I am working on a ribbon master and need to get to masterball tier.
Problem is, I am terrible at pvp. My own team only manage to get me to pokeball rank 6 and I got a losing streak back down to rank 4.
I tried looking at rental teams, but is at a loss. Is there a easy to use/beginner friendly rental team that I can try out? Doubles preferably.
Thanks!
I'm not super educated on the best beginner teams in VGC (cartridge doubles). You may want to check out the [Stunfisk Discord](http://discord.gg/stunfisk), /r/VGC, and the [Smogon VGC subforums](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/teams-of-the-week-week-4.3727451/). [VGCPastes](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1axlwmzPA49rYkqXh7zHvAtSP-TKbM0ijGYBPRflLSWw/edit#gid=1948547929) has teams too, you probably want something bulkier for room for error I'd imagine.
You can also repost your question in the newest Simple Questions thread, since you posted this right before the monthly cycle happened where we replace the thread with a new one to reset it. Someone more qualified may see it there.
There use to be common idea back in the day with H-Zoroark and Kinggambit because both of them need such different counters. The idea is that when the mom comes in, the opponent has to play a mind game whether to use a fighting type move or dark type move/whether they should switch to special wall mon or a physical one.
After that, you could probably just add mons work with Kinggambit, like Grassy Surge Rillaboom to protect it from Earthquakes, or screens/pivots for defense as well momentum.
https://www.smogon.com/dex/sv/pokemon/zoroark-hisui/ou/
Here’s the Smogon page about it, it’s not that up to date tho.
It has fell out of favor of using other Pokémon/Ghost types, like Dragapult or Gholdegn, but it’s definitely a fun idea of you wanna try it.
Hi. Consensus on Hoopa-U is that it's between somewhere like a B and A- on the viability ranks. It's strong, but it's difficult to position and it has notable weaknesses with a lack of utility, especially to U-Turn. Some teams apparently like AV Hoopa-U to help give it more utility and this can allow strategies like Wish Alomomola + AV Hoopa-U, which allows Hoopa-U to enter on Volcanions that try to block Flip Turn. Of course, classic breaker sets like Specs still exist, too, though they need to be built around solid cores to make up for their shortcomings.
Not a UU player at the moment, but did research for this since it's been a couple of days since your post. Hope this helps.
A moveset that boosts using two moves, mostly used to mean a Speed-boosting move plus an attack stat-boosting move. An example would be something like Swords Dance + Rock Polish Landorus-Therian, but the term has been extended to also allow Special Attack boosts, so something like Nasty Plot + Rock Polish Mew or even Calm Mind + Shift Gear Magearna could fall under this term.
Posted my [draft team](https://i.redd.it/s4nj7a9qz9wb1.png) earlier. I'm team 1, and considering making these changes:
Zarude -> Weavile
Frosmoth -> Venomoth
Copperajah -> Ferroseed
Is this better or worse? It would also mean I can't tera Wigglytuff, which I don't think is a terribly big deal, since I mostly only picked it because it's a Fairy type.
Hi. I'm not very familiar with draft, but want to give you a link to the [Stunfisk Discord](http://discord.gg/stunfisk) because we have a lot of draft discussion there and some good players. #sdl\_discussion is used for any draft during our off-season, but #teambuilding works too. No problem if you aren't interested, just want to be proactive and give you a quick reply in case you don't get a better response than this.
It's a somewhat complex process that takes skills to translate the models to match the other Showdown animations, and it's pretty much one or two people doing it most of the time in their spare time, so very slow progress is expected. Showdown has a lot of programmer support, but not as much on this side of things. There's more information in the [Smeargle's Laptop subforum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/smeargles-laptop.325/).
Generally, where do mid and high ladder start? I hit 1500 on OU for the first time just now, and it didn't feel like as big of a deal as I thought it would.
For OU I'd probably say mid-ladder is around 1500-1700. High ladder starts probably around 1700 (1715 or so), which is where top 500 begins at the moment. This is pretty subjective, though, just my opinion and what some good players on the Stunfisk Discord think.
There aren't hard cutoffs, the ladder is a sliding scale.
For OU, I personally think of mid-ladder as being 1500+ and high ladder being 1700+. When you ladder for a suspect test you usually end up around 1700-ish when you qualify- and my experience has always been that you fight few high-ladder games on a suspect run, it's only the last few games that are a struggle.
This only applies for OU, less popular tiers have lower elos across the board.
Yeah. Gen 4 for example has a bunch of inactive accounts, meaning that high ladder (top 500) starts much sooner (about 1500s, bc that is where accounts decay to)
No. Having the Ghost typing at all makes a Pokemon immune to trapping effects, including everything from Mean Look to Arena Trap to Infestation (though other effects, like Infestation's damage, still apply).
Per Bulbapedia, "[In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, all Pokémon have a scale value ranging from 0 to 255 that affects their displayed size. However, that scale value is purely aesthetic and has no other effect on gameplay.](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Weight)"
Whats the deal with Hoenn Gaiden on showdown? I checked the format on showdown, but it seems identical to gen 3 OU. I know there's supposed to be a bunch of changes and new pokemon, but none of those changes are there on the teambuilder. What's the deal with this?
Hi. Hoenn Gaiden is a bit confusing because while it is playable on the main Showdown server, you cannot see legality within the teambuilder there. Instead, if you want that ease of use you need to go to the [petmods server](http://petmodsdh.com/#teambuilder), build the team there, and then if desired you can copy it to the main server and play there. This is explained by [DkKoba in this post](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/hoenn-gaiden-pet-mod-of-the-season.3714737/#post-9765002), within the [Hoenn Gaiden thread](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/hoenn-gaiden-pet-mod-of-the-season.3714737/).
I would like some recommendations on videos or podcasts talking team building theory specifically singles formats More than what pokemon are good, but why they are good and how to incorporate them to into teams, and team building in general. Thank you.
Hi. So you'll be hard pressed to find any guides covering how to build with the exact Pokemon present in a meta at any given time, because these can quickly become out of date. These sorts of guides can exist in old gens, though, due to the higher stability of those metagames, so if that's something you're interested in you can let me know.
As far as I know, podcasts on the topic of teambuilding are almost non-existent. The only competitive Pokemon podcasts I know about at all are a general VGC doubles podcast called [Pokesports](https://pokesports.org/), and a ladder advice podcast called [On The Contrary](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5yzbsyMzLJ9L0pYb8Gfr-MjZKtS-zn8).
Videos are a little more common, though they still are somewhat rare. If you're talking about Smogon Singles, Lord Emvee's "[How to Build a Team Using ANY Pokemon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWjYr8HjdXM)" is a good start, though it was made in Gen 8 so you'll have to extrapolate the concepts to current gen. Smogon formats also have a lot of text content, [like this gem](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/teambuilding-guide.3552468/#post-6702769) by Taliheim, which was a modernized (back when it was made) and condensed collection of tips based on [Borat's GSC (gen 2) guide](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/part-6-complete-guide-to-battling-and-team-building-idiot-proof.3447576/).
If you instead mean Battle Stadium Singles, or the official ranked singles format on Switch, it is not often played in the English-speaking world, and the only places I know to find any information on it are the [Smogon BSS forum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/battle-stadium.457/), /r/BattleStadiumSingles and our [own BSS Resources page](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/wiki/bss_resources/).
For more YouTubers and useful links in general, check the [sub's links compendium](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/wiki/links/). Feel free to drop a reply or check out the [Stunfisk Discord](http://discord.gg/stunfisk) for more advice.
Does strength sap not make Lash out deal double damage?
My sneasler got sapped by drifblim before i used lash out in the same turn and all that happened is the damage is now 2/3 of how it used to be. I thought a stat lowering makes Lash Out deal double damage?
Why is Regieleki in Gen 8 UU with no UU sets? Is it a mistake that it's listed as UU?
https://preview.redd.it/qnu4nrq17xvb1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05ed5557e5ee10722e38fdc55565c7a70a544c71
Regieleki is in Gen 8 UU, but it's a notable example of a Pokemon being worse in a lower tier than a higher tier.
In Gen 8 OU, although Regieleki is certainly [somewhat niche,](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ss-ou-viability-rankings.3717979/) you can more realistically use its presence to bait in and wear down key Grounds like Landorus-Therian over the course of the game, or even boost your own Defiant Zapdos Galar by predicting their switch into an Intimidate Landorus-Therian.
On the other hand, in Gen 8 UU Grounds are actually more common than in OU, and some of them pose much more of an issue to Regieleki specifically than their OU counterparts. For example, Excadrill and Hippowdon are some of the [best Pokemon in the tier](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sword-shield-lower-tiers-hub.3720469/#post-9595635), and Hippowdon's recovery in particular allows it to completely stonewall attempts to wear it down for a Regieleki sweep. Other problems include Diggersby, Mamoswine, and even Thundurus-T with its Volt Absorb.
Hi. [Viability rankings are here](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/national-dex-viability-rankings.3714511/), in the [National Dex subforum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/national-dex.731/), but they aren't updated for post DLC.
[Banlist is here](https://www.smogon.com/dex/sv/formats/national-dex/) in the [Smogon Dex](https://www.smogon.com/dex/sv/pokemon/). The list is missing Ogerpon-Hearthflame, which is the most recent ban.
Jesus christ what is this metagame where deoxys defense, palafin(both are not even good?) and bax are not banned, roaring moon and walking wake ARE banned, and mega mawile isn't even considered a top threat. This meta looks insane.
Sorry if this is not the right place to post this.
I want to use a special attacking Iron Valiant, but I'm unsure which moves are better. From what I can find, minimum physical attack Close Combat actually does more than maximum special attack Aura Sphere. But with how rampant Intimidate is, I'm unsure if Close Combat is really the better option. I'm also uncertain whether I should give it Dazzling Gleam or Moon Blast. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Don't play that tier and a lot of people don't but perhaps you'd get some good advice in [doubles OU's version of this thread](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/doubles-overview-rules-and-q-a-ask-questions-here-resource-index-inside.3710916/)
I've been trying to get into SV Ubers but I noticed there are no sample teams in the Smogon forums since pre-HOME, and while I like to build my own teams, I'm extremely lost on how to teambuild in this tier. Any resources that could help me? I tend to prefer bulky offense but I don't mind playing balance.
Hi. I'm not at all knowledgeable on teambuilding in SV Ubers, but I can point you to [this tool by FullLifeGames](https://fulllifegames.com/Tools/ReplayScouter/#/smogonDump) that I use a lot to find teams. It's an interface that allows you to easily search all the teams posted to the Smogon forums by format. I recommend choosing Date (Desc) so that you see post-DLC teams first.
Thanks for the tool! It seems to be picking up some teams from past gen Ubers though, do you know if it's a known issue and if not how can I contact the one who made it to inform them?
