Resource Simple Questions, Simple Answers Thread

Hello guys, after some time i finally got the necessary motivation to learn the Gen 9 metagame, and i'm starting with UU. I guess Taunt is still good to use in the game, yes? I'm doing some teambuilding and i want a good mon with it so i can shutdown some of the threats i see around in the ladder, does anyone have any recommendations?
Heres a list of Pokémon which can run Taunt :
  • Ceruledge (notably on its Bulk Up set)
  • Some variants of pivot Lokix
  • Maushold
  • Tornadus-Therian
  • Iron Jugulis alongside Booster Energy + 3 offensive moves
 

pokemonisfun

Banned deucer.
Why is Basculegion-M completely outclassed by the female counterpart
In my opinion Tera Blast Grass Basculegion-Male is fine, I know a couple teams have been using it on the ladder including an amazing player fyfyk who reached 1900+. Phantom Force isn’t bad if you’re not choice locked, the 2 turn hit isn’t as bad when you break protect. You also get a decently strong aqua jet. Idk what item is best. Wave crash is insanely strong though
 

Melt Gibson

planting gardens in the potholes
is a Forum Moderator
Why is Basculegion-M completely outclassed by the female counterpart to the point it’s unviable
people's main grievance with male basculegion is that it lacks a ghost STAB aside from Phantom Force, which can be unreliable and give free turns, compared to female just getting to spam click shadow ball
 
In my opinion Tera Blast Grass Basculegion-Male is fine, I know a couple teams have been using it on the ladder including an amazing player fyfyk who reached 1900+. Phantom Force isn’t bad if you’re not choice locked, the 2 turn hit isn’t as bad when you break protect. You also get a decently strong aqua jet. Idk what item is best. Wave crash is insanely strong though
mystic water, ohko kleavor after rocks
 

pokemonisfun

Banned deucer.
Who should we pm/ask if we want to host a forum tour? I recall there was a UU info thread last gen (or maybe even in SM), that told us who to PM. i don't think it exists for this gen though?
 
I think I finally have committed into learning how to play competitive singles a little bit more, and the UU metagame seems healthier rn compared to OU. I'm usually a casual player (although I did play a VGC Player's Cup during the pandemic). I have a few questions to get started.

In the past, I've only been about an 1100 player. I think building my own teams kinda holds me back, as I'm not that good. How should I be approaching team building?
What are some basic skills that I need to learn to be a decent player? (I already know a little about double switching lol)
How do I avoid competition anxiety? I find that's a large component of why I struggle with competitive mon (and competitive games in general lol)
 
I think I finally have committed into learning how to play competitive singles a little bit more, and the UU metagame seems healthier rn compared to OU. I'm usually a casual player (although I did play a VGC Player's Cup during the pandemic). I have a few questions to get started.

In the past, I've only been about an 1100 player. I think building my own teams kinda holds me back, as I'm not that good. How should I be approaching team building?
What are some basic skills that I need to learn to be a decent player? (I already know a little about double switching lol)
How do I avoid competition anxiety? I find that's a large component of why I struggle with competitive mon (and competitive games in general lol)
Yeah the only thing that feels a bit strong for the tier is tornadus-t, since it is starting to warp the tier to a degree, and tornadus-t will be taken by OU if dlc gives it knock off back so tornadus-t might not be an issue down here for much longer.
 

Notily

dirt rich
I think I finally have committed into learning how to play competitive singles a little bit more, and the UU metagame seems healthier rn compared to OU. I'm usually a casual player (although I did play a VGC Player's Cup during the pandemic). I have a few questions to get started.

In the past, I've only been about an 1100 player. I think building my own teams kinda holds me back, as I'm not that good. How should I be approaching team building?
What are some basic skills that I need to learn to be a decent player? (I already know a little about double switching lol)
How do I avoid competition anxiety? I find that's a large component of why I struggle with competitive mon (and competitive games in general lol)
i think that a pretty good resource for understanding the basics of playing is this playlist of videos. it gives you some basic insight into different concepts such as risk / reward, using team preview, making a game plan, etc. which are universal in mons no matter what tier or format you're playing.

its usually best for new players to start sample teams or teams from players who know the tier decently well. unfortunately the UU forums is a little lacking in this regard (especially because of how much the meta has been changing due to DLC), but you can usually find decent quality teams in the UU discord or in the PIA discord. both of these places will have people sharing teams and discussing the metagame as people play with the new toys we got access to with the DLC which dropped today.

