Topic: Pokémon Scarlet & Pokémon Violet

@Anti-Matter Cyclizar

@Kermit1
Gotcha.
I found the name from the trailer.

I've made a horrible realisation when rewatching the trailers we had today.

So Cyclizar's signature move Shed Tail looks absolutely busted. Even if this thing has godawful stats everywhere else, as long as it's fast (which the website is alluding towards), then that means it can give whichever mon it desires a free Substitute for setup. Terrifying yes, but broken? Hard to say......until a certain lonely ghost enters the fray: Mimikyu.

Mimikyu is well known for being an absolute beast when it comes to setting stuff up thanks to Disguise giving it some ungodly protection on the first turn it's out and, coupled with this move, it could get out of hand real quick (especially with Terastilising giving it a brand new type whenever the hell it wants).

Now you may be saying, 'well, Mimikyu hasn't been confirmed for SV yet so there's no need to worry right now'. That statement may be already solved.....by the TCG reveal. Traditionally, the first set of every new generation has Pokemon only in that gen's games. Sun & Moon did it, Sword and Shield did it and I expect Scarlet and Violet to be no different. And who's alongside the rest promoting the return of ex's? Take a wild bloody guess.

Needless to say: if this thing keeps Swords Dance in the generational shift, we're doomed.

@Fizza... I was thinking about going competitive for S&V, I might have to see how this plays out.

Please doubt. Don't set yourself up for disappointment.

@Octane I was thinking Cyclizar was their cousin.

Hi folks! I'd like to play competitive for the first time this gen. Never really bothered to understand EVs, IVs, Natures and all, and most guides talk about them as if everyone knew what they were. I play Pokémon by training the ones I find cute with cool attack animations (why GameFreak finds acceptable to shake Pokémon for some attacks is beyond me).

Could someone share tips or point out a great guide for absolute beginners on competitive play? How should I train Pokémon? How should I choose which Pokémon to use? What types/type combos are good/bad and why? It all sounds confusing and random on most guides...

@RenanKJ For competitive play you want to maximise your stats to your liking. Every Pokemon has their own base stat total (BST) which is the same for the species, but individual Pokemon can have a variation that boosts/lowers certain stats. A Geodude will always have a high defense, it's defense BST is 100, but depending on other factors it will range somewhere between 94 and 167 at level 50 (the standard for competitive play). This means that no Geodude at level 50 will have a defense stat lower than 94 or higher than 167. Now, the difference between 94 and 167 is quite a lot, so if you want to use Geodude as a defensive tank, you'd really want its defense to be (closer to) 167 and not 94.

There are three ways to influence this: Natures, IVs (individual values) and EVs (effort values). Pokemon can have one of 25 different Natures. This is a trait that boosts one stat by 10 % and lowers another by 10% (for more info, look up the Bulbapedia page of Natures, it goes much more in-depth than I can write in this short reply). HP is unaffected by Natures. For Geodude you'd want a Nature that boosts attack or defense and lowers special attack for example, since you won't be using any special moves as a Geodude.

IVs are comparable to the Pokemon's genes. These are values, between 0 and 31, that are assigned to the Pokemon when you encounter it, or when you hatch it. The higher the IV, the higher the stat. Generally you want maximum IVs, unless you want a Pokemon to be very slow on purpose, then a low IV stat for speed makes sense. You can breed Pokemon for IVs. There are plenty of guides available online. This often takes a while, but the more Pokemon you have with good IVs, the easier it is to breed them onto new Pokemon. These days there are also items that can maximise IVs, bottle caps, but they are quite expensive.

EVs are points you earn while training your Pokemon. Any Pokemon can earn up to 510 EVs. 4 EVs translate to 1 additional stat point at level 100. So naturally, this means that you can add an additional 127 stat points to your Pokemon (510/4 = 127.5). Effectively a total of 508 EVs points. You can only put a maximum of 255 EVs into a single stat (speed, for example). But since 252 is a multiple of 4, this is the effective maximum. So generally you will see people put 252 EV points into one stat, then another 252 into another stat and a remaining 4 EV points into another stat.