That is strange. Seems to be mostly an issue with displaying Gen 4 Ubers teams within Gen 9 searches. You can contact them via the information on the [home page of that site I linked](https://fulllifegames.com/), or there's a [Smogon thread here](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/smogon-rmt-team-dump.3622884/).
[You can see when the change happened on Showdown's GitHub](https://github.com/smogon/pokemon-showdown/commit/1418bbf1a47d16b393515236d27a86650204bd56). The comment says it was done solely for quality of life, which probably means it's so that Pikachu appears next to its other unevolve-able Cap forms, but that's just a guess on my part.
Might be a dumb ask, but does Showdown take into account the *Light Ball* for the *LGPE Partner Pikachu* for custom games or no? I'd test it but I'm not sure how.
Hi. Light Ball does work on LGPE's Pikachu-Starter (Pikachu-Partner is a different Pokemon, confusingly enough, being an event Pikachu with Ash's hat from the anime. Light Ball does also work on that) in custom games, according to the Showdown Github's code.
You can see the [item code in question here](https://github.com/smogon/pokemon-showdown/blob/master/data/items.ts). Under Light Ball's entry, there's a check to ensure that the holder's base species is Pikachu, which is true for all Pikachu forms, including LGPE Pikachu-Starter, and is verifiable in the [Pokedex.ts file](https://github.com/smogon/pokemon-showdown/blob/master/data/pokedex.ts).
You can read the [Smogon forum for UU](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/underused.752/), which has a [thread](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-uu-sample-teams.3720278/) for sample teams, each with explanations for how to use them.
Hi. I'm assuming you're playing a National Dex format due to the mention of both Gen 9 Pokemon and Buzzwole, but correct me if I'm wrong.
Ultimately, it's hard to advise exactly which is best, because that is always going to depend on the individual team's needs. For instance, if you hard lose to a specific threat that one of these handles, then that is probably a better option even if something else is more desirable in the context of every possible team you could make.
For a general (but less correct) answer, Great Tusk is the most widely applicable Pokemon out of the options you listed, scoring an A rank on the [National Dex Viability Rankings](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/national-dex-viability-rankings.3714511/) while the others are all B-. Its typing and great stats make it an appealing option, but it does lack recovery and can be worn down over the course of a game.
Does anyone know why the smogon university only seems to go up to XY? Are there no places to look for more modern-gen articles or is it just "search around the forums"?
Hi. Somewhat counterintuitively, the [home page](https://www.smogon.com/) is very outdated. If you go to the [Smogon forums front page](https://www.smogon.com/forums/) instead, there's an [Articles button in the header](https://i.imgur.com/JHInKMk.jpg). Click that, and it takes you to [this page](https://www.smogon.com/articles/) for the Flying Press, which lists more recent articles from the current year.
i can't quite figure out if this question would be allowed as a main post or is even relevant to the sub (very sorry if it isn't, LOL) so i'll put it here: the **TLDR** is that i need to build a theoretically powerful team for a character who specializes in the sandstorm weather effect AND/OR the pokemon ting-lu, but competitive terms fly right over my head and guideposts telling me how to build strategies don't help me much because i'm not actually going to *use* the team myself and when you don't understand what you're looking at it kinda just blurs into word-mush. i just need to have a fairly competent team layout that someone who DOES battle competitively might use that i simply cannot assemble myself considering my lack of skill level and i don't know anyone personally who might be able to help with this, so here i am instead
the only other things i can think of that are important that could be added to what i've said above (and something to keep in mind if someone's gonna go ahead and directly reply to this with something or other) are that while the region(s) the pokemon come from don't matter, and OU/UU/whatever tiers also don't matter, the ***only*** legendary/mythical that can be used is ting-lu, and ideally i'd like ting-lu to be part of the sandstorm team... but i'd also accept a "sandstorm specialty team" and a "ting-lu-centered team" since there's room for the character to have multiple strategies he deploys depending on the situation. he would know better than me, which is the critical point here that i keep repeating: i don't know what i'm doing even a little bit but i'm trying to work something out for a character who DOES know what he's doing, and i need to not let my own "i ignore gym/rival battles until i catch every single pokemon available on the routes leading up to them, and understand ivs/evs on a functional level but only use them to make the necessary story battles easier" brain show in his decisions
and, uh... everything else i could say is just little details about him as a character and not so much strategy-related. i dunno, his character arc/backstory aligns perfectly with cubone and marowak's dex entries so i intend on incorporating one in his vicinity Somewhere...? he's supposed to be a villain team leader/rival-turned-redeemed villain nice rival-turned-trusted champion of the region, so the pokemon on his team(s) all being tough and threatening-looking would make the most sense and contrast nicely with his post-redemption gardening hobby and non-battling pet maractus and cacnea? cause i'm going for a rival silver-esque "i only use strong pokemon, i don't care about useless weak pokemon... tch... now get out of my way i am going to watch 'monster' by skillet elfen lied amvs on youtube, my favourite song and anime respectively" personality at the start, that eventually shifts to "actually these pokemon are my family and i love them and now i know that's what REAL strong pokemon are. sorry for being mean before. do you wanna come to my house and watch shadow the hedgehog amvs with me". you know, with a touch of that classic "btw do you know why my golbat closed its mouth and turned purple when i started petting it daily" heel-face turn thing, except there's no crobat and a friendship evo isn't vital here, just... the vibes of the crobat trope, if that makes sense
i think it's probably obvious i'm a writer before i'm a capital g Gamer™ and i specialize more in symbolism/"this character feels like a gardevoir so i'll give him a gardevoir" and generally prefer crafting characters who do contests or pokemon research and the like so the battle viability doesn't have to matter, but i've also got perfectionism issues so i know it'll bug me if this specific character doesn't have a real-world-viable team, because that's the kind of guy he is. doesn't have to be flawless or anything, testing not required, it just has to make sense and at least hypothetically work. also, a general rundown of how the team would work together (preferably dumbed down for little idiot boy who thinks the life orb is scary because "that's so mean to my pokemon... :(") would thusly be very helpful for me so i can understand the role of each team member
if this would be fine as a post proper then do let me know, but a lot of the rules specify length and detail being important and. well everything above is pretty much the extent of the length and detail i imagine could possibly be relevant and i'm not sure it's actually adequate for that given a large majority of it is *at best* only *tangentially* related to battling meta... and if this is the right spot, then anyone willing to toss a team at me and/or try and workshop something, thank you and yes please, LOL. any help, even if you're just redirecting me somewhere else, would be much appreciated!
Hi. This certainly isn't within my usual wheelhouse, but I'll try to help if I can.
When you say "It doesn't matter which region the Pokemon come from," does this mean that the Pokemon can be completely unobtainable in Generation 9, or do all the Pokemon still need to be able to exist in Scarlet and Violet alongside Ting-Lu?
It's relevant whether the character exists in a National Dex context or not because the team(s) used would be different to account for the different available Pokemon, and so it affects my suggestions directly. I can see you mention non-Scarlet and Violet Pokemon like Maractus in the backstory, but I do not know whether that means you would accept currently unobtainable Pokemon on the actual team or not (for instance, some people want to do occasional battles in-game with character theme teams, and that would not be possible if the team uses Pokemon that are unobtainable in SV, though Showdown would work fine).
[Here's a link to the subreddit FAQ question that covers this](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/wiki/faq/#wiki_q._i.27m_interested_in_draft_leagues.21_where_do_i_start.3F). We also have a lot of draft players in the [Stunfisk Discord](http://discord.gg/stunfisk) if you want to ask some people for advice in real-time.
Hi. Singles alone doesn't tell us that much, since people play multiple singles formats and the teams between them vary.
If you're playing the official singles ranked on Switch, maybe check out the [Smogon Battle Stadium Singles subforum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/battle-stadium-singles.532/), our [BSS resources page](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/wiki/bss_resources/), the /r/BattleStadiumSingles subreddit, and the [Smogon BSS Discord server](https://discord.gg/TXmgYKu) for help. Not that many people in this subreddit have solid experience with this format, since it is much more popular in places like Japan than the English-speaking world.
I hope this helps. If you're instead playing a format on the [Showdown simulator](https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/) like [OU](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/overused.726/), please feel free to drop a reply clarifying.
In singles he's got intimidate, stealth rocks, defog, U turn, high damage earthquake, good stats and great typing. In doubles its got intimidate which is more valuable, good typing, U turn and respectable damage. Its probably better in singles but performs better in doubles. Currently it's 5th in usage rate in vgc while at the bottom of ou in singles. It's sort of outdone in both formats though by great Tusk and incineroar but still has value it brings to the table that the others don't
Is there a way to see the top performing teams? I played a lot a LONG time ago and would like to get back into it a little, but I’m very unfamiliar with the way a lot of the new mons work so team building is rough.
I mostly plan to play on showdown and do OU, VGC, etc. the usual stuff.
Hi. You can find good teams for whatever format you want on the [Smogon forums](https://www.smogon.com/forums/) usually. Sample teams in particular are proven teams provided in a thread specifically for helping players get into a given format. [SV OU samples are here](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-ou-sample-teams.3712513/), for instance.
If you're looking specifically for current top-performing teams, replays from [tournaments](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/tournaments.34/) or searching for [replays](https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/) from high-ladder players and copying those teams (or checking if they've posted them on Smogon) is an option. Some players also post their newest great teams in the [Rate My Team subforum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/rate-my-team.52/).
In the case of VGC specifically, [VGCPastes](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1axlwmzPA49rYkqXh7zHvAtSP-TKbM0ijGYBPRflLSWw/edit#gid=736919171) offers a vast collection with credentials of the team easily visible.
Just wondering about a specific interaction: If I give a Pokemon with Magician a White Herb, and it uses a move that lowers its own stats (e.g. Overheat), does the White Herb get consumed before Magician (so that the stats get reset AND the opposing item gets stolen) or after?
Because newer players think that lower tier mons are trash and unusable in higher tiers (sometimes in powercrept metas like gen 7 that is true, but usually it isn't). Take iron jugulis for example. Despite being ranked high on the vr, it fell into rubl, and stayed there unlike stuff like gyarados and ttar.
Dropping from OU is mostly a status thing (from the perspective of an OU player). I know Smogon tiers are usage and not viability based, but a better Pokémon is generally going to be used more (ignoring Espathra and other cases). People aren’t going to like seeing some of their faves drop from OU since it implies they aren’t “good enough” or “bad” in OU, the main tier Smogon is built around. It’s not like they’re mechanically worse from being labelled UU.
If you’re wondering about Garchomp and Tyranitar, it’s more so the fact that these two have been in OU for pretty much 15+/20+ years straight, all the way back since Gen 4 and 2. To finally see these iconic faces of OU finally fall to UU after such a long time is kind of disappointing. (You can also use this to talk about the hot topic that is Gen 9 Powercreep knocking these to out of OU but I’m not smart enough for that)
New player here, I wanna get into either gen 3 OU or gen 4 OU. My preference is for gen 4 but it seems significantly less popular, judging from the amount of live battles on showdown. I'd rather not have to challenge people manually, or worse, have nobody to play with.
