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Ask a Question Thread - READ FIRST POST

Shego

The Pokémon Explorer
Excuse me fellas. I like to ask you something. I just got three Unova Starters with the HA today. What are the best movesets for those three Unova Starters? Could it be bold as Serperior best nature with the item Leftovers? The move Leaf Storm,Glare,Substitute,and Dragon Tail?
 

Mr. Reloaded

Cause a pirate is free
Excuse me fellas. I like to ask you something. I just got three Unova Starters with the HA today. What are the best movesets for those three Unova Starters? Could it be bold as Serperior best nature with the item Leftovers? The move Leaf Storm,Glare,Substitute,and Dragon Tail?

Serperior
Nature: Timid
Item: @Leftovers

Moves:
Leaf Storm
Dragon Pulse
HP Ground/Fire
Subsitute/Glare

Emboar
Nature: Jolly/Adamant
Item: @Choice Band/Choice Scarf/Leftovers

Moves:
Flare Blitz
Wild Charge/Head Smash
Superpower
Sucker Punch

Samurott (I'd strongly recommend not using this Pokemon lol but here is a set)
Nature: Jolly/Timid
Item: @Leftovers
Moves: (physical set)
Swords Dance
Waterfall
Aqua Jet
X-Scissor/Megahorn/Knock Off/Superpower
(Special set)

Hydro Pump
Ice Beam
Grass Knot
HP Electric (I guess) haha
 

Shego

The Pokémon Explorer
Serperior
Nature: Timid
Item: @Leftovers

Moves:
Leaf Storm
Dragon Pulse
HP Ground/Fire
Subsitute/Glare

Emboar
Nature: Jolly/Adamant
Item: @Choice Band/Choice Scarf/Leftovers

Moves:
Flare Blitz
Wild Charge/Head Smash
Superpower
Sucker Punch

Samurott (I'd strongly recommend not using this Pokemon lol but here is a set)
Nature: Jolly/Timid
Item: @Leftovers
Moves: (physical set)
Swords Dance
Waterfall
Aqua Jet
X-Scissor/Megahorn/Knock Off/Superpower
(Special set)

Hydro Pump
Ice Beam
Grass Knot
HP Electric (I guess) haha

Ok, but where's the EV spread? Does anybody agree with TheBattleFrontierAsh1?
 

Prakhar

Normal: The abnormal
Does anyone knows whats a good counter and set for Calm Mind Suicune (no taunt please)? Opposing suicunes WRECK my team!!

And heres mine:

Suicune @ Chesto Berry
Modest 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Calm Mind
Scald
Rest
Ice Beam / HELP

I get walled by bulky waters, if i switch to HP Electric, i get walled by grass types. I need a good coverage move.
 

Ryuken

Steel User
Does anyone knows whats a good counter and set for Calm Mind Suicune (no taunt please)? Opposing suicunes WRECK my team!!

And heres mine:

Suicune @ Chesto Berry
Modest 252 HP / 252 SpA / 4 SpD
Calm Mind
Scald
Rest
Ice Beam / HELP

I get walled by bulky waters, if i switch to HP Electric, i get walled by grass types. I need a good coverage move.

You loose valuable turns if you decide not to use sleep talk, so it is recommended you switch ice beam for sleep talk, specially since you aren't running 252 def and Suicune will quickly fall. As for bulky waters/grass walling you, that is to be expected, Suicune has trouble sweeping turn 1. It is supposed to be a late game sweeper, and only be sent out to tank hits (If you are running 252Hp/252Def Which is the standard and preferred set.) or quickly burn something. Besides that there is no point in trying to start a sweep before its counters are removed.

If you need counters for this thing, you could try one of the following:

Toxicroak
Dry Skin/ Life Orb / Adamant/Jolly
252 atk / 252 Spe.
Sword dance, Drain Punch, Sucker Punch and Poison Jab

Roserade
Natural Cure/ Technician
Etiher 252 spe/ 252 sp.atk for attacking set, or 252 Hp/ 252 spd, or 240 sp.def anf 16 spe for sp.def set.
Timid/Calm
Move-set depends on your needs, but its pretty straight forward.

I believe the following are OU now, but I might be wrong:

Raikou / Timid/ 252 sp.atk / 252 spe.
Choice Specs. Thunderbolt / Volt Switch / HP Ice / Shadow ball

And

Mew/ Calm/ 252 HP/ 252 Sp.def
Leftovers. Taunt / Roost / Will-o-wisp / Stealth Rock-Knock Off-Psyshock.
 

Mye

Someone has to win..
What is the best way to reliably defeat Lugia in ubers? (the thing get's on my nerves.)

Probably a bit too late of an answer, but meh. Unless your opponent has a cleric (which is a rare sight in ubers barring chansey), toxic and to a lesser extent para cripple lugia. If you can also keep rocks up and have it come in with multiscale broken, that makes it way easier to deal with as it almost always forces it to use a healing move the next turn just to compensate.
 
Probably a bit too late of an answer, but meh. Unless your opponent has a cleric (which is a rare sight in ubers barring chansey), toxic and to a lesser extent para cripple lugia. If you can also keep rocks up and have it come in with multiscale broken, that makes it way easier to deal with as it almost always forces it to use a healing move the next turn just to compensate.

Clerics are far from rare in Ubers. Xerneas is the second most common Pokemon in the metagame, and it commonly carries Aromatherapy. Clefable is another solid and fairly common Pokemon that is usually used as a cleric. You've obviously got Blissey, and even Mega Diancie and the odd Gothitelle are known to carry it from time to time.

On a side note, never use Chansey in Ubers. That thing becomes a complete liability any time you run into Mega Genger, whereas at least Blissey can fight back or run a Shed Shell to never be trapped by the thing.
 

jireh the provider

Video Game Designer
Before I create a thread here for a discussion about adaptation involving the Pokémon Metagame, I'm not sure if posting it on the 6th Gen thread is the right place. It is for a research of mine before I prewrite an article about it.
 

cantavanda

Blue Rose Princess
Hello, I have a competetive team, but no Mega Pokémon. Does anyone know where I can find a list of banned mega Pokémon, to use another one?
 

Moonclawz

Aura Trainer
Hello, I have a competetive team, but no Mega Pokémon. Does anyone know where I can find a list of banned mega Pokémon, to use another one?

Here is the Serebii 6th Gen Tier list.

As for which Mega-Pokemon are banned, Mega-Gengar, Mega-Lucario, Mega-Blaziken, Mega-Kaganskan, Mega-Mawile, and Mega-Salamence are all banned. Mega-Metagross is currently undergoing a suspect test.
 

pokebiscuit

New Member
Hey all, very long time reader and first time poster here. From what I have read I should be posting here for questions.

I have been playing pokemon video games on and off since the old nintendo hand held days, I got back into it with my daughter with pokemon x/y and now moved onto or/as with my daughter.

We have decided to have a go with the '2015 International Challenge February Online Competition', registered in the competition, but between us we are having problems understanding pretty much everything.

We are still playing x/y as well as or/as and I have no idea what I'm doing, but we hope to enter some online competitions to lose very badly.... but have some damn fun doing so :)

I never played the original Ruby, so it made sense just to grab this one.

I found serebii a while ago and the pokemon wiki, so I'm reading up as much as I can

Does anyone know how to tell where on earth we get our pokemon from in x/y or/as?
(ie wonder trade, trading etc....)
As it's not allowed to use some in online competitions, and I do a lot of 'wonder trading' to pass time, I find it quite nice to have a gamble and see if I get something I like the look of etc.... :)

What if I wanted to use one that I hatched from an egg, but one of the pokemon I bred with was a from wonder trade?

Have been reading here:
(can't post links) It's the 2015 International Challange rules and regulations.

Players may use only Pokémon found, caught, hatched from an Egg, or received through a special promotion in Pokémon Omega Ruby, Pokémon Alpha Sapphire, Pokémon X, or Pokémon Y.

1. Can we use pokemon from wonder trade in both games?

2. Can we use pokemon we traded with each other in both games?

3. Are we able to transfer pokemon from x/y with poke bank to or/as and use those?

4. Is there a way to find out where the pokemon came from with regards to trading with each other, friends, wonder trade, breeding and what games they were caught in etc.... ?

We are finding it all so confusing and would really appreciate some help and advice for our first online competition :)
I'm 35, my daughter 13, so if you can point us in the right direction that I 13 year old can understand.... I might even understand it ;)

Cheers

edit: we have these pokemon:
erperior, Emboar, and Samurott from the promotion and the drakrai from the 'game' store promotion, can we also put these in our battle box?
 
Last edited:

varanus_komodoensis

they call me Varanus
Hey all, very long time reader and first time poster here. From what I have read I should be posting here for questions.

I have been playing pokemon video games on and off since the old nintendo hand held days, I got back into it with my daughter with pokemon x/y and now moved onto or/as with my daughter.

We have decided to have a go with the '2015 International Challenge February Online Competition', registered in the competition, but between us we are having problems understanding pretty much everything.

We are still playing x/y as well as or/as and I have no idea what I'm doing, but we hope to enter some online competitions to lose very badly.... but have some damn fun doing so :)

I never played the original Ruby, so it made sense just to grab this one.

I found serebii a while ago and the pokemon wiki, so I'm reading up as much as I can

Does anyone know how to tell where on earth we get our pokemon from in x/y or/as?
(ie wonder trade, trading etc....)
As it's not allowed to use some in online competitions, and I do a lot of 'wonder trading' to pass time, I find it quite nice to have a gamble and see if I get something I like the look of etc.... :)

What if I wanted to use one that I hatched from an egg, but one of the pokemon I bred with was a from wonder trade?

Have been reading here:
(can't post links) It's the 2015 International Challange rules and regulations.



1. Can we use pokemon from wonder trade in both games?

2. Can we use pokemon we traded with each other in both games?

3. Are we able to transfer pokemon from x/y with poke bank to or/as and use those?

4. Is there a way to find out where the pokemon came from with regards to trading with each other, friends, wonder trade, breeding and what games they were caught in etc.... ?

We are finding it all so confusