Going into Competitive Battling in the Fourth Generation
While I had previous participated in a Pokemon tournament and had battled many friends in the first and second generation of Pokemon I had not battled since then. Even then though, there were a few people I simply could not beat at all. It was only now, after everything I learned about the internal mechanics of Pokemon, that I can now battle the way I do with the present teams and generation. Things have changed drastically in terms of the Meta-Game, the rules and world surrounding Pokemon itself, having gained tiers and structure I had not previous heard of from just playing the game itself. As I investigated into this world of the Meta-Game, I learned about things I had never previously considered or had simply brushed aside as less-important, only to learn that now, as I was entering competitive play, it was vital.
Easily though, the first thing I had to begin to consider were the Individual Values and Nature of each Pokemon on the team. These two elements can change a lot about the role any given Pokemon can fill on a competitive team. Understanding the nature of each Pokemon was simple, as it was listed on their summary page in-game. Individual Values (IVs) were easy enough to learn about however, figuring out an individual Pokemon’s IVs proved to be very troublesome. Most methods will give you an estimate unless the Pokemon is level 100 and you have documented every Effect Value (EV) that they have earned. Even with just an estimate, it proves easy to figure out if a Pokemon is worth raising for a Competitive Team. If nothing else, raise them a bit and look at the stats, if by level 10 or 20, they are not what you expect or want, don’t use them.
Another big change was planning out my teams, thinking carefully about what species I was choosing for what role. Within the Meta-Game, Pokemon fit into particular catagories, depending on their stats and move-pools: Sweepers, Walls, Tanks and Support. Sweepers are Pokemon meant to simply take down your Opponent with speed and strength. While they are generally more fragile, these Pokemon are meant to simply go in and blow away your Opponent’s team. Walls are Pokemon meant to stall out your Opponent’s team, wearing away at your Opponent’s Move Pool. This can be done simply with their recovery abilities and insane defenses or a mix of defense and type. Tanks are Pokemon meant to absorb damage and keep coming. These more count on defense and typing than Walls, but are useful in that they will generally have a few more attack moves than the typical Wall-style Pokemon. Support Pokemon are ones with abilities that help out the rest of the team. This can be in the form of Stealth Rocks, Spikes or any other entry hazard or through the abilities they can share with their fellow team-mates, like Aromatherapy or Baton Passing stat-boost.
Cohesion within the team is vital. The better each Pokemon can support another, creating a synergy throughout the team, the better off each individual will be. This can be thought of as the theme of the team. It could be their type or simply because they all “fit”. Some teams, it is obvious from the start work very well together while others take many battles to perfect. In either case, it will always show in the efforts of the Player to understand the dynamics. Here though, there are some special cases: The Weather Teams. These teams are designed to deploy the weather effects: Hail, Sandstorm, Rain and Sunny Day. The teams are designed to be able to capitalize on the changes that these moves make on the Pokemon, from boosted Speed to boosted Defenses and Attack.
The most notable element of the Mega-Game that I learned about was the tiers from Smogon.com. These break all the Pokemon in groups that offered a fairly level battle between the Pokemon. Some Pokemon honestly are simply better than others thus the need to break them down into more manageable groups. The tiers are: Ubers, Overused, Borderline, Underused, Never-Used, and Limbo. The Uber Tier, which mostly comprised of Legendary Pokemon like Darkrai, Arceus, Mew, and others will simply wipe out other teams being such powerful Pokemon. Most tournaments will ban the Ubers tier because of this. The most common tier used in Tournaments is the Overused Tier, of which Jolteon and Vaporeon are members of, among many others. Borderline Pokemon fit into either Overused or Underused easily however each requires a different move-set and considerations based on what is expected in either tier. Underused are the lesser common Pokemon, usually with good reason, owing to either being more fragile or lacking some vital moves. Never-Used simply are the Pokemon that no one really uses all that much. Limbo is simply that, Pokemon no one uses.
To say the least, after considering all that information, I was a bit overwhelmed. Mix in my lack of knowledge on EV hot-spots and it was fairly daunting to figure out just how to get to where I wanted. Still, just some time invested in research showed me places where I could quickly train my Pokemon and a few little tricks in terms of getting the proper set-up for a Pokemon. While setting into this venture had me breed excess of fifty Eevees to get the six I ultimately used, I learned quite a bit from all of it. Once I had those six and knew what I was doing, it did not take more than a few days each to get the team completely preparing, down to the move-sets. The team became my now well-known Eevee-ultion Team, with a few alternates. Of all my teams, they are my most used and they were the inspiration that powered on the rest of my drive to create and complete other teams. Once someone knows all the elements and understands the basics listed here, they are well on their way to being able to hold their ground in the wider world of Pokemon Battling.
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