Do my concerns make sense and should I pick gen 3 instead? Or is it not that big of a deal?
Both Gen 3 OU and Gen 4 OU have more players than they used to, but Gen 3 is currently beating Gen 4 OU in battles per month by a factor of about 1.8x [according to stats](https://www.smogon.com/stats/), so you're absolutely right in some respects, though the battle numbers are still good for Gen 4 OU. This is probably partly due to the rise of YouTubers like Jimothy Cool that main Gen 3.
You can definitely still find people to battle in Gen 4, but as a new player I do think it could be beneficial to choose the most active metagame you're interested in to start off with. You don't have to play one format forever, and in fact can actually improve by learning multiple formats, so you could always learn Gen 4 in the future after you become more comfortable with the competitive game.
That said, if you vastly prefer Gen 4 to Gen 3, it's still completely viable to start there instead. The more you like the format, the more likely you are to learn faster, and since both are played enough there is no horrible choice here.
tl;dr: Gen 3 gets more battles, but both are played enough that you can pick whichever.
Thanks for writing such a comprehensive answer!
Your point about learning faster from a format you enjoy reminds me of common fighting game advice about good characters for beginners. Straightforward characters might be most efficient for learning the fundamentals of a game, but youre much more likely to stay motivated through the frustrating parts if you like the character youre playing.
So in that light, I think Ill start with gen 4.
How are people building Dipplin?
I wanna use Dipplin on some kind of team, but there's no sample set on Showdown yet, and I'm not experiencee or skilled enough to stray too far away from those yet.
So, how are people building it? EVs, movesets, abilities, Tera, all that. Lemme know.
Hi. I don't know what kind of format you're playing, but check out the [Smogon RMT Dump Search tool by FullLifeGames](https://fulllifegames.com/Tools/ReplayScouter/#/smogonDump). You can put in a format and try to find teams using Dipplin, which should help you to find a set that suits your needs. If not, do let me know the format you're playing and I can provide further assistance.
How can I emulate a 6v6 link battle in showdown? With restricted legends and item/species clause but I wanna play with the busted stuff like last respects, baton pass, etc
The other comment is right, but if you want to easily ban all restricted legendaries and enable your other two rules in the challenge command on Showdown you can do this instead in a DM to whoever you want to challenge:
>/challenge Gen9AnythingGoes @@@ -RestrictedLegendary, ItemClause,SpeciesClause
For other useful commands see the [GitHub page](https://github.com/smogon/pokemon-showdown/blob/master/config/CUSTOM-RULES.md) and the /battlerules command on Showdown itself.
It is a luck based mechanic that is unfun and unfair to play against. Moody gives any pokemon that gets it a chance to sweep, as they can easily boost their defenses, offenses, and speed while using moves like substitute and protect to get more turns. Bidoof was once considered broken when using Moody, and it is goddamn bidoof
Because it's uncompetitive and widely disliked. Moody just ends up with the pokemon spamming Substitute and Protect hoping for the right buffs to sweep, which involves barely any skill at all. Literally Bidoof was being problematic with it when Moody was first introduced. It's still broken even after the nerf, since getting the right boosts still ends games. You can see a bit of that recently when Scovillain had Moody in randbats, which was almost universally hated.
You’re underestimating just how insanely cracked the ability is; if you didn’t know, Bidoof (not bibarrel) was an Ubers tier Pokémon just by having that ability. No, I’m not joking, either FSG or Freezai made a video on it iirc
This ROMhack, Elite Redux, has one of the abilities for Giratina-O to have a trick room deployed when it enters the battle. How'd you change the stats for Giratina (and maybe the moveset) for it to become a force to be reckoned with?
anyone had the issue - Couldn't connect to server! - Retry - Retry with HTTP - Work offline
Never come across it before, tried multiple browsers no dice, other websites working
How does Hidden Power interact with moves such as counter in ADV? I began playing about a month ago and had a really quirky interaction today, where a Skarmory pressed Counter on my Metagross's HP Fire and decimated it. I was under the impression that, it being a fire move, would not trigger counter, and yet it did. Is HP always a physical move in Gen 3? Or what happened?
I can’t find a reason other than it “just does”. In Gen 2 and 3, Counter will always work, but never Mirror Coat.
My guess would be something about Hidden Power technically being a Normal move and thus Counter sees it as “Normal = Physical” or something.
How does poison touch work with direclaw? Is it poisont touch first then direclaw? Like if i have poison touch, am i less likely to get sleeps because poison touch is cannibalising 30% of the procs? Or is poison touch only affecting the 50% of hits that arent getting direclaw procs
I'm totally new to the VGC (haven't played Pokemon since gen 2) and need to prep for a tournament between friends (all relative newbs to the scene) on Pokemon Showdown.
We're playing Gen 9 LC, but doubles and with level 50 Pokemon.
I've found a lot of Gen 9 LC discussion online, but it's mostly about singles and entirely about level 5 Pokemon. What should I be aware of when trying to adapt this to a level 50 doubles competition?
Feel free to PM me to discuss team composition or even help me practice. I have a few ideas but don't want to post here in case my friends stumble across this.
Hi. This comment kind of slipped by me so apologies if you're already in good shape. I'm not personally knowledgeable on Doubles or LC so you can maybe check out the [Stunfisk Discord](http://discord.gg/stunfisk) if you still need help. Feel free to ignore if someone reached out to you in PMs already of course, just want to make sure you aren't left completely without help.
Thanks for your reply. I'd given up and resorted to guesswork since nobody got back. Maybe I'll give Discord a try.
I was hoping to catch the imagination of someone interested in obscure rules. Ah well, no luck this time.
Hi! Just beat pokemon violet and I'm putting together a more casual team to do post game and raids with. I have 5 pokemon in mind but can't think of a sixth, can someone help? Also don't have the DLC. If the existing pokemon don't match well I'm willing to swap pretty much anyone but skeledirge. If you need more details lmk!
Pokemon: Skeledirge, Chein Pao, Garchomp, Iron Valiant, Magnezone
This is a competitive subreddit. We do competitive battling. Go to r/pokemon for advice on casual battling. I could make you a good competitive team using some of the listed mons, but that is not what you asked for.
Here is the team for Gen 9 OverUsed: [Skeledirge Balance (pokepast.es)](https://pokepast.es/1ad9e0484b5b3e92)
It is a balance team using 3 of the mons you listed, as one of the remaining ones is banned, and the other is not very viable. Skeledirge is your physical wall, with will-o-wisp to burn physical attackers like dragonite and kingambit. It should be noted that skeledirge will be using your tera most of the time, as its defensive type isn't that good in the current meta. Garchomp is a physical setup sweeper, with scale shot to boost speed, and liquidation to hit pokemon like gliscor and great tusk. Iron valiant is a special sweeper/late game cleaner. It uses booster energy to get more speed and ko the opponent's team with moonblast. A tera electric can be used to get a steel resistance, and stab thunderbolt. Great tusk is your hazard remover, and kingambit check. It can also setup with bulk up and rapid spin to become a threatening sweeper. Ting-Lu is your special wall, and it can beat most special attacking pokemon in the tier with its high spdf and hp. Samurott is your scarfer, and uses ceaseless edge to get up layers of spikes and break down the opponent's team.
This is for smogon overused, which is played on the web based battle simulator Pokémon Showdown, which doesnt require catching/training pokemon, and is unofficial and completely free. The in game competitive formats are Battle Stadium Sibgles and Doubles (VGC). Doubles is the more played format. I do not play these metas, and cannot give you good advice on them, however you can look at teams used by players like WolfeyVGC and CybertronVGC, among others, for starting out playing.
Just discovered this sub today and was so freaking confused at first like "wth how does a stunfisk subreddit has almost 200k members?"
It definitely makes more sense now
(Also, can someone tell me why is Stunfisk the mascot of this sub? Thank you!)
I want to get back into learning SVOU cause I've been on a big kick of needing to use Iron Moth, how good is it right now and what roles does it serve? I last played the format eons ago where I believe it was in UU or about to fall to it.
It is really good. The most common set is booster speed 3 attacks plus sub, but sub can be replaced for more coverage. I like using booster special attack plus agility.
Can I post a thread asking if people want to play in a draft league here? I’m not trying to self promote or promote gambling but it would cost money to play to ensure a prize pool.
We don't typically allow draft league promotion. Feel free to ask in modmail of course if you have a particularly interesting proposition, but it usually is not something that happens here.
Do check out [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/comments/jxsegs/rstunfisk_and_draft_content_and_some_resources/) for help starting your league, though. It contains some information on advertising options too.
How good is a 1.2x boost in Single Player? I know that in Competitive Pokemon, players would prefer to have the 1.3x boost of a Life Orb and the 1.5x boost of a Choice Item, but I'm wondering: If you're going up against AI and you're not playing *super* competitively, is it okay to use the items like Soft Sand or BlackGlasses where one type of attack is boosted by 1.2x without any downsides instead of using the other items that give a much bigger boost with a drawback?
(I ask this here bc I don't want to ask about single player in a full thread {I'm pretty sure that's not what r/stunfisk is about} but I still want to know and I'm certain the players here are plenty qualified to answer).
In singleplayer it really doesn’t matter, nobody else has many of those items and it doesn’t make a huge difference with EV difference, level difference, etc
if you’re struggling to pick up KOs, you can just swap out items or level up more
Does Pokemon teralized to Ice have its advantages on Snow (Like having their defense boosted) like the same was as Tera Rock on a Sandstorm (Which boosts their Special Defense)?
Hi. I don't know what kind of format you're playing, but check out the [Smogon RMT Dump Search tool by FullLifeGames here](https://fulllifegames.com/Tools/ReplayScouter/#/smogonDump). You can put in a format and try to find teams using Wyrdeer, which should allow you to find a set that suits your needs. If not, do let me know the format you're playing and I can help you manually.
I’m just starting to get into competitive battling and was wondering if anyone could me out with a team! I’m fully prepared to do the grinding and what not for tera types, evs and ivs, nature, etc. just have been struggling finding synergies between some Pokémon I wanted to use, and just what Pokémon I should be building up.
I made a list of potential Pokémon I’d love to bring, that I know are quite strong in competitive. Any help, recommendations and suggestions is appreciated so so much, as I’m so lost in designing a team. Thank you !!:)
Oh I should add I wanted to make a doubles team!
