Competitive Game Since we are talking about Pokémon Competitively, we will be talking about only 18 types. We do not include "Bird Type" from "Pokémon Blue" and "Pokémon Red" (only obtainable with MissingNo) or "Shadow Type" from "Pokémon Colosseum" and "Pokémon X Gale of Darkness". Also we will not counting Pokémon Mistery Dungeon, since this game is non-relevant to the competitive game. Pokémon Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, Green Leaf, Red Fire, Sapphire, Ruby, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Diamon, Pearl, Platinium, Black and White, Black and White 2, X and Y, ORAS, etc...are the games that can have realtion with the competitive game. Many of you maybe know a little about the competitive game, but I will try to explain it for those that are new on it or only had play in-game only (In game is when you play the history) Competitive Game is commonly divided in different Tiers. The Tiers, as we said before, are divisions of the Pokédex in base of the competitive function of each Pokémon. The different Tiers are many but I will name the most known that are OU (Over Used), UU (Under Used), RU (Rarely Used), NU (Never Used) and PU (Poorly Used). There are other Tiers like BL1 and BL2, but for now I will not explain it. The goal of the competitive game is to test yourself against another human player in the Tier that you choose. You can always fight in the different Tiers from your 3DS or in a simulator like Pokémon Showdown or Pokémon Online. I will explain Pokémon Showdown in another Tutorial if you are interested on it or maybe in Pokémon Online but we have our own Showdown Server so I will prefer to explain it first .(did it please see the conclusion of the tutorial) Now that you know a little about the competitive game an if you like the Idea you can keep reading . Competitive Player Too became a competitive player first you need to know about EV and IV,you can find some info in my other tutorial .Why a competitive player needs to know about IVs and EVs? Because in the competitive game almost all the persons work with a "Perfect Pokémon" ( A Pokémon with the correct distribution of EV in its stats and also with the correct IV). Now, if you read about IV and EV and you already have an idea of how you need your Pokémon and how to obtain them. Also you need to know about teambuilding, but I will explain it in another Tutorial soon and I will put the link here. (For now, try to find a Competitive Mentor here, I made the Tutorial use this link) I hope this information work for you if you are new in the Competitive Game or even if you already know about it Next Tutorials and Why I don't do all in 1 Next Tutorials that I will be doing this week : Pokémon Showdown (ended, see conclusion) Teambuilding bases (in progress) Why I don't do it all in 1 : Well, my reasons are the next. First: Having too much information on a same place is contra productive because it is not useful and many people gets confused with it and also bored. Second: The best way to learn is doing it slow, so if you want to learn something you have to have dedication and do it by the time. Nobody (maybe some persons) can learn too much in a short amount of time. Maybe you think that you could, but there are some that cannot do it and this is a community and we have to think with ethics here, so if you don't like it I want say sorry but all the members here deserves help. I am a little busy this month because of my job, but I still active because I love here XD. Conclusion I hope this help the site and the new people Useful Links. Spoiler I highly recommend you to visit these ones. Once that you learned all the basics from me you should check all that they have to offer. The Optimal Play Blog [member='guimartgon'] Blog allows all the competitive players to have a greater knowledge about the Competitive Game. OfficialRedG's Pokémon Reviews [member='OfficialRedG'] Blog gives you many posibilities of keep knowing the Pokémon, you can apply this information for in-game and also in competitive.
I would like to point out that not everyone follows Smogon rules, what are your thoughts on the competitive scene outside of Smogon? Actual Pokémon tournaments follow their own rules, correct? I'm not too educated on the actual competitive side of things, I just make nice IVd Pokémon for the actual battlers. Heh.
Of course Smogon has its limits and many of us don't like it. For example Aegislash's Ban was one of the most useless ideas that Smogon had and you can see that this Pokémon is not banned in our server because we here think what I told before. Now, talking out of Smogon I can say that you have a big world because there are not limits there, and when you don't have limits you start to search them and you can find very uncomfortable situations. So I can say that I am the kind of person that thinks that the rules and limits are necessary, but there is a difference between them and that is what Smogon doesn't seems to know. I found a kind of balance here on LV, not only for the unbanned Pokémon also because here is another point of view of the competitive playing. I am not too updated with the Tournaments because in my country there is not Nintendo/Game Freak activity. So I cannot give you an argument about this because it could be confusing and I am not the correct person to talk about it.