You gain EV points by battling other Pokemon. Defeating a Geodude for example will result into 1 defense EV (different Pokemon give out different EVs, between 1 and 3 EVs). So in theory you need to defeat 252 Geodudes to maximise your defense EVs. However, there are tricks to speed up this process. Graveler for example hands out 2 defense EVs, so you ''only'' need to defeat 126 Graveler to maximise your def stat. If the Pokemon is holding a Power Belt, it gains an additional 8 defense EVs. So every Graveler you defeat nets you 10 defense EVs. If you Pokemon has a condition called PokeRus, it doubles the EVs gained, so you can get 20 defense EVs by defeating a single Graveler. So in practice you only need to defeat 15 or so Pokemon to maximise a stat once you've set everything up.

Of course, this doesn't take the moveset into account, this has been simplified a lot in the last game, so you don't need to worry about it, because you can learn egg moves after breeding too.

Bulbapedia has a ton of information on all of this. And I'd recommend watching videos and/or reading other, more elaborate, guides. But hopefully this helps a little to get the point across. By the way, don't use Geodude in competitive play!

@RenanKJ I got into competitive Pokemon myself through watching Youtubers who specialised in the topic so, if you want to get a baseline outlook on the competitive scene, here's a few I would recommend:

SINGLES:
PokeaimMD
Freezai
BKC

DOUBLES:
WolfeyVGC
Moxie Boosted
CybertronVGC

And lastly, the one I would personally recommend above all else to start with:
False Swipe Gaming

Anything else was better explained by @Octane so you can go refer to his post for most of the nitty-gritty details! Though one thing I will add to that list would be to, before fully comitting to creating a team, download some rental teams for use on the Battle Stadium. They've already been hand-crafted for competitive and are the perfect springboard for getting into how competitive works (in addition to in-game facilities like the Battle Tower of course). Apart from that though, competitive is only getting easier by the gen so there'll be no better time to start than when SV comes out! And if you ever need someone to test strategies out on, I'd be more than happy to help out (especially when I'll be doing the exact same with my own teams ).

@RenanKJ In addition to what @Fizza wrote, you can also freely create teams on Pokemon Showdown and play online competitive without the actual training. People often use this to test out new teams or play competitive when they're not interested in the games themselves. It may help you get an understanding of the basics.

I don't even really care with such complicated algorithms to level up my Pokemons. 😅
As long they level up quickly, that's enough for me.

@Anti-Matter same lol 😁

@DarthNocturnal I vividly remember the very first time I gave a damn about natures, status moves and the like in a Pokemon game: Ultra Moon. I didn't think I'd actually like it all too much ('if I want to win, then obviously all I should do is damage') but when I started using moves like Thunder Wave with Magnezone, Nasty Plot with Zoroark and especially Z-Rain Dance with Blastoise, I quickly fell in love and, ever since, I've always liked having my Stealth Rocks or set up moves on hand at all times in my teams.

Also, when you say PBR.....you don't mean Battle Revolution do you? Because if you do....then I feel like an absolute toddler in comparison.

@Fizza I got a Garchomp from my cousin when I had a hard time with the gyms in Ultra Sun. I think he will be the first Pokemon on my competitive team, because he has pretty great stats (IV's, nature stuff like that) and he has a Rocky Helmet. He and Sealy are my post game pokemon.

I have the water starter's final evo from S&M and that Pokemon's name will forever be Sealy to me. I like SW&SH more than US&UM.

I can't believe there's a Kermit-esc Pokemon now. This is the first time I've ever jumped out of my chair watching a reveal.

Actually, there was a Frog pokemon as starter from Pokemon X/Y.

Hard to blame people for forgetting that game though, considering how many people hated it.

Then again, greninja is actually one of the most recognizable and popular Pokémon in the series.

@Eel : Much more memorable than its earlier forms.

I remembered Froakie, of course, but I couldn't, for the life of me, remember the middle evolution's name.

If I remember correctly, it’s something like frogadier.

I’m not much of a fan of the froakie line myself. I usually go for chespin when I play XY.

The poliwag line is much cuter, and politoed is like a chubby dancing kermit.