed Boost or Greninja! Just because they got their asses handed to them, they banned them so they could win, but didn't ban the things they are using. Pretty hypocritical if you ask me for them to say they are aiming to "balance" the game, but they don't ban OP things just because they are using them!

I did things the legit way from Emerald until Omega Ruby (up until a bit after Sun came out), then I got tired of it, so I just used PKSM to get a 6IV Japanese Ditto (Masuda method) and I also use it whenever I want to breed to gen 5-6IV mons (special attackers always with 0IVs or as low as possible) and breed off of those, then use PKSM to get them to lv100, EV train them and give them items. That way the mons I get are 100% legit, just through a shorter process, so it only takes me 3 mins or so for a battle-ready lv100 mon!

As for competitive, instead of trying to use bad teams, I just use weird strategies that get blocked easily (eg: mono-Ice team with no Ground moves or stuff like Pimpnite's mons, but sets of my own making) and only play against randoms, makes it a lot more fun! But after having bred and battled as much as I have, I never make sets that don't work anymore since I've come to subconsciously be able to tell how something can work best as well as and how bulky each thing really is! For example, I know that the Cutsap Berry Braviary set I use a LOT (which has pretty bad defenses), WITHOUT investment in bulk, is actually bulky enough to beat mega Salamence/non-Extremespeed Arceus one-on-one 100% of the time!

 

[SG854]

Try Z-Hypnosis Xurkitree, you won't be disappointed, +1 in speed and opponent asleep at your mercy! Also, Technician won't boost X-Scissor so it stays at 80 base power, while Bug Bite gets boosted from 60 to 90 base AND eats the opponent's berry!


I know, I don't get the HP Dragon either, if he wants to hit Dragons, why not go with Dazzling Gleam which also hits Dark?:/


I got a lot to say about what you said... Tiers is NOT balancing the game AT ALL, tiers, smogon ones especially, are just made so that people can use the exact same Pokemon and ban the things that beats them, so they can feel a little better for themselves! Why was Thundurus, Tapu Lele or Terrakion never banned to Ubers for example? Any way you think about it, those mons are OP! Same for basic Blaziken with Speed Boost or Greninja! Just because they got their asses handed to them, they banned them so they could win, but didn't ban the things they are using. Pretty hypocritical if you ask me for them to say they are aiming to "balance" the game, but they don't ban OP things just because they are using them!

I did things the legit way from Emerald until Omega Ruby (up until a bit after Sun came out), then I got tired of it, so I just used PKSM to get a 6IV Japanese Ditto (Masuda method) and I also use it whenever I want to breed to gen 5-6IV mons (special attackers always with 0IVs or as low as possible) and breed off of those, then use PKSM to get them to lv100, EV train them and give them items. That way the mons I get are 100% legit, just through a shorter process, so it only takes me 3 mins or so for a battle-ready lv100 mon!

As for competitive, instead of trying to use bad teams, I just use weird strategies that get blocked easily (eg: mono-Ice team with no Ground moves or stuff like Pimpnite's mons, but sets of my own making) and only play against randoms, makes it a lot more fun! But after having bred and battled as much as I have, I never make sets that don't work anymore since I've come to subconsciously be able to tell how something can work best as well as and how bulky each thing really is! For example, I know that the Cutsap Berry Braviary set I use a LOT (which has pretty bad defenses), WITHOUT investment in bulk, is actually bulky enough to beat mega Salamence/non-Extremespeed Arceus one-on-one 100% of the time!

Typically it should be a balancing act, but things are never what people say. I first heard about competitive during Emerald days, before that I was clueless about it. I skipped 4th gen. Then got back into it 5th gen. Thats when I used the GTS to gen Pokemon, no console hacking needed.

That's one of the best arguments for genning/hacking/cheating ever. I do admit to doing things semi-legit, doing the breeding and catching of legends, but through RNG. Best of both words, taking advantage of hacking tools and basically gaming the system to get what you want. Of course that doesn't make my battling skills any better, but ah well.

I usually play legit to go through the story line, and try to catch legendaries legit for the experience. But after that, I gen.

Im current playing through UM and its basically the same game. Its basically DLC sold as a full retail game. I was hugely disappointed about that. I do like the remixed standard battle theme.

Reading the comments on verlisify's videos of people justifying why gening is bad. Im like its a fuckin game and I don't give a shit. I just want to enjoy a few quick battles and not having to go through the stupid long process. Its like a week or two of hours and hours to make a team, no way i'm doing that again. Its so boring too. I can't believe people attack others and take playing legit in a Pokemon game extremely seriously. What a bunch of losers. And the drama they start over this is extremely embarrassing. "I got in a fight with him because he gened Pokemon," imagine telling that to people.
Are you in an actual poke tournament? no? So fighting over gening is even worse if they are not in an official tournament.

 

[RustInPeace]

I got a lot to say about what you said... Tiers is NOT balancing the game AT ALL, tiers, smogon ones especially, are just made so that people can use the exact same Pokemon and ban the things that beats them, so they can feel a little better for themselves! Why was Thundurus, Tapu Lele or Terrakion never banned to Ubers for example? Any way you think about it, those mons are OP! Same for basic Blaziken with Speed Boost or Greninja! Just because they got their asses handed to them, they banned them so they could win, but didn't ban the things they are using. Pretty hypocritical if you ask me for them to say they are aiming to "balance" the game, but they don't ban OP things just because they are using them!

Smogon has voting sessions, and a majority vote can ban a pokemon from a tier. I'm curious who the voters are? I used to read the chat of a league I gen for, one of them kept talking about getting the "reqs" to vote on pokemon. I wonder if those people have personal agendas. This generation, Baton Pass was banned completely to Ubers or even AG, and I remember reading Smogon's statement being that it's not strategical or something? Also, Arena Trap was banned to Ubers, making Kanto Dugtrio with that ability Ubers. That mon, but as you say, Tapu Lele isn't banned from OU? Remembering those odd bannings, and reading this, I can see that there is some real bias in getting certain mons off OU and keeping some in. Probably what happened with Greninja in Gen 6. People hated dealing with it in OU and exaggerated its threat to get it to Ubers. Now it's OU as it belongs. I know some leagues follow their own tears, and at least from Gen 6, there was a "GBA" tier system, based on the league with the same name. I do like having your own tiers, a small group of people having a league and doing that. Smogon sometimes is bullshit. That being said, I love that competitive play largely banned accuracy/evasion modifiers, because in battle facilities, fucking Double Team is annoying.

As much as I hate battling Darkrai before Gen 7, I don't like that Dark Void got nerfed.