05-12-2011, 04:17 AM
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 | Super Moderator | | Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: North Carolina
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I am assuming you are familiar with stat mechanics (EVs, IVs, and Natures) and that you are familiar with move mechanics (STAB, Type effectiveness, and physical vs. special moves.)
The next step would be to understand the roles that are usually filled on a competitive team. The following was copied from smogon: - Attacking Lead
A Pokemon in the lead position who attacks immediately and generally does not do any setting up whatsoever.
Machamp is the most reliable and terrifying attacking lead in the metagame particularly due to DynamicPunch's confusion. - Cleric
A Pokemon who uses Aromatherapy or Heal Bell to cure itself and its team of status.
With Blissey's fantastic Special Defense and HP stats, she has many opportunities to help her team out with Aromatherapy, making her a great cleric. - Dedicated Lead
A Pokemon used mostly or only as a lead in BW, to the general exclusion of the other five team members from the lead role.
Aerodactyl is a dedicated lead that can reliably set up Stealth Rock due to its very high Speed and access to Taunt. - Dual Screener
A Pokemon who uses moves like Reflect, Light Screen, and Wish with the intent of passing them to another Pokemon.
Bronzong's great bulkiness, typing, and access to Explosion make it one of the most durable and reliable of dual screeners to choose from. - Glass Cannon
A Pokemon who has high offensive power but is very defensively frail.
Gengar's high base 130 Special Attack, yet pathetic defensive stats, make it a prominent specially-oriented glass cannon. - Mixed Sweeper
A sweeper who uses both physical and special offensive moves to do damage. Mixed sweepers are referred to with the Mix prefix.
Infernape's ability to use both physical and special attacks (referred to as MixApe) in one set makes it one of the most common and effective mixed sweepers available. - Phazer / Pseudo-hazer / Shuffler
A Pokemon who uses moves that may force the opponent to switch, such as Roar, Whirlwind, Perish Song, and Yawn.
Perish Song Celebi is commonly seen on stall-oriented teams in order to eliminate set-up sweepers that can cause a severe amount of trouble to its team. - Physical Sweeper
A Pokemon who uses physically offensive moves to do damage and bring down an opponent's team. Many carry Attack boosting moves, like Swords Dance or Dragon Dance.
Swords Dance Lucario is a very prominent physical sweeper. Having access to Close Combat, Crunch, Ice Punch, and ExtremeSpeed, it is capable of sweeping an entire unprepared team with ease after one Swords Dance boost. - Spinblocker
A Ghost-type Pokemon who is used to stop the opponent from using Rapid Spin successfully.
Rotom-A is the most common spinblocker, thanks to its excellent typing, movepool, and stats. - Rapid Spinner / Spinner
A Pokemon who uses Rapid Spin to remove entry hazards.
Boasting a high Speed stat and powerful attacks, Starmie is considered the best offensive Rapid Spinner in the game. No Ghost-type (the only type of Pokemon that ignores Rapid Spin) will enjoy taking a hard-hitting Hydro Pump from the spinning star. - Revenge Killer
A Pokemon whose main purpose on a team is to revenge kill or trap certain threats, usually those who your team lacks a solid defense against. Generally characterized by high Speed and frailty.
Mamoswine's access to Ice Shard allows it to be known as a very effective revenge killer to Flygon. - Special Sweeper
A Pokemon who uses specially offensive moves to do damage and bring down an opponent's team. Many carry Special Attack boosting moves, like Nasty Plot or Calm Mind.
Porygon-Z's access to Nasty Plot and power-increasing abilities give it excellent special sweeping capabilities. Its STAB Tri Attack and other powerful attacks, such as Thunderbolt and Ice Beam, are ridiculously powerful when boosted, ripping entire unprepared teams to shreds. - Stallbreaker
A Pokemon that immediately threatens stall not for breaking down walls, rather for preventing the Pokemon commonly found on those teams from executing their standard strategies and thus hindering or entirely shutting down the team's defensive core.
Gliscor has all of the necessary tools to be an effective stallbreaker, in particular Taunt, Roost, high Speed, select immunities, and an excellent STAB type. - Status Absorber
A Pokemon who can avoid, remove, or use to its advantage one or more status effects, usually by using the RestTalk combination or specific abilities.
Heracross is a common Pokemon that takes advantage of status, most notably poison or burn. Teams that have problems with sleep leads often carry sleep absorbers with Rest and Sleep Talk. - Suicide Lead
A lead Pokemon, who usually pack low defenses, that tries to set up entry hazards quickly and prevent opponents from doing the same, usually by Taunt, before dying.
With access to Taunt, Stealth Rock, Explosion, and high offensive and Speed stats, Azelf is by far the most commonly used and successful suicide lead. - Supporter
A Pokemon who uses non-offensive moves which benefit the team.
Cresselia has various supportive options in her movepool that can be helpful for her team. Some of these include: Thunder Wave, Toxic, Reflect, Light Screen, and Lunar Dance. - Tank
A Pokemon intended to take either physical or special attacks and hit back, but does not have to do so consistently over the entire course of a match.
Bronzong is a very potent tank. With Gyro Ball, Explosion, and massive defenses, it can hit enemies hard and take many hits effectively over the course of a match. - Trapper
A Pokemon intended to corner the opponent and put them into a "lose-lose" situation, where it is dangerous for them to both switch out or stay in and attack, through the use of moves like Pursuit, Sucker Punch, or the aid of a Choice Scarf.
ScarfTar is a very effective trapper that can essentially eliminate the opponent's Ghost-type, such as Rotom-A, through the use of a quick Pursuit. - Wall
A Pokemon intended to take either physical or special attacks extremely effectively and consistently over the course of a battle.
Skarmory's enormous physical Defense makes it one of the most sturdy physical wall in the game. It also has access to Spikes, Roost, and Whirlwind, three moves that Skarmory has many opportunities to use. - Wallbreaker
An offensively oriented Pokemon meant specifically for crushing walls rather than sweeping. This is usually done with extra powerful offensive stats and commonly use both physical and special moves in their moveset.
With Infernape's ideally placed stats and STABs almost specifically designed to tear down many of the most common walls in the game, he makes for an excellent wallbreaker.
The most common roles are the sweepers and leads in my experiences. How to fill these roles: - Now the next thing you need to understand is how each pokemon fills these roles. I.E. Blissey is an excellent special wall, Excadrill is a phsyical sweeper, etc. The roles a pokemon can fill is predominately determined by the moves its stats and the moves it can learn.
- Once you understand the different roles, you should also understand how certain items boost the effectiveness of the different roles. I.E. Leftovers are good for tanks and walls, the choice items and life orb are good for sweepers, etc. Also you should understand how EVs, natures, and movesets boost the effectiveness of Pokemon trying to fill a certain role.
What to keep in mind while building your team: - There are several different strategies a Pokemon team can have. Some teams are hyper-offensive, some are stall, some focus on baton-pass, etc. The main idea is that you choose Pokemon that contribute to the overall strategy of your team.
- The next thing you should be concerned about is type coverage. It is a general rule of thumb that no more than 2 of your pokemon should be weak to any one type. I.E. A team of Aerodactyl, Lucario, Heatran, Tyranitar, Starmie, and Haxorus is very weak to fighting and ground type moves.
But the best way to get better and understand better is by practicing. You can download an online battle simulator (Pokemon Online) and battle against other people, which is really the best way of learning the nuances of competitive battling.
Last edited by logitech; 05-12-2011 at 04:23 AM.
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