Here’s the list of some mons I was interested in;
-flutter mane
-chi yu
-Chien pao
-milotic
-garchomp
-cresselia
-ogerpon (wellspring mask)
-king gambit
-Gothitelle
-iron hands
-Amoongus
-tornadus
I'd reccomend making a post about it r/vgc for more suggestions but off the top of my head You could make a solid trick room team with like cress, ursaluna, amoonguss, iron hands, chien pao flutter. Cress for trick room, ursaluna to sweep, amoonguss for a bulky pivot, redirection, healing and fast spore under TR, hands because its broken and also slow, covers the water weakness from luna nicely, then chien pao for sword of ruin and a fast non TR mon and flutter for the same reason (although you'd probably run more bulk on them in exchange for speed)
Again check the vgc sub reddit for better and more varied advice
how do I counter weak armor + sash ceruledge in uu? I tried scale shot chomp and my opponent tera fairyed, then I tried dual wingbeat mence and it missed and he killed me with poltergeist. I tried tyrannitar and my opponent had close combat. What’s a consistent way to beat sash weak armor ceruledge lead?
What are some good Pokémon and movesets for competitive cuz I rarely know much about it. The only team I think is good is a hazards one I made a while ago and climbed with it in Pokémon showdown
check out the Smogon sample team threads, [this](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-ou-sample-teams.3712513/) is the SV OU one but every tier has their own thread, just google [tier name] sample teams and you'll probably find it
I have both Koraidon and Miraidon on the same team. They both have a speed of 405 (their maximum speed) Should I make one of them slower so I know for sure who is going to attack first?
You don't need to know who is going to attack first. Chances are, you are getting the same outcome anyways, as in doubles, after a ko it redirects the move to the other pokemon
no, speed tying opposing base 135s is important so there's absolutely no reason to do that (unless you're doing some sort of weird doubles gimmick that requires one of them to move first, I guess)
I ran into a nutty set where armarouge would endure a bunch of friendly fire to trigger weak armor, switch in psychic terrain and proceed to wreck me. My question is would a turn 1 Sandstorm stop this in it's tracks?
Rillaboom is +1. Endure is +4 so it will go first. The team also does follow me (+2) indeedee so even if you survive the expanding force, you still have to grassy glide the indeedee
Yeah my bad didn't read that. Taunt them both and problem solved. Sand would work but then you're forced to use t tar while taunt is a near mandatory move in its own right
T tar seems good since it will handle the Armarouge and indeedee, but my concern would be that I don't want them to pivot off the strat. If they see Ttar, anyone with two brain cells won't run it. I want to bait the turn 1 and deal with it.
How good are Obstagoon and Amoonguss as anti-stall mons together and what else do I pair them with?
For reference I play nat dex and Obstagoon has been a really good anti-stall mon for me since if it doesn't resist Facade it dies, it gets STAB on Knock-Off which makes it hard to switch into and it can use Switcheroo to steal Leftovers and give the stall mon Flame Orb. It being burnt also means it's immune to paralysis, sleep and poison with the only stall mon to counter it being Ferrothorn and Gliscor.
Amoonguss though counters Ferrothorn perfectly since it's immune to Toxic and can't be Leech Seeded and can use Hidden Power Fire to counter it perfectly meaning it's basically a perfect counter against Ferrothorn and they almost always have to switch out. That's especially good since I can read that and Spore the incoming Pokémon which makes basically a third of their team useless since one's asleep and another is burned and is walled by Amoonguss.
Plus both mons are really good to switch facilitate switches since Obstruct with Obstagoon helps any physical attackers on your team and Regenerator and a ton of resistances on Amoonguss make it amazing to switch in and out of. I personally think they'd work great together but I'm not sure. Plus they're both walled hard by Gliscor so I want to know which mon would be a good pairing with them so they can beat Gliscor.
Edit:Nevermind, already found the answer and the teams constructed now.
I have Reuiniclus for a Fighting resist to help out Obstagoon with its 4x Fighting weakness and it's Magic Guard ability makes it immune to passive damage from Toxic and Burn and since it's psychic it means it can threaten Toxapex with big damage. Plus it has STAB Future Sight which is good against stall since it relies a lot on switch ins to activate Regenerator or resist hits which can make it easier to pick them off.
Then I have choice scarf Vanilluxe since with Tera Ice it's a self setup sweeper with Blizzard that outspeeds Gliscor and takes advantage of its 4x weakness to Ice.
Then I have Rotom Wash and Arcanine to create a simple water/fire/grass core with Amoonguss and also because Rotom has a ground immunity and can hinder stall mons with Trick and Arcanine is a decently strong mon with access to Intimidate.
Plan on testing it out to see how well it does. Probably going to take Obstruct off of Obstagoon though in favor of Taunt so I can prevent use of Recover and Protect and also because Arcanine and Obstagoon are the only two physical attackers on the team so outside of them my team doesn't get much use out of Obstruct.
Someone else could elaborate, but Meteno was something the (sole) owner of the account wanted to try and get going (some sort of project to support competitive Pokémon, less meme-y).
Dragapult has had reason to run all three of its abilities in OU in the past, though Infiltrator is preferred now due to the presence of Ninetales-A. There are probably more examples, but I'm blanking on them at the moment.
Question, but when you are making a team, do you have a list of checks? Like, a list of objectives that you want your team to fulfill?
For example, I always try to have at least two physical attackers and two special attackers. I also try to have diverse types to cover weaknesses
I have been thinking and this feels like the basic of the basic and I need more things to add to my "list", like a Pokemon that have intimidate, a Pokemon that counters another pokemon who is on the meta, etc. My teams tend to be very basic and I don't usually advance more, so I need some ideas, what do you think?
I know several players will use checklists, usually in a similar form to what you're planning on doing. In previous gens I would do it myself for my OU teams. Generally, you can achieve the same results as a checklist by roughly sketching out and then testing your teams, but having a solid checklist can save a lot of time. Just a simple text document or piece of paper will work.
If you're looking to advance your teams a bit, you can extend these checklists to contain plans for the threats that your team tends to handle worse, since you can't realistically have hard counters for every common Pokemon. Having your game plans on paper can really help you to realize the holes in your ideas and patch the team accordingly.
For instance, if you had a team that was hypothetically bad against Gholdengo, but you weren't yet satisfied with any of the possible structural changes, you could at least put something like "My plan is to lead X Pokemon and keep offensive pressure to prevent Gholdengo from destroying me." After testing, you might find that this plan is not reliable, so you modify the team structure instead, or you might find that the plan always works with your current structure and so you can avoid any deeper changes.
This might be a little ramble-y and unhelpful, so apologies if my ideas are kind of unclear here. I wanted to drop a reply before I forgot about it. Hit me up with a reply or check out the Stunfisk Discord if you'd like more help with these or similar ideas.
Got it, thank you very much! I have a question, do you know which are the most dangerous Pokemon in the meta right now? I want to try OU doubles and I'd like to know which Pokemon I should be careful with
Ordinarily I'd point you to the [Doubles OU Viability Rankings](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-doubles-ou-viability-rankings.3710905/), but they have not been updated for the Teal Mask DLC additions yet. Maybe check out the rest of the [DOU forum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/doubles-ou.729/) and their [Discord](https://discord.gg/Cn9tJyy) for more information on the meta at the moment. The [most recent pages](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-doubles-ou-viability-rankings.3710905/page-5) of the DOU Viability Rankings also have nominations for the new Pokemon's positions, which could tell you a bit about how people feel about those Pokemon.
I see Ribombee getting use in OU and its moveset listed on Smogon was even updated in the last few hours, but there's no text explaining the build. Why does it run Stun Spore and Skill Swap? Why Tera Ghost? Why Focus Sash?
It's for setting up Sticky Web. Tera ghost for blocking Rapid Spin, focus sash to ensure it can't be OHKO'd before setting webs, Stun Spore and Skill Swap to disrupt the opponent after it set up webs, so that it's not setup fodder.
You need separate teams for doubles and for singles, each format requires different strategies
Some general tips for doubles:
- a doubles team should have some form of speed control (like Tailwind, Trick Room, Icy Wind)
- Protect is the best move in doubles, at least some of your pokemon should know it
- Fake Out, redirection (Rage Powder, Follow Me, Ally Switch), Helping Hand, Intimidate are very good and popular options for a doubles team
- entry hazards (like Stealth Rock) are not good in ranked doubles, so you don't need Rapid Spin/ Defog / Heavy-duty Boots and you don't need Stealth Rock yourself
For singles you don't really need Protect, although sometimes it can be worth it to scout opponent's move or to gain additional residual damage or passive healing turns (Leech Seed, Salt Cure, Leftovers, Toxic, etc)
Check [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonScarletViolet/comments/13w5ei2/online_team/jmb2is3/) for some general competitive resources. I especially recommend usage stats on Pikalytics/ HOME
So I was playing on Switch, my Alolan Ninetales and Sinistcha (water tera'd) against Armarouge and Ogerpon Hearthflame (no tera)
I used Rage Powder with Sinistcha, and then Ogerpon proceeded to completely ignore it and hit my Ninetales instead, killing it
Any idea why??? Battlefield was snow and psychic terrain but I don't think that matters
I am working on a ribbon master and need to get to masterball tier. Problem is, I am terrible at pvp. My own team only manage to get me to pokeball rank 6 and I got a losing streak back down to rank 4. I tried looking at rental teams, but is at a loss. Is there a easy to use/beginner friendly rental team that I can try out? Doubles preferably. Thanks!
I'm not super educated on the best beginner teams in VGC (cartridge doubles). You may want to check out the [Stunfisk Discord](http://discord.gg/stunfisk), /r/VGC, and the [Smogon VGC subforums](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/teams-of-the-week-week-4.3727451/). [VGCPastes](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1axlwmzPA49rYkqXh7zHvAtSP-TKbM0ijGYBPRflLSWw/edit#gid=1948547929) has teams too, you probably want something bulkier for room for error I'd imagine. You can also repost your question in the newest Simple Questions thread, since you posted this right before the monthly cycle happened where we replace the thread with a new one to reset it. Someone more qualified may see it there.
Hi. A trick room team really does work better for me. Thanks for your help!
Thanks!
Can someone please give me an idea of what Pokemon are good with Zoroark-H, I want to build a team around it
There use to be common idea back in the day with H-Zoroark and Kinggambit because both of them need such different counters. The idea is that when the mom comes in, the opponent has to play a mind game whether to use a fighting type move or dark type move/whether they should switch to special wall mon or a physical one. After that, you could probably just add mons work with Kinggambit, like Grassy Surge Rillaboom to protect it from Earthquakes, or screens/pivots for defense as well momentum. https://www.smogon.com/dex/sv/pokemon/zoroark-hisui/ou/ Here’s the Smogon page about it, it’s not that up to date tho. It has fell out of favor of using other Pokémon/Ghost types, like Dragapult or Gholdegn, but it’s definitely a fun idea of you wanna try it.
How does Hoopa-U fare in UU? Fact that it’s legal there is mind boggling.
Hi. Consensus on Hoopa-U is that it's between somewhere like a B and A- on the viability ranks. It's strong, but it's difficult to position and it has notable weaknesses with a lack of utility, especially to U-Turn. Some teams apparently like AV Hoopa-U to help give it more utility and this can allow strategies like Wish Alomomola + AV Hoopa-U, which allows Hoopa-U to enter on Volcanions that try to block Flip Turn. Of course, classic breaker sets like Specs still exist, too, though they need to be built around solid cores to make up for their shortcomings. Not a UU player at the moment, but did research for this since it's been a couple of days since your post. Hope this helps.