with regards to how to approach building, most players will build around a specific pokemon. each mon has a specific role depending on its set. for example, dragon dance salamence's role is to serve as a win condition, while 3 attacks + roost salamence role is to eat resisted physical attacks with the help of intimidate and to pressure opposing defensive pokemon. a good approach is to take a pokemon and to think of what opposing pokemon will prevent it from performing its role. continuing with the dragon dance salamence example - dragon dance salamence struggles to break through unaware pokemon like skeledirge and quagsire, as well as very physically bulky pokemon such as slowbro and hippowdon. furthermore, it will likely have to eat a hit in order to set up a dragon dance and can be outsped by faster choice scarf users (zarude, for example) and can potentially be revenge killed by strong priority moves. a good partner for dragon dance salamence will be able to either lure these pokemon in to remove them, or force damage onto them through means such as taunt (for example, dragon dance + taunt gyarados). on top of that, good partners will be able to abuse the counterplay to the pokemon you're building around. for this example, another good partner would be one that can abuse choice locked pokemon faster than salamence and resists some of the tiers priority options such as scizor's bullet punch, breloom's mach punch, and h-arcanines' extremespeed. the balance you're trying to strike is to try to use pokemon that enable each other's strengths while still having counterplay to as much of the metagame as possible - this is how you get consistent performance in a game with as much variance as pokemon.

you might hear players talk about team archetypes (aka playstlyes or team styles). these are hyper offense, bulky offense, balance, semi-stall, and stall. you can think of it as a spectrum with hyper offense being full out agression - spamming powerful offensive moves and set-up sweepers to overwhelm the opposing team, while stall is the opposite - using very defensive mons to attempt to suffocate the opponent out of options. certain pokemon only fit on certain playstyles. for example, it doesn't make much sense to use a defensive pokemon like quagsire on a hyper offense team - its passive and will give your opponent breathing room to get their bearings, which is the opposite of a hyper offense team's goal. archetypes are not to be confused with specific strategies. examples of these are weather, voltturn, grassy terrain teams, etc. these strategies aren't necessarily limited to specific archetypes, and can be deployed by different team archetypes depending on the metagame. a huge part of competitive pokemon is metagame knowledge, and the effectiveness of these strategies depends on what pokemon are available to abuse them in each specific metagame. as a builder, the more knowledge you have about what tools are available in each metagame and how you can use them, the more effective the teams you build will be at carrying out their strategies. the only way to get this knowledge is to play a lot.

with regards to competition anxiety - you won't get better at the game if you don't play the game. try not to worry about winning or your ELO or your results and instead focus on learning. try and accept that while you're new you might suck for a while; rarely do people pick up something new and immediately succeed at it. the fun part is improvement, not winning. the beauty of competitive games is that what you're up against is dynamic; as you improve, so will your opponents, and so every loss you can view as an area of your game that you can develop further. losing is a tool we can use to help us become better players (and better people, if you want to get philosophical about getting your ass whooped in a children's video game) but you don't get to use that tool if you don't play in the first place. remember its just a game and have fun :blobthumbsup:
 
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i think that a pretty good resource for understanding the basics of playing is this playlist of videos. it gives you some basic insight into different concepts such as risk / reward, using team preview, making a game plan, etc. which are universal in mons no matter what tier or format you're playing.
This is a dumb question but who’s the YouTuber for that playlist
 

Melt Gibson

planting gardens in the potholes
is a Forum Moderator
What are Smogon points or badges?
points are just a thing that our forum system allows us to use that we don't really use

badges are awarded for a wide variety of things, like being a contributor to resources and analysis, being a researcher, tutoring, writing articles, providing good quality art for the site, etc etc, but they all just fall under the general umbrella of being a contributor to smogon
 

Mossy Sandwich

Gunning for the top
is a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributor
UUPL Champion
Why does Maushold run wide lens as its item on its smogon page?
Population Bomb checks its 90% accuracy for each hit, so its chance to hit all 10 is 0.9^10 which is about 35%. Wide Lens brings the accuracy up to 99% for each hit which increases its chance to land all 10 hits up to about 90%. Since it relies on the move so much, you really want it to be consistent, so it doesn't really have another choice.
 

Red Raven

I COULD BE BANNED!
Population Bomb checks its 90% accuracy for each hit, so its chance to hit all 10 is 0.9^10 which is about 35%. Wide Lens brings the accuracy up to 99% for each hit which increases its chance to land all 10 hits up to about 90%. Since it relies on the move so much, you really want it to be consistent, so it doesn't really have another choice.
Thank you. I have another question. Why doesn't Maushold use loaded dice as its item over wide lens?
 

Mossy Sandwich

Gunning for the top
is a Community Contributoris a Tiering Contributor
UUPL Champion
Thank you. I have another question. Why doesn't Maushold use loaded dice as its item over wide lens?
It only guarantees 4 hits, the rest are still inconsistent. It has seen some experimentation in the past with Bullet Seed for Ground and Rock types, but it never truly caught on.
 

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