Meta-PokéBase Q&A
12 votes
3,661 views

'Man, I would love to play Pokemon with some skill, but this super competitive stuff is so confusing ;~;'

Ever felt like this? Well never fear! Welcome to a new community project centred around helping new and old players alike make the competitive scene their second home!

Hello again and welcome to this thread! I'm very pleased to announce the official release of this competitive tutorial series! If you're new to this website, some users had an idea to help out newer users wanting to get into the competitive scene. There is a lot of untapped potential here and we want to see it unleashed. And now after being approved, we can officially get this under way!


Note: Articles will now released biweekly, meaning there will be 2-4 every second week instead of 1-2 every week. This gives the writers more time to write and editors more time to finalise.

So what is this about then? Basically, a bunch of knowledgeable and experienced battlers provide a resource where new players can be sent too if they don't understand something or just got into the game. these articles provide helpful beginners information, handy hints and a pot of experience to get everyone up to speed on the scene.

Below (in the answer area) are going to be the completed articles. This thread will be added to every week or so with new articles, so check back regularly! There are also multiple writers on more than one series, so there'll be some variety as well.

In terms of scheduling, I'm hoping to have at least one new update per week. I'm a busy man with a lot to do, hence why there are multiple writers and editors.


Interested in writing? We're interested in competitive and non competitive alike, so if you have an idea for a series or even a one of, let us know so we can help you put it out there!

Requirements to write:

  • Good standard of English and clear explanations. Try to use examples and keep everything simple

  • Your account must be at least one month old (with exceptions), and must have a reasonable activity.

  • Be knowledgeable in whatever it is you're talking about. You don't have to be the best around or anything, but good enough.

Other than that, there's nothing majorly special you need. We also need editors and proofreaders; people who look over, edit and reword articles before they get published. If you want to do that instead, you can!

If you're interested in either of these, post on my wall saying so and I'll see what I can do!

Note: Please do not be offended if I say no to your request. No one here is obliged to accept whatever it is that you do. It's not personal. It's probably because we don't need writers or editors, or your topic is already being worked on. We do not accept spam or harassment, if you constantly hound us for responses or abuse us, a Mod will know about it.


That's about it! Sorry for being so long, and thanks for everyone's patience and support! Any questions? Message me on my wall or post in the comments, and I or someone else will answer you when possible.

Thanks for reading!

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The credits still credit you as Arewefreshyet.
But sumwun has a competitive guide
It's credited for its guide by being a separate answer with its name on it. It doesn't write the continuous installments. If it wanted to write more guides then I'd include it as a regular writer.
Did you just assume my gender?
"Pokemon Database Battling Guides"
I can't believe no one has written a TCG Guide yet :P

I mean, I guess it does change a bit, and it can be hard to write guides...
If anyone starts one, I'll contribute

Or if I get enough inspiration, I'll write and post my own... if that's allowed. (I am actually in the middle of writing some up now :P)

4 Answers

16 votes
 
Best answer

Articles and Series

Battling Basics by PX

Issue #1 - Before the Basics
Issue #2 - Moves and Coverage
Issue #3 - EVs and Natures
Issue #4 - Roles and Items
Issue #5 - Offensive Roles In-Depth

Advanced Tactics by MechSteelix
Issue #1 - Advanced Prediction
Issue #2 - Risk Versus Reward 1, 2
Issue #3 - Team Match Ups
Google docs is playing up, I'll start linking both the docs version and the pastebin version.

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Ugh the google docs looks ugly, I'll find a better format. This will work for now.
Perhaps you could make a blog? Idk how blogs work but they generally look pretty. Prettier than Google docs at least.
it's possible but a lot of effort. I'll look into it.
We're finally done! Thank you! I gave you two upvotes!
Thanks, I appreciate the support :D! I'm not doing this for upvotes though, so don't worry about that.
You said that Gengar can be switched into a normal Pokemon because those Pokemon can't hit Gengar. A lot of normal Pokemon carry dark attacks for coverage.
I was using an example. You're looking ahead to things I haven't even mentioned yet like checks and risks and  prediction. if I said 'switch a ghost into a normal type except in any instance you think they'll carry a coverage move I haven't taught you about in a manner if you don't know exists yet', that would be counter intuitive. It's basics right now, and I plan to deal with issues one at a time.
This is really cool PX :O
The Heatran-Garchomp-Ferrothorn isn't a good example tbh. Ferro at 20%, and garchomp at 50%, best play would be fireblast not HP ice. Because, more often than not, that ferro would be sacked. If the garchomp was running around 156 speed as a fast tank chomp, then garchomp will out speed. If that was the case then ferro would definitely be sacked.
If garchomp isn't fast enough to out speed then the switch doesn't matter as after a FB, HP ice would still KO and Heatran outspeeds.
Whereas HP ice does around 17% to an OU utility ferro.
Ik this is an example but this situation doesn't clearly show risk vs reward as there is no risk (except that FB would miss lol, but still wouldn't make a difference)
I wouldn't have nitpicked this but as this is under advanced tactics, i guess we should use more competitive oriented examples. (But if Heatran was scarfed then there's no option but to go for HP ice, but even that doesn't demonstrate a risk-reward situation)
And tank chomp is widely used. Timid Heatran, not so much, but scarfed, yes (not as popular as the regular SR set)
Yeah, that wasn't the best example I could have gave (sorry about that), but I wanted to do something different than using Monotype and NU / PU all the time (because those are the tiers I have the most experience with).
They should seriously make a rule saying that people have to read this before posting in RMT.
^^^ Implying people read the rules before posting an RMT. A lot of them don't even have natures or items or something else important and basic.
It's the best we can do, I guess.
Finally added something! And I'll update the format and make it look nicer next week as well.
Hi, I haven't forgotten about this, i've just been a bit sick and I've been doing a lot of college work. Will be up by next monday and will have one the following week instead of two weeks after.
Just so people know, I haven't forgotten about this for a second time. I had a some pretty bad luck and my college schedule got moved around so i have way less free time then I did when I started this back up.

I'll be real with you, I have so much work to do. I probably won't be able to do this weekly until summer break. I have assignments every week now.
8 votes

I hope you're okay with my adding to someone else's collection of guides, and I hope this answer isn't too unhelpful...

https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Main_Page
I think this is the best website for looking up game mechanics. If you don't know how something works, then you can (usually) find answers there. I think the 2 most important mechanics are damage and stats (the stats page basically explains EVs and IVs), so definitely refer to those pages whenever you're not sure how those mechanics work.

https://pokemonshowdown.com/
Pokemon Showdown! is a website where you can find other people and simulate Pokemon battles with them. You can play a lot of different formats, including the official ones like VGC or Battle Stadium. You can make whatever team you want in the teambuilder or use randomly generated teams. They have a help chat room and a trainers' school chat room in case you want help.

https://www.smogon.com/forums/
Smogon makes a lot of resources to help people get better at competitive battling. The competitive battling FAQ contains a some basic advice. The resources subforum contains one thread for each of the popular formats. After you choose a format to play, reading the resources for that specific format will help you become a much better player. They also have a Trainer's School subforum in case you already clicked those other 2 links and want more help.

https://www.smogon.com/articles/getting-started
This is an introduction to competitive battling written by 3 Smogon Forums users. It talks about the essentials of teambuilding and battling against other people and describes even more resources like Smogon's Discord servers.

https://www.smogon.com/dex/
This is where you can find good movesets and advice written by people in Smogon Forums. You can copy their movesets if you don't know how to make your own.

https://www.smogon.com/stats/
This tells you what other people are using. You can see what Pokemon and movesets are worth preparing for, and what Pokemon your opponents are likely to lead with.

Now that you know these websites exist, you should do a lot of battles on Showdown! (15 minutes to one hour per day seems like a good amount) and visit the other websites whenever you feel like it. Practice makes progress.

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There was a system to submit stuff btw, but since I haven't exactly taken control of this in a long time I guess it doesn't matter. It'd be nice if you told me beforehand in the future though, thanks. Anyway it's a good idea. When it's a little more complete I'll edit it in and try and give it some more exposure.
Sorry for not asking first.
6 votes

Well, I've been busy for the past 3-4 days and wrote up 2 TCG guides. They're probably not the best, may need some work, and are the first guides I ever wrote. If I left anything out, or have any inaccurate information, tell me, please. (They are Google Docs shareable links, can comment).


Finished Guides:

Beginners Guide - For new TCG Players
Deck-Building Guide

Guides I am Writing:

Strategy Guide

Guides I may/will Write:

Archetypes

Suggest another, maybe I'll write it... Or you could. Whatever floats your boat. :P


Anyways, I hope my guides will help (and become an even better help in the future, if and when more TCG players join the site).

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Its name should be PaperWall's Pokemon Database TCG Basic. Btw, this doc is loading and loading. I can't open it. Maybe it's a network problem
I checked them with another account, and it worked. I believe it is just a WiFi connection issue. :P
3 votes

Hi all! This is super out of no where, but I wanted to announce the fact that I'll be restarting parts of this back up again!

First of all, I should explain why it died in the first place. Skip if you're not interested. Essentially, my life became extremely difficult personally, and I know I've said this a lot but it's true. I was having a hard time with college and family and it took away all my motivation and most of my free time. By the time I got anything back the thread died, the editors left and I didn't play the game anymore.

But that's besides the point. The point is that I'm back to writing, and am fully committed to a minimum of once a fortnight. That's not a lot I know but still.

Only battling basics will come back, other planned series won't return. I also don't have any editors anymore so it may be a little more sloppy than before, but I'll try my best.

I'll also edit and reupload the existing articles to a nicer looking format. They're a bit of an eyesore.

Thank you for not murdering me like you had every right to. I let you down with this project, but I will do so no longer.

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I can do a bit of editing if you want me to and trust that I'm competent.
Sure, if you're up to that i won't say no. I'll credit you once I update the thread.