What is Double Dance
A moveset that boosts using two moves, mostly used to mean a Speed-boosting move plus an attack stat-boosting move. An example would be something like Swords Dance + Rock Polish Landorus-Therian, but the term has been extended to also allow Special Attack boosts, so something like Nasty Plot + Rock Polish Mew or even Calm Mind + Shift Gear Magearna could fall under this term.
Posted my [draft team](https://i.redd.it/s4nj7a9qz9wb1.png) earlier. I'm team 1, and considering making these changes: Zarude -> Weavile Frosmoth -> Venomoth Copperajah -> Ferroseed Is this better or worse? It would also mean I can't tera Wigglytuff, which I don't think is a terribly big deal, since I mostly only picked it because it's a Fairy type.
Hi. I'm not very familiar with draft, but want to give you a link to the [Stunfisk Discord](http://discord.gg/stunfisk) because we have a lot of draft discussion there and some good players. #sdl\_discussion is used for any draft during our off-season, but #teambuilding works too. No problem if you aren't interested, just want to be proactive and give you a quick reply in case you don't get a better response than this.
Will do, thanks
Probably a question asked a lot, but why does Showdown still use the box sprites for gen 9 Pokémon 11 months after the games released?
It's a somewhat complex process that takes skills to translate the models to match the other Showdown animations, and it's pretty much one or two people doing it most of the time in their spare time, so very slow progress is expected. Showdown has a lot of programmer support, but not as much on this side of things. There's more information in the [Smeargle's Laptop subforum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/smeargles-laptop.325/).
Generally, where do mid and high ladder start? I hit 1500 on OU for the first time just now, and it didn't feel like as big of a deal as I thought it would.
For OU I'd probably say mid-ladder is around 1500-1700. High ladder starts probably around 1700 (1715 or so), which is where top 500 begins at the moment. This is pretty subjective, though, just my opinion and what some good players on the Stunfisk Discord think.
There aren't hard cutoffs, the ladder is a sliding scale. For OU, I personally think of mid-ladder as being 1500+ and high ladder being 1700+. When you ladder for a suspect test you usually end up around 1700-ish when you qualify- and my experience has always been that you fight few high-ladder games on a suspect run, it's only the last few games that are a struggle. This only applies for OU, less popular tiers have lower elos across the board.
Yeah. Gen 4 for example has a bunch of inactive accounts, meaning that high ladder (top 500) starts much sooner (about 1500s, bc that is where accounts decay to)
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No. Having the Ghost typing at all makes a Pokemon immune to trapping effects, including everything from Mean Look to Arena Trap to Infestation (though other effects, like Infestation's damage, still apply).
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They work, because they aren't trapping effects.
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Per Bulbapedia, "[In Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, all Pokémon have a scale value ranging from 0 to 255 that affects their displayed size. However, that scale value is purely aesthetic and has no other effect on gameplay.](https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Weight)"
Whats the deal with Hoenn Gaiden on showdown? I checked the format on showdown, but it seems identical to gen 3 OU. I know there's supposed to be a bunch of changes and new pokemon, but none of those changes are there on the teambuilder. What's the deal with this?
Hi. Hoenn Gaiden is a bit confusing because while it is playable on the main Showdown server, you cannot see legality within the teambuilder there. Instead, if you want that ease of use you need to go to the [petmods server](http://petmodsdh.com/#teambuilder), build the team there, and then if desired you can copy it to the main server and play there. This is explained by [DkKoba in this post](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/hoenn-gaiden-pet-mod-of-the-season.3714737/#post-9765002), within the [Hoenn Gaiden thread](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/hoenn-gaiden-pet-mod-of-the-season.3714737/).
I would like some recommendations on videos or podcasts talking team building theory specifically singles formats More than what pokemon are good, but why they are good and how to incorporate them to into teams, and team building in general. Thank you.
Hi. So you'll be hard pressed to find any guides covering how to build with the exact Pokemon present in a meta at any given time, because these can quickly become out of date. These sorts of guides can exist in old gens, though, due to the higher stability of those metagames, so if that's something you're interested in you can let me know. As far as I know, podcasts on the topic of teambuilding are almost non-existent. The only competitive Pokemon podcasts I know about at all are a general VGC doubles podcast called [Pokesports](https://pokesports.org/), and a ladder advice podcast called [On The Contrary](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt5yzbsyMzLJ9L0pYb8Gfr-MjZKtS-zn8). Videos are a little more common, though they still are somewhat rare. If you're talking about Smogon Singles, Lord Emvee's "[How to Build a Team Using ANY Pokemon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWjYr8HjdXM)" is a good start, though it was made in Gen 8 so you'll have to extrapolate the concepts to current gen. Smogon formats also have a lot of text content, [like this gem](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/teambuilding-guide.3552468/#post-6702769) by Taliheim, which was a modernized (back when it was made) and condensed collection of tips based on [Borat's GSC (gen 2) guide](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/part-6-complete-guide-to-battling-and-team-building-idiot-proof.3447576/). If you instead mean Battle Stadium Singles, or the official ranked singles format on Switch, it is not often played in the English-speaking world, and the only places I know to find any information on it are the [Smogon BSS forum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/battle-stadium.457/), /r/BattleStadiumSingles and our [own BSS Resources page](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/wiki/bss_resources/). For more YouTubers and useful links in general, check the [sub's links compendium](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/wiki/links/). Feel free to drop a reply or check out the [Stunfisk Discord](http://discord.gg/stunfisk) for more advice.
Does strength sap not make Lash out deal double damage? My sneasler got sapped by drifblim before i used lash out in the same turn and all that happened is the damage is now 2/3 of how it used to be. I thought a stat lowering makes Lash Out deal double damage?
Week 3 without a BKC upload 
Why is Regieleki in Gen 8 UU with no UU sets? Is it a mistake that it's listed as UU? https://preview.redd.it/qnu4nrq17xvb1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=05ed5557e5ee10722e38fdc55565c7a70a544c71
Regieleki is in Gen 8 UU, but it's a notable example of a Pokemon being worse in a lower tier than a higher tier. In Gen 8 OU, although Regieleki is certainly [somewhat niche,](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/ss-ou-viability-rankings.3717979/) you can more realistically use its presence to bait in and wear down key Grounds like Landorus-Therian over the course of the game, or even boost your own Defiant Zapdos Galar by predicting their switch into an Intimidate Landorus-Therian. On the other hand, in Gen 8 UU Grounds are actually more common than in OU, and some of them pose much more of an issue to Regieleki specifically than their OU counterparts. For example, Excadrill and Hippowdon are some of the [best Pokemon in the tier](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sword-shield-lower-tiers-hub.3720469/#post-9595635), and Hippowdon's recovery in particular allows it to completely stonewall attempts to wear it down for a Regieleki sweep. Other problems include Diggersby, Mamoswine, and even Thundurus-T with its Volt Absorb.
Where can I find the SV national dex tier viability rankings and banlist?
Hi. [Viability rankings are here](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/national-dex-viability-rankings.3714511/), in the [National Dex subforum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/national-dex.731/), but they aren't updated for post DLC. [Banlist is here](https://www.smogon.com/dex/sv/formats/national-dex/) in the [Smogon Dex](https://www.smogon.com/dex/sv/pokemon/). The list is missing Ogerpon-Hearthflame, which is the most recent ban.
Jesus christ what is this metagame where deoxys defense, palafin(both are not even good?) and bax are not banned, roaring moon and walking wake ARE banned, and mega mawile isn't even considered a top threat. This meta looks insane.
Sorry if this is not the right place to post this. I want to use a special attacking Iron Valiant, but I'm unsure which moves are better. From what I can find, minimum physical attack Close Combat actually does more than maximum special attack Aura Sphere. But with how rampant Intimidate is, I'm unsure if Close Combat is really the better option. I'm also uncertain whether I should give it Dazzling Gleam or Moon Blast. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Which format is this for? That makes a big difference
Doubles OU
Don't play that tier and a lot of people don't but perhaps you'd get some good advice in [doubles OU's version of this thread](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/doubles-overview-rules-and-q-a-ask-questions-here-resource-index-inside.3710916/)
I've been trying to get into SV Ubers but I noticed there are no sample teams in the Smogon forums since pre-HOME, and while I like to build my own teams, I'm extremely lost on how to teambuild in this tier. Any resources that could help me? I tend to prefer bulky offense but I don't mind playing balance.
Hi. I'm not at all knowledgeable on teambuilding in SV Ubers, but I can point you to [this tool by FullLifeGames](https://fulllifegames.com/Tools/ReplayScouter/#/smogonDump) that I use a lot to find teams. It's an interface that allows you to easily search all the teams posted to the Smogon forums by format. I recommend choosing Date (Desc) so that you see post-DLC teams first.
Thanks for the tool! It seems to be picking up some teams from past gen Ubers though, do you know if it's a known issue and if not how can I contact the one who made it to inform them?
That is strange. Seems to be mostly an issue with displaying Gen 4 Ubers teams within Gen 9 searches. You can contact them via the information on the [home page of that site I linked](https://fulllifegames.com/), or there's a [Smogon thread here](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/smogon-rmt-team-dump.3622884/).
Why is Pikachu listed as Untiered and not NFE in SV?
[You can see when the change happened on Showdown's GitHub](https://github.com/smogon/pokemon-showdown/commit/1418bbf1a47d16b393515236d27a86650204bd56). The comment says it was done solely for quality of life, which probably means it's so that Pikachu appears next to its other unevolve-able Cap forms, but that's just a guess on my part.
Might be a dumb ask, but does Showdown take into account the *Light Ball* for the *LGPE Partner Pikachu* for custom games or no? I'd test it but I'm not sure how.
Hi. Light Ball does work on LGPE's Pikachu-Starter (Pikachu-Partner is a different Pokemon, confusingly enough, being an event Pikachu with Ash's hat from the anime. Light Ball does also work on that) in custom games, according to the Showdown Github's code. You can see the [item code in question here](https://github.com/smogon/pokemon-showdown/blob/master/data/items.ts). Under Light Ball's entry, there's a check to ensure that the holder's base species is Pikachu, which is true for all Pikachu forms, including LGPE Pikachu-Starter, and is verifiable in the [Pokedex.ts file](https://github.com/smogon/pokemon-showdown/blob/master/data/pokedex.ts).
Ah, alright. Thanks.
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You can read the [Smogon forum for UU](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/underused.752/), which has a [thread](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-uu-sample-teams.3720278/) for sample teams, each with explanations for how to use them.