I appreciate you taking to give me a solid answer. I for one can also like structure and rules when they are necessary. Thank you for the response!
I know this isn't about the guide posted but I just need to say this: Aegislash wasn't broken in my opinion. I never had a lot of problems with it and while I recognized that it was a great mon, I didn't think it really OP (though I recognized that it is a great poke in the OU metagame). However, it discouraged a lot of newer competitive battlers to get into it because of how unfair it was in teaching new players. It's pretty much a coin flip with Aegislash and there are too many instances where it depends on if Aegis goes for Kings Shield or another attack to decide the winner, which isn't how competitive battling should be. It was too unfair for newer players as a threat that 1) deals a ton of damage on both sides (attack or special attack) 2) is very defensive and hard to take out 3) it was all dependent on what both players go for to decide the outcome of the match. Just a big coin flip. So that is why Smogon deemed it banworthy and I think it deserves to remain banned here, but that's just my honest opinion. LV doesn't have a lot of big competitive players/veterans so I think it's kind of a bad thing that it is unbanned here. On another note, this is a pretty good guide! There's a lot more to it then just this of course, but this is a great, simple, and streamline guide that's easy to understand and allows newcomers to get a bit more of a jump start.
We all have different thinking about Aegislash. The simple fact of have a non-legendary Pokémon banned suppose a long and even endless discussion about which decision is better. What I am trying to say is that even the new competitive players must surpass Pokes like Aegislash...It is like " I will not fight a Ground Mono because I have a Electric Mono", My point is that, there are weakness and resistances that is what I always teach, to search a solution and never leave a battle.
Oh I know what you mean, it's just that Aegislash is based off of luck, not skill, much like Swagger (except it's a whole Pokémon, not just a move). It is too versatile (Special, physical, mixed) meaning you cannot switch in until you know it's set so it can get around a few of it's checks/counters with different sets. You have to try and predict when your opponent will King's Shield, and if you predict wrong (the 50% coinflip or luck element) you pay. There shouldn't be a Pokémon that puts everything on luck because it is something you can't just "predict", and it can beat checks/counters that way, which sort of removes a whole weakness which doesn't make sense.
So when you get burnt by scald, flinched by dark pulse and many other things that I don't need to say you can predict it?. These ones and many others make Pokémon a "Luck Game". The base of game is always surprise the user making him/her wonder "What will happen after". Is a system created to never get bored of it. Will you say "0" if I ask you : How many battles were decided because a critical hit or status change touched you? You can ask every player and all of them will say that this happened to them. This conversation is productive. But if we want to talk about it, We need to move it because there is too much to talk about it and this is a Tutorial not a Competitive Discussion. All what you are saying to me sounds interesting because I almost never have the possibility to talk like this with another competitive player.
I feel like the Aegislash ban was understandable, I don't mind it being in OU here, but if the only thing you can see about Aegislash is how he didn't sweep people that were prepared, you are missing on a lot(not calling anyone out). Aegislash is the greatest support for sweepers I've seen after the introduction of Stealth Rocks and Spikes. Ghost + Fighting has pretty much perfect coverage and Aegislash's huge offensive mixed stats made it wallbreak almost anything and ko most offensive threats due to it's immense shield bulk and sheer sword power, making a pathway for lots of sweepers like CharX to just come in, set up and sweep. Then there were the sudden SD/Autotomize variants which in the right hands could be bluffed with eased to then get the set up and destroy teams, the standard set was just TOO scary to scout for, making properly built teams abuse the meta with ease. Aegislash also made stall impossible to play, you either won against Aegislash teams and got destroyed against offensive teams or vice versa. Those are my thoughts on Aegislash, no need to agree.
Guimartgon, your argument is good but as I said to Panda, this is a Tutorial and I won't be answering about this anymore, because it could end in a Competitive Discussion and i don't want to get my Tutorial closed by the staff. Thank you for understanding