Ahead of reading
Before I write down business, Nice to meet you all.
To give you a brief introduction of who I am,
I've been playing games since gen5, and I play games on the Nintendo Switch console.
In the 9th generation
Season 2 Final 24th place
Season 3 Final 2nd place
Co-Writer of Season 4 Kuroko's Final No. 1 Construction
Season 5 Final 15th place
Season 6 Final 24th place
I mainly work on Japanese Twitter, and it is relatively recent that I have joined the smogon community and started interacting with Western people, so please understand that I do not understand the atmosphere of this community or the specific terms being used (stuff like OU, etc...).
Also, since I am not a native English speaker, I welcome any questions or criticisms in any way if there is anything difficult to understand in the text.
In this text, I will share my knowledge in order to build a good team.
Basics:
1) Have a general plan of how you will win:
Take a look at: 【7/8投稿】定数+ツツミカイリュー
https://gamewith.jp/pokemon-sv/article/show/394122
In this team, the main winning route would be:
Toxic spikes sneasler + Iron bundle + Dragonite
the winning plan of the 3 pokemon is:
a. Toxic spikes lead in - substitute of iron bundle, which can improverish the opponents hp easily and enable the iron bundle to make an okho.
b. Toxic spikes + roost dragonite. For example, pokemons like dondozo who stopdragon dance dragonite are vulnerable to toxic spikes.
c. encore of iron bundle +dragon dance dragonite -sometimes enable a free dragon dance, for example one could encore sacred sword of chien pao coming for bundle, simply encore the sacred sword, and dragon dance with dragonite.
2) Make a sub-plan for when the main plan of your team is not going to work.
Looking at the team above, when toxic spikes+ iron bundle is not really effective the opponent's team (ex - multiple poison types, hisui goodra, etc.)
One has to come up with a different subplan for winning. Therefore, the team has prepared chi-yu and ursaluna in order for powerful hits when the main plan
is seemingly hard to win against the opponent's team.
3) There's no way that a perfect team can be completed just by thinking. Even a theoretically perfect team will inevitably have flaws if it is put into practice. It is necessary to gradually supplement this, verbalize what is lacking, and organize which parts were strong and which parts were weak. From the point when this begins to be visible to some extent, we have no choice but to revise the team little by little by little by little as a way to compensate for our weaknesses and further utilize our strengths. Everyone at the top part of the ladder has experienced this process and is still experiencing it.
Slightly out of the basics:
1) Gather a lot of information around, like which type of pokemon is trending in the higher ladder , or something close to that.
For example, during the last part of the previous season (season9) , On the first season of the series, the metagame environment is entirely new so there is no such thing (Ex, season 5, season 8), but on secondary seasons with the same rules like season 9, getting a grasp on the metagame is really important.
This is why having connection with top players are important in the pokemon community , and the reason why top players are in private discord servers.
Experience on the actual ladder (not showdown tests) are important also, cuz it helps you get a sense on what is a trend being formed in the actual ladder is and helps you grasp a better sense on what is happening to the meta. ( 00 is increasing, but ** is decreasing so my team should have more focus in winning against 00)
2) Always have multiple ways you can deal with meta pokemons.
For example, if you can only win dragonite with dondozo, it's not really a good team.
Good teams always prepare multiple methods to take care of pokemon that are often used, like dragonite, urshifu, fluttermane, tinglu, etc.
However, this does not mean that you have to 'react' to the opponents pokemon; to be more specific, you don't always need to have pokemons like dondozo or wo-chien that can cushion against opponent's dragonite. Always, take in consideration that offensive pokemons such as flutter mane or chien-pao can also be a route that can help you deal with dragonite. Being able to deal with something doesn't always necessarily mean you have to be on the defensive side for the pokemon, you can be on the offensive side.
If there is a pokemon that has an obvious disadvantage vs top meta pokemon, yes, in that case a cushion (at least some pokemon you can switch into) may be necessary.
3) Try to move from above, have fast pokemons on your team (or priority moves)
Of course having slow pokemons as cushions such as gargnacl, dondozo is a good choice.
However, if your team is generally slow, it makes you much harder to raise your ladder because you have to 'respond' to what the opponent does, and makes it hard to have the opponent follow in your game plan.
This is exactly the reason why stall is not a strong strategy in the current meta. If you continuously act after the opponent, this makes you much more vulnerable to additional affects of a move, flinch hax, etc.
https://game8.jp/pokemonbattle/521777
Take a look at this team.
While this team's main gameplan is to use Kingambit in a strong manner with the support of thunder wave ＋air slash dragonite,and is consisted largely out of slow pokemon, it includes moves such as thunder wave that lowers the opponent's speed so that our pokemon can move first from next turn, or multiple priority moves such as ice shard/sucker punch, which can be used as an effective response to the opponent's flutter mane/etc.
4) Test a lot of things in the beginning of the season, and pick a movement you consider strong. You can't test things near the end of the season, which means you will have to make your core by the latest 17~18th of the month.
Try to logically put into words why this pokemon or pokemon tag is strong (as mentioned above) , as it makes things easier to organize.
If you find something that you consider strong enough to serve as the core of the team for this month's grind, that's what you have to go for.
5) Your estimate of how the end of season meta change cannot always be correct, so try to have a solid gameplan or a win route against what's a template team of the current meta. (big6, fisure loop, hippowdon+urshifu+flutter mane, etc....). This enables you to have easy wins against opponents who are unaware of your strategy. Losing against teams such as big 6 that take up a vast major usage percentage on the real ladder will pull you down on the ladder. Make sure your team can make wins against teams that are in the template range, at the very least (have a plan)
Hope this helps everybody!
Before I write down business, Nice to meet you all.
To give you a brief introduction of who I am,
I've been playing games since gen5, and I play games on the Nintendo Switch console.
In the 9th generation
Season 2 Final 24th place
Season 3 Final 2nd place
Co-Writer of Season 4 Kuroko's Final No. 1 Construction
Season 5 Final 15th place
Season 6 Final 24th place
I mainly work on Japanese Twitter, and it is relatively recent that I have joined the smogon community and started interacting with Western people, so please understand that I do not understand the atmosphere of this community or the specific terms being used (stuff like OU, etc...).
Also, since I am not a native English speaker, I welcome any questions or criticisms in any way if there is anything difficult to understand in the text.
In this text, I will share my knowledge in order to build a good team.
Basics:
1) Have a general plan of how you will win:
Take a look at: 【7/8投稿】定数+ツツミカイリュー
https://gamewith.jp/pokemon-sv/article/show/394122
In this team, the main winning route would be:
Toxic spikes sneasler + Iron bundle + Dragonite
the winning plan of the 3 pokemon is:
a. Toxic spikes lead in - substitute of iron bundle, which can improverish the opponents hp easily and enable the iron bundle to make an okho.
b. Toxic spikes + roost dragonite. For example, pokemons like dondozo who stopdragon dance dragonite are vulnerable to toxic spikes.
c. encore of iron bundle +dragon dance dragonite -sometimes enable a free dragon dance, for example one could encore sacred sword of chien pao coming for bundle, simply encore the sacred sword, and dragon dance with dragonite.
2) Make a sub-plan for when the main plan of your team is not going to work.
Looking at the team above, when toxic spikes+ iron bundle is not really effective the opponent's team (ex - multiple poison types, hisui goodra, etc.)
One has to come up with a different subplan for winning. Therefore, the team has prepared chi-yu and ursaluna in order for powerful hits when the main plan
is seemingly hard to win against the opponent's team.
3) There's no way that a perfect team can be completed just by thinking. Even a theoretically perfect team will inevitably have flaws if it is put into practice. It is necessary to gradually supplement this, verbalize what is lacking, and organize which parts were strong and which parts were weak. From the point when this begins to be visible to some extent, we have no choice but to revise the team little by little by little by little as a way to compensate for our weaknesses and further utilize our strengths. Everyone at the top part of the ladder has experienced this process and is still experiencing it.
Slightly out of the basics:
1) Gather a lot of information around, like which type of pokemon is trending in the higher ladder , or something close to that.
For example, during the last part of the previous season (season9) , On the first season of the series, the metagame environment is entirely new so there is no such thing (Ex, season 5, season 8), but on secondary seasons with the same rules like season 9, getting a grasp on the metagame is really important.
This is why having connection with top players are important in the pokemon community , and the reason why top players are in private discord servers.
Experience on the actual ladder (not showdown tests) are important also, cuz it helps you get a sense on what is a trend being formed in the actual ladder is and helps you grasp a better sense on what is happening to the meta. ( 00 is increasing, but ** is decreasing so my team should have more focus in winning against 00)
2) Always have multiple ways you can deal with meta pokemons.
For example, if you can only win dragonite with dondozo, it's not really a good team.
Good teams always prepare multiple methods to take care of pokemon that are often used, like dragonite, urshifu, fluttermane, tinglu, etc.
However, this does not mean that you have to 'react' to the opponents pokemon; to be more specific, you don't always need to have pokemons like dondozo or wo-chien that can cushion against opponent's dragonite. Always, take in consideration that offensive pokemons such as flutter mane or chien-pao can also be a route that can help you deal with dragonite. Being able to deal with something doesn't always necessarily mean you have to be on the defensive side for the pokemon, you can be on the offensive side.
If there is a pokemon that has an obvious disadvantage vs top meta pokemon, yes, in that case a cushion (at least some pokemon you can switch into) may be necessary.
3) Try to move from above, have fast pokemons on your team (or priority moves)
Of course having slow pokemons as cushions such as gargnacl, dondozo is a good choice.
However, if your team is generally slow, it makes you much harder to raise your ladder because you have to 'respond' to what the opponent does, and makes it hard to have the opponent follow in your game plan.
This is exactly the reason why stall is not a strong strategy in the current meta. If you continuously act after the opponent, this makes you much more vulnerable to additional affects of a move, flinch hax, etc.
https://game8.jp/pokemonbattle/521777
Take a look at this team.
While this team's main gameplan is to use Kingambit in a strong manner with the support of thunder wave ＋air slash dragonite,and is consisted largely out of slow pokemon, it includes moves such as thunder wave that lowers the opponent's speed so that our pokemon can move first from next turn, or multiple priority moves such as ice shard/sucker punch, which can be used as an effective response to the opponent's flutter mane/etc.
4) Test a lot of things in the beginning of the season, and pick a movement you consider strong. You can't test things near the end of the season, which means you will have to make your core by the latest 17~18th of the month.
Try to logically put into words why this pokemon or pokemon tag is strong (as mentioned above) , as it makes things easier to organize.
If you find something that you consider strong enough to serve as the core of the team for this month's grind, that's what you have to go for.
5) Your estimate of how the end of season meta change cannot always be correct, so try to have a solid gameplan or a win route against what's a template team of the current meta. (big6, fisure loop, hippowdon+urshifu+flutter mane, etc....). This enables you to have easy wins against opponents who are unaware of your strategy. Losing against teams such as big 6 that take up a vast major usage percentage on the real ladder will pull you down on the ladder. Make sure your team can make wins against teams that are in the template range, at the very least (have a plan)
Hope this helps everybody!