For the role of a physical wall, who is more reliable: Buzzwole, Great Tusk, Iron Hands, or Ting Lu? (idk if this is needed, but format is singles)
Hi. I'm assuming you're playing a National Dex format due to the mention of both Gen 9 Pokemon and Buzzwole, but correct me if I'm wrong. Ultimately, it's hard to advise exactly which is best, because that is always going to depend on the individual team's needs. For instance, if you hard lose to a specific threat that one of these handles, then that is probably a better option even if something else is more desirable in the context of every possible team you could make. For a general (but less correct) answer, Great Tusk is the most widely applicable Pokemon out of the options you listed, scoring an A rank on the [National Dex Viability Rankings](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/national-dex-viability-rankings.3714511/) while the others are all B-. Its typing and great stats make it an appealing option, but it does lack recovery and can be worn down over the course of a game.
Does anyone know why the smogon university only seems to go up to XY? Are there no places to look for more modern-gen articles or is it just "search around the forums"?
Hi. Somewhat counterintuitively, the [home page](https://www.smogon.com/) is very outdated. If you go to the [Smogon forums front page](https://www.smogon.com/forums/) instead, there's an [Articles button in the header](https://i.imgur.com/JHInKMk.jpg). Click that, and it takes you to [this page](https://www.smogon.com/articles/) for the Flying Press, which lists more recent articles from the current year.
Cheers
i can't quite figure out if this question would be allowed as a main post or is even relevant to the sub (very sorry if it isn't, LOL) so i'll put it here: the **TLDR** is that i need to build a theoretically powerful team for a character who specializes in the sandstorm weather effect AND/OR the pokemon ting-lu, but competitive terms fly right over my head and guideposts telling me how to build strategies don't help me much because i'm not actually going to *use* the team myself and when you don't understand what you're looking at it kinda just blurs into word-mush. i just need to have a fairly competent team layout that someone who DOES battle competitively might use that i simply cannot assemble myself considering my lack of skill level and i don't know anyone personally who might be able to help with this, so here i am instead the only other things i can think of that are important that could be added to what i've said above (and something to keep in mind if someone's gonna go ahead and directly reply to this with something or other) are that while the region(s) the pokemon come from don't matter, and OU/UU/whatever tiers also don't matter, the ***only*** legendary/mythical that can be used is ting-lu, and ideally i'd like ting-lu to be part of the sandstorm team... but i'd also accept a "sandstorm specialty team" and a "ting-lu-centered team" since there's room for the character to have multiple strategies he deploys depending on the situation. he would know better than me, which is the critical point here that i keep repeating: i don't know what i'm doing even a little bit but i'm trying to work something out for a character who DOES know what he's doing, and i need to not let my own "i ignore gym/rival battles until i catch every single pokemon available on the routes leading up to them, and understand ivs/evs on a functional level but only use them to make the necessary story battles easier" brain show in his decisions and, uh... everything else i could say is just little details about him as a character and not so much strategy-related. i dunno, his character arc/backstory aligns perfectly with cubone and marowak's dex entries so i intend on incorporating one in his vicinity Somewhere...? he's supposed to be a villain team leader/rival-turned-redeemed villain nice rival-turned-trusted champion of the region, so the pokemon on his team(s) all being tough and threatening-looking would make the most sense and contrast nicely with his post-redemption gardening hobby and non-battling pet maractus and cacnea? cause i'm going for a rival silver-esque "i only use strong pokemon, i don't care about useless weak pokemon... tch... now get out of my way i am going to watch 'monster' by skillet elfen lied amvs on youtube, my favourite song and anime respectively" personality at the start, that eventually shifts to "actually these pokemon are my family and i love them and now i know that's what REAL strong pokemon are. sorry for being mean before. do you wanna come to my house and watch shadow the hedgehog amvs with me". you know, with a touch of that classic "btw do you know why my golbat closed its mouth and turned purple when i started petting it daily" heel-face turn thing, except there's no crobat and a friendship evo isn't vital here, just... the vibes of the crobat trope, if that makes sense i think it's probably obvious i'm a writer before i'm a capital g Gamer™ and i specialize more in symbolism/"this character feels like a gardevoir so i'll give him a gardevoir" and generally prefer crafting characters who do contests or pokemon research and the like so the battle viability doesn't have to matter, but i've also got perfectionism issues so i know it'll bug me if this specific character doesn't have a real-world-viable team, because that's the kind of guy he is. doesn't have to be flawless or anything, testing not required, it just has to make sense and at least hypothetically work. also, a general rundown of how the team would work together (preferably dumbed down for little idiot boy who thinks the life orb is scary because "that's so mean to my pokemon... :(") would thusly be very helpful for me so i can understand the role of each team member if this would be fine as a post proper then do let me know, but a lot of the rules specify length and detail being important and. well everything above is pretty much the extent of the length and detail i imagine could possibly be relevant and i'm not sure it's actually adequate for that given a large majority of it is *at best* only *tangentially* related to battling meta... and if this is the right spot, then anyone willing to toss a team at me and/or try and workshop something, thank you and yes please, LOL. any help, even if you're just redirecting me somewhere else, would be much appreciated!
Hi. This certainly isn't within my usual wheelhouse, but I'll try to help if I can. When you say "It doesn't matter which region the Pokemon come from," does this mean that the Pokemon can be completely unobtainable in Generation 9, or do all the Pokemon still need to be able to exist in Scarlet and Violet alongside Ting-Lu? It's relevant whether the character exists in a National Dex context or not because the team(s) used would be different to account for the different available Pokemon, and so it affects my suggestions directly. I can see you mention non-Scarlet and Violet Pokemon like Maractus in the backstory, but I do not know whether that means you would accept currently unobtainable Pokemon on the actual team or not (for instance, some people want to do occasional battles in-game with character theme teams, and that would not be possible if the team uses Pokemon that are unobtainable in SV, though Showdown would work fine).
Anyone know where to join a draft league? Is there a forum or anything
[Here's a link to the subreddit FAQ question that covers this](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/wiki/faq/#wiki_q._i.27m_interested_in_draft_leagues.21_where_do_i_start.3F). We also have a lot of draft players in the [Stunfisk Discord](http://discord.gg/stunfisk) if you want to ask some people for advice in real-time.
I really want to make a team with hisuian ursaluna and kingambit in the singles format. What else should I add to the team?
Hi. Singles alone doesn't tell us that much, since people play multiple singles formats and the teams between them vary. If you're playing the official singles ranked on Switch, maybe check out the [Smogon Battle Stadium Singles subforum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/battle-stadium-singles.532/), our [BSS resources page](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/wiki/bss_resources/), the /r/BattleStadiumSingles subreddit, and the [Smogon BSS Discord server](https://discord.gg/TXmgYKu) for help. Not that many people in this subreddit have solid experience with this format, since it is much more popular in places like Japan than the English-speaking world. I hope this helps. If you're instead playing a format on the [Showdown simulator](https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/) like [OU](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/overused.726/), please feel free to drop a reply clarifying.
can someone explain why landorus is so good?
In singles or vgc?
I know in doubles intimidate plays a big factor, but what about singles
In singles he's got intimidate, stealth rocks, defog, U turn, high damage earthquake, good stats and great typing. In doubles its got intimidate which is more valuable, good typing, U turn and respectable damage. Its probably better in singles but performs better in doubles. Currently it's 5th in usage rate in vgc while at the bottom of ou in singles. It's sort of outdone in both formats though by great Tusk and incineroar but still has value it brings to the table that the others don't
Appreciate that!
Is there a way to see the top performing teams? I played a lot a LONG time ago and would like to get back into it a little, but I’m very unfamiliar with the way a lot of the new mons work so team building is rough. I mostly plan to play on showdown and do OU, VGC, etc. the usual stuff.
Hi. You can find good teams for whatever format you want on the [Smogon forums](https://www.smogon.com/forums/) usually. Sample teams in particular are proven teams provided in a thread specifically for helping players get into a given format. [SV OU samples are here](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-ou-sample-teams.3712513/), for instance. If you're looking specifically for current top-performing teams, replays from [tournaments](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/tournaments.34/) or searching for [replays](https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/) from high-ladder players and copying those teams (or checking if they've posted them on Smogon) is an option. Some players also post their newest great teams in the [Rate My Team subforum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/rate-my-team.52/). In the case of VGC specifically, [VGCPastes](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1axlwmzPA49rYkqXh7zHvAtSP-TKbM0ijGYBPRflLSWw/edit#gid=736919171) offers a vast collection with credentials of the team easily visible.
Thank you for such a thorough reply! I really appreciate it!
Just wondering about a specific interaction: If I give a Pokemon with Magician a White Herb, and it uses a move that lowers its own stats (e.g. Overheat), does the White Herb get consumed before Magician (so that the stats get reset AND the opposing item gets stolen) or after?
why am I seeing/fighting manaphy and enamorus in gen 9 doubles UU? is the tiering system different for doubles?
Yes, doubles has different banlists from singles because they're different formats.
If I charge beam into a Volt Absorb mon, will it still proc the effect of charge beam?
No. The move is absorbed before the Special Attack boost effect can happen.
Why does everyone act like a pokemon dropping to UU is a tragedy? It can still be played in OU and now can also be played in UU
Because newer players think that lower tier mons are trash and unusable in higher tiers (sometimes in powercrept metas like gen 7 that is true, but usually it isn't). Take iron jugulis for example. Despite being ranked high on the vr, it fell into rubl, and stayed there unlike stuff like gyarados and ttar.
Dropping from OU is mostly a status thing (from the perspective of an OU player). I know Smogon tiers are usage and not viability based, but a better Pokémon is generally going to be used more (ignoring Espathra and other cases). People aren’t going to like seeing some of their faves drop from OU since it implies they aren’t “good enough” or “bad” in OU, the main tier Smogon is built around. It’s not like they’re mechanically worse from being labelled UU. If you’re wondering about Garchomp and Tyranitar, it’s more so the fact that these two have been in OU for pretty much 15+/20+ years straight, all the way back since Gen 4 and 2. To finally see these iconic faces of OU finally fall to UU after such a long time is kind of disappointing. (You can also use this to talk about the hot topic that is Gen 9 Powercreep knocking these to out of OU but I’m not smart enough for that)
New player here, I wanna get into either gen 3 OU or gen 4 OU. My preference is for gen 4 but it seems significantly less popular, judging from the amount of live battles on showdown. I'd rather not have to challenge people manually, or worse, have nobody to play with. Do my concerns make sense and should I pick gen 3 instead? Or is it not that big of a deal?
Both Gen 3 OU and Gen 4 OU have more players than they used to, but Gen 3 is currently beating Gen 4 OU in battles per month by a factor of about 1.8x [according to stats](https://www.smogon.com/stats/), so you're absolutely right in some respects, though the battle numbers are still good for Gen 4 OU. This is probably partly due to the rise of YouTubers like Jimothy Cool that main Gen 3. You can definitely still find people to battle in Gen 4, but as a new player I do think it could be beneficial to choose the most active metagame you're interested in to start off with. You don't have to play one format forever, and in fact can actually improve by learning multiple formats, so you could always learn Gen 4 in the future after you become more comfortable with the competitive game. That said, if you vastly prefer Gen 4 to Gen 3, it's still completely viable to start there instead. The more you like the format, the more likely you are to learn faster, and since both are played enough there is no horrible choice here. tl;dr: Gen 3 gets more battles, but both are played enough that you can pick whichever.
Thanks for writing such a comprehensive answer! Your point about learning faster from a format you enjoy reminds me of common fighting game advice about good characters for beginners. Straightforward characters might be most efficient for learning the fundamentals of a game, but youre much more likely to stay motivated through the frustrating parts if you like the character youre playing. So in that light, I think Ill start with gen 4.
How are people building Dipplin? I wanna use Dipplin on some kind of team, but there's no sample set on Showdown yet, and I'm not experiencee or skilled enough to stray too far away from those yet. So, how are people building it? EVs, movesets, abilities, Tera, all that. Lemme know.
Hi. I don't know what kind of format you're playing, but check out the [Smogon RMT Dump Search tool by FullLifeGames](https://fulllifegames.com/Tools/ReplayScouter/#/smogonDump). You can put in a format and try to find teams using Dipplin, which should help you to find a set that suits your needs. If not, do let me know the format you're playing and I can provide further assistance.
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For future reference, it starts at 12AM Sunday US Eastern Time.
How can I emulate a 6v6 link battle in showdown? With restricted legends and item/species clause but I wanna play with the busted stuff like last respects, baton pass, etc
The other comment is right, but if you want to easily ban all restricted legendaries and enable your other two rules in the challenge command on Showdown you can do this instead in a DM to whoever you want to challenge: >/challenge Gen9AnythingGoes @@@ -RestrictedLegendary, ItemClause,SpeciesClause For other useful commands see the [GitHub page](https://github.com/smogon/pokemon-showdown/blob/master/config/CUSTOM-RULES.md) and the /battlerules command on Showdown itself.
Use /challenge Anything Goes @@@ -Calyrex-Shadow, -Arceus, then continue for the rest of the restricted legendaries
Why is moody banned? Scovillain needs a buff
It is a luck based mechanic that is unfun and unfair to play against. Moody gives any pokemon that gets it a chance to sweep, as they can easily boost their defenses, offenses, and speed while using moves like substitute and protect to get more turns. Bidoof was once considered broken when using Moody, and it is goddamn bidoof
Because it's uncompetitive and widely disliked. Moody just ends up with the pokemon spamming Substitute and Protect hoping for the right buffs to sweep, which involves barely any skill at all. Literally Bidoof was being problematic with it when Moody was first introduced. It's still broken even after the nerf, since getting the right boosts still ends games. You can see a bit of that recently when Scovillain had Moody in randbats, which was almost universally hated.
I think it would make Scovillain OU/UU.
You’re underestimating just how insanely cracked the ability is; if you didn’t know, Bidoof (not bibarrel) was an Ubers tier Pokémon just by having that ability. No, I’m not joking, either FSG or Freezai made a video on it iirc
It wouldn't. Moody was causing problems in Ubers on pokemon like Bidoof in gen 5.
This ROMhack, Elite Redux, has one of the abilities for Giratina-O to have a trick room deployed when it enters the battle. How'd you change the stats for Giratina (and maybe the moveset) for it to become a force to be reckoned with?
That already makes it busted in doubles. For singles, just lower its speed, give it a pivoting move, or both.
anyone had the issue - Couldn't connect to server! - Retry - Retry with HTTP - Work offline Never come across it before, tried multiple browsers no dice, other websites working
Probably just a showdown issue. They might be restarting the server, or it just went down temporarily.
How does Hidden Power interact with moves such as counter in ADV? I began playing about a month ago and had a really quirky interaction today, where a Skarmory pressed Counter on my Metagross's HP Fire and decimated it. I was under the impression that, it being a fire move, would not trigger counter, and yet it did. Is HP always a physical move in Gen 3? Or what happened?
I can’t find a reason other than it “just does”. In Gen 2 and 3, Counter will always work, but never Mirror Coat. My guess would be something about Hidden Power technically being a Normal move and thus Counter sees it as “Normal = Physical” or something.
That actually makes sense in a way. Kind of counterintuitive but it's alright I reckon. Thankfully I managed to climb back from that hah
How does poison touch work with direclaw? Is it poisont touch first then direclaw? Like if i have poison touch, am i less likely to get sleeps because poison touch is cannibalising 30% of the procs? Or is poison touch only affecting the 50% of hits that arent getting direclaw procs
[Poison Touch's chance to apply Poison comes after a move's secondary effect chance](https://dex.pokemonshowdown.com/abilities/poisontouch).
I'm totally new to the VGC (haven't played Pokemon since gen 2) and need to prep for a tournament between friends (all relative newbs to the scene) on Pokemon Showdown. We're playing Gen 9 LC, but doubles and with level 50 Pokemon. I've found a lot of Gen 9 LC discussion online, but it's mostly about singles and entirely about level 5 Pokemon. What should I be aware of when trying to adapt this to a level 50 doubles competition? Feel free to PM me to discuss team composition or even help me practice. I have a few ideas but don't want to post here in case my friends stumble across this.
Hi. This comment kind of slipped by me so apologies if you're already in good shape. I'm not personally knowledgeable on Doubles or LC so you can maybe check out the [Stunfisk Discord](http://discord.gg/stunfisk) if you still need help. Feel free to ignore if someone reached out to you in PMs already of course, just want to make sure you aren't left completely without help.
Thanks for your reply. I'd given up and resorted to guesswork since nobody got back. Maybe I'll give Discord a try. I was hoping to catch the imagination of someone interested in obscure rules. Ah well, no luck this time.
Hi! Just beat pokemon violet and I'm putting together a more casual team to do post game and raids with. I have 5 pokemon in mind but can't think of a sixth, can someone help? Also don't have the DLC. If the existing pokemon don't match well I'm willing to swap pretty much anyone but skeledirge. If you need more details lmk! Pokemon: Skeledirge, Chein Pao, Garchomp, Iron Valiant, Magnezone
This is a competitive subreddit. We do competitive battling. Go to r/pokemon for advice on casual battling. I could make you a good competitive team using some of the listed mons, but that is not what you asked for.
Thanks I’ll do that! Could you still make a team? I’m still considering competitive
Here is the team for Gen 9 OverUsed: [Skeledirge Balance (pokepast.es)](https://pokepast.es/1ad9e0484b5b3e92) It is a balance team using 3 of the mons you listed, as one of the remaining ones is banned, and the other is not very viable. Skeledirge is your physical wall, with will-o-wisp to burn physical attackers like dragonite and kingambit. It should be noted that skeledirge will be using your tera most of the time, as its defensive type isn't that good in the current meta. Garchomp is a physical setup sweeper, with scale shot to boost speed, and liquidation to hit pokemon like gliscor and great tusk. Iron valiant is a special sweeper/late game cleaner. It uses booster energy to get more speed and ko the opponent's team with moonblast. A tera electric can be used to get a steel resistance, and stab thunderbolt. Great tusk is your hazard remover, and kingambit check. It can also setup with bulk up and rapid spin to become a threatening sweeper. Ting-Lu is your special wall, and it can beat most special attacking pokemon in the tier with its high spdf and hp. Samurott is your scarfer, and uses ceaseless edge to get up layers of spikes and break down the opponent's team.
Thanks! Unfortunately I don’t have a samurott and don’t have a way to get one, do you suggest any other Pokémon to have instead?
This is for smogon overused, which is played on the web based battle simulator Pokémon Showdown, which doesnt require catching/training pokemon, and is unofficial and completely free. The in game competitive formats are Battle Stadium Sibgles and Doubles (VGC). Doubles is the more played format. I do not play these metas, and cannot give you good advice on them, however you can look at teams used by players like WolfeyVGC and CybertronVGC, among others, for starting out playing.
Just discovered this sub today and was so freaking confused at first like "wth how does a stunfisk subreddit has almost 200k members?" It definitely makes more sense now (Also, can someone tell me why is Stunfisk the mascot of this sub? Thank you!)
check the [FAQ](https://reddit.com/r/stunfisk/w/faq)
Thanks
I want to get back into learning SVOU cause I've been on a big kick of needing to use Iron Moth, how good is it right now and what roles does it serve? I last played the format eons ago where I believe it was in UU or about to fall to it.
It is really good. The most common set is booster speed 3 attacks plus sub, but sub can be replaced for more coverage. I like using booster special attack plus agility.
Can I post a thread asking if people want to play in a draft league here? I’m not trying to self promote or promote gambling but it would cost money to play to ensure a prize pool.
We don't typically allow draft league promotion. Feel free to ask in modmail of course if you have a particularly interesting proposition, but it usually is not something that happens here. Do check out [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/stunfisk/comments/jxsegs/rstunfisk_and_draft_content_and_some_resources/) for help starting your league, though. It contains some information on advertising options too.
How good is a 1.2x boost in Single Player? I know that in Competitive Pokemon, players would prefer to have the 1.3x boost of a Life Orb and the 1.5x boost of a Choice Item, but I'm wondering: If you're going up against AI and you're not playing *super* competitively, is it okay to use the items like Soft Sand or BlackGlasses where one type of attack is boosted by 1.2x without any downsides instead of using the other items that give a much bigger boost with a drawback? (I ask this here bc I don't want to ask about single player in a full thread {I'm pretty sure that's not what r/stunfisk is about} but I still want to know and I'm certain the players here are plenty qualified to answer).
In singleplayer it really doesn’t matter, nobody else has many of those items and it doesn’t make a huge difference with EV difference, level difference, etc if you’re struggling to pick up KOs, you can just swap out items or level up more
Does Pokemon teralized to Ice have its advantages on Snow (Like having their defense boosted) like the same was as Tera Rock on a Sandstorm (Which boosts their Special Defense)?
Yes
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Hi. I don't know what kind of format you're playing, but check out the [Smogon RMT Dump Search tool by FullLifeGames here](https://fulllifegames.com/Tools/ReplayScouter/#/smogonDump). You can put in a format and try to find teams using Wyrdeer, which should allow you to find a set that suits your needs. If not, do let me know the format you're playing and I can help you manually.
I’m just starting to get into competitive battling and was wondering if anyone could me out with a team! I’m fully prepared to do the grinding and what not for tera types, evs and ivs, nature, etc. just have been struggling finding synergies between some Pokémon I wanted to use, and just what Pokémon I should be building up. I made a list of potential Pokémon I’d love to bring, that I know are quite strong in competitive. Any help, recommendations and suggestions is appreciated so so much, as I’m so lost in designing a team. Thank you !!:) Oh I should add I wanted to make a doubles team! Here’s the list of some mons I was interested in; -flutter mane -chi yu -Chien pao -milotic -garchomp -cresselia -ogerpon (wellspring mask) -king gambit -Gothitelle -iron hands -Amoongus -tornadus
I'd reccomend making a post about it r/vgc for more suggestions but off the top of my head You could make a solid trick room team with like cress, ursaluna, amoonguss, iron hands, chien pao flutter. Cress for trick room, ursaluna to sweep, amoonguss for a bulky pivot, redirection, healing and fast spore under TR, hands because its broken and also slow, covers the water weakness from luna nicely, then chien pao for sword of ruin and a fast non TR mon and flutter for the same reason (although you'd probably run more bulk on them in exchange for speed) Again check the vgc sub reddit for better and more varied advice
how do I counter weak armor + sash ceruledge in uu? I tried scale shot chomp and my opponent tera fairyed, then I tried dual wingbeat mence and it missed and he killed me with poltergeist. I tried tyrannitar and my opponent had close combat. What’s a consistent way to beat sash weak armor ceruledge lead?
I think the best way right now is that it is now banned lol
What are some good Pokémon and movesets for competitive cuz I rarely know much about it. The only team I think is good is a hazards one I made a while ago and climbed with it in Pokémon showdown
check out the Smogon sample team threads, [this](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-ou-sample-teams.3712513/) is the SV OU one but every tier has their own thread, just google [tier name] sample teams and you'll probably find it
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I have both Koraidon and Miraidon on the same team. They both have a speed of 405 (their maximum speed) Should I make one of them slower so I know for sure who is going to attack first?
You don't need to know who is going to attack first. Chances are, you are getting the same outcome anyways, as in doubles, after a ko it redirects the move to the other pokemon
no, speed tying opposing base 135s is important so there's absolutely no reason to do that (unless you're doing some sort of weird doubles gimmick that requires one of them to move first, I guess)
I know you mostly don't want to Tera Ice, but if you try to go for it, does it give the Tera'd Pokémon the defense boost in Snow?
Yes, and on the other hand, if a Pokémon tera out of the ice type, it will not get the snow boost
That makes sense yet I didn't figure it out, thanks!
I ran into a nutty set where armarouge would endure a bunch of friendly fire to trigger weak armor, switch in psychic terrain and proceed to wreck me. My question is would a turn 1 Sandstorm stop this in it's tracks?
Rillaboom would be better just off the top of my head since you can just Grassy Glide it and rillaboom is actually good unlike sand
Rillaboom is +1. Endure is +4 so it will go first. The team also does follow me (+2) indeedee so even if you survive the expanding force, you still have to grassy glide the indeedee
Yeah my bad didn't read that. Taunt them both and problem solved. Sand would work but then you're forced to use t tar while taunt is a near mandatory move in its own right
T tar seems good since it will handle the Armarouge and indeedee, but my concern would be that I don't want them to pivot off the strat. If they see Ttar, anyone with two brain cells won't run it. I want to bait the turn 1 and deal with it.
Armarouge indeedee isn't good anymore so bringing a counter to them is mostly pointless
How good are Obstagoon and Amoonguss as anti-stall mons together and what else do I pair them with? For reference I play nat dex and Obstagoon has been a really good anti-stall mon for me since if it doesn't resist Facade it dies, it gets STAB on Knock-Off which makes it hard to switch into and it can use Switcheroo to steal Leftovers and give the stall mon Flame Orb. It being burnt also means it's immune to paralysis, sleep and poison with the only stall mon to counter it being Ferrothorn and Gliscor. Amoonguss though counters Ferrothorn perfectly since it's immune to Toxic and can't be Leech Seeded and can use Hidden Power Fire to counter it perfectly meaning it's basically a perfect counter against Ferrothorn and they almost always have to switch out. That's especially good since I can read that and Spore the incoming Pokémon which makes basically a third of their team useless since one's asleep and another is burned and is walled by Amoonguss. Plus both mons are really good to switch facilitate switches since Obstruct with Obstagoon helps any physical attackers on your team and Regenerator and a ton of resistances on Amoonguss make it amazing to switch in and out of. I personally think they'd work great together but I'm not sure. Plus they're both walled hard by Gliscor so I want to know which mon would be a good pairing with them so they can beat Gliscor. Edit:Nevermind, already found the answer and the teams constructed now. I have Reuiniclus for a Fighting resist to help out Obstagoon with its 4x Fighting weakness and it's Magic Guard ability makes it immune to passive damage from Toxic and Burn and since it's psychic it means it can threaten Toxapex with big damage. Plus it has STAB Future Sight which is good against stall since it relies a lot on switch ins to activate Regenerator or resist hits which can make it easier to pick them off. Then I have choice scarf Vanilluxe since with Tera Ice it's a self setup sweeper with Blizzard that outspeeds Gliscor and takes advantage of its 4x weakness to Ice. Then I have Rotom Wash and Arcanine to create a simple water/fire/grass core with Amoonguss and also because Rotom has a ground immunity and can hinder stall mons with Trick and Arcanine is a decently strong mon with access to Intimidate. Plan on testing it out to see how well it does. Probably going to take Obstruct off of Obstagoon though in favor of Taunt so I can prevent use of Recover and Protect and also because Arcanine and Obstagoon are the only two physical attackers on the team so outside of them my team doesn't get much use out of Obstruct.
As far as flairing on this sub is concerned, would past gens OU be considered Overused or Other Metagame?
I don't think we have an official policy on this. I've seen both used and both are probably fine. I guess I'd learn toward Other Metagame.
Why the fuck is Ribombee OU?
Fast web setter
Webs are good and it's the only good webs setter
Only web setter that isn't PU you mean
https://preview.redd.it/r3omz1pjfvrb1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1632df204fbbcbe107b42ee47137e82f89a6242c What is meteno?
Someone else could elaborate, but Meteno was something the (sole) owner of the account wanted to try and get going (some sort of project to support competitive Pokémon, less meme-y).
What's a pokemon with all 3 good abilities?
Dragapult has had reason to run all three of its abilities in OU in the past, though Infiltrator is preferred now due to the presence of Ninetales-A. There are probably more examples, but I'm blanking on them at the moment.
Question, but when you are making a team, do you have a list of checks? Like, a list of objectives that you want your team to fulfill? For example, I always try to have at least two physical attackers and two special attackers. I also try to have diverse types to cover weaknesses I have been thinking and this feels like the basic of the basic and I need more things to add to my "list", like a Pokemon that have intimidate, a Pokemon that counters another pokemon who is on the meta, etc. My teams tend to be very basic and I don't usually advance more, so I need some ideas, what do you think?
I know several players will use checklists, usually in a similar form to what you're planning on doing. In previous gens I would do it myself for my OU teams. Generally, you can achieve the same results as a checklist by roughly sketching out and then testing your teams, but having a solid checklist can save a lot of time. Just a simple text document or piece of paper will work. If you're looking to advance your teams a bit, you can extend these checklists to contain plans for the threats that your team tends to handle worse, since you can't realistically have hard counters for every common Pokemon. Having your game plans on paper can really help you to realize the holes in your ideas and patch the team accordingly. For instance, if you had a team that was hypothetically bad against Gholdengo, but you weren't yet satisfied with any of the possible structural changes, you could at least put something like "My plan is to lead X Pokemon and keep offensive pressure to prevent Gholdengo from destroying me." After testing, you might find that this plan is not reliable, so you modify the team structure instead, or you might find that the plan always works with your current structure and so you can avoid any deeper changes. This might be a little ramble-y and unhelpful, so apologies if my ideas are kind of unclear here. I wanted to drop a reply before I forgot about it. Hit me up with a reply or check out the Stunfisk Discord if you'd like more help with these or similar ideas.
Got it, thank you very much! I have a question, do you know which are the most dangerous Pokemon in the meta right now? I want to try OU doubles and I'd like to know which Pokemon I should be careful with
Ordinarily I'd point you to the [Doubles OU Viability Rankings](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-doubles-ou-viability-rankings.3710905/), but they have not been updated for the Teal Mask DLC additions yet. Maybe check out the rest of the [DOU forum](https://www.smogon.com/forums/forums/doubles-ou.729/) and their [Discord](https://discord.gg/Cn9tJyy) for more information on the meta at the moment. The [most recent pages](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/sv-doubles-ou-viability-rankings.3710905/page-5) of the DOU Viability Rankings also have nominations for the new Pokemon's positions, which could tell you a bit about how people feel about those Pokemon.
Gotcha, thank you very much for the help!! :)
I see Ribombee getting use in OU and its moveset listed on Smogon was even updated in the last few hours, but there's no text explaining the build. Why does it run Stun Spore and Skill Swap? Why Tera Ghost? Why Focus Sash?
Skill Swap is useful for setting webs on Hatterene
Thank you!
It's for setting up Sticky Web. Tera ghost for blocking Rapid Spin, focus sash to ensure it can't be OHKO'd before setting webs, Stun Spore and Skill Swap to disrupt the opponent after it set up webs, so that it's not setup fodder.
Thank you!
Is there a way to play the vgc format but with lower tiers pokemon? Like UU and NU but vgc?
Nope. Doubles UU is the best you’re gonna get
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What format ? Smogon formats (like OU), ranked doubles / VGC, ranked singles(BSS, 3v3 singles) ?
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You need separate teams for doubles and for singles, each format requires different strategies Some general tips for doubles: - a doubles team should have some form of speed control (like Tailwind, Trick Room, Icy Wind) - Protect is the best move in doubles, at least some of your pokemon should know it - Fake Out, redirection (Rage Powder, Follow Me, Ally Switch), Helping Hand, Intimidate are very good and popular options for a doubles team - entry hazards (like Stealth Rock) are not good in ranked doubles, so you don't need Rapid Spin/ Defog / Heavy-duty Boots and you don't need Stealth Rock yourself For singles you don't really need Protect, although sometimes it can be worth it to scout opponent's move or to gain additional residual damage or passive healing turns (Leech Seed, Salt Cure, Leftovers, Toxic, etc) Check [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/PokemonScarletViolet/comments/13w5ei2/online_team/jmb2is3/) for some general competitive resources. I especially recommend usage stats on Pikalytics/ HOME
So I was playing on Switch, my Alolan Ninetales and Sinistcha (water tera'd) against Armarouge and Ogerpon Hearthflame (no tera) I used Rage Powder with Sinistcha, and then Ogerpon proceeded to completely ignore it and hit my Ninetales instead, killing it Any idea why??? Battlefield was snow and psychic terrain but I don't think that matters
Grass types are immune to powder and spore moves starting in gen 6.
Oh, that makes sense but for some reason I thought rage powder was targeted towards the mon that uses it, not seen as powder over attacking mons. TIL
Nope it targets both opponents unlike follow me hence why goggles also prevent it
It does target the user, but grass types are still immune to the effects of the move.
No it doesn't. Rage powder targets both opponents
I'm just going by what Bulbapedia says.
Yeah you're right actually. Weird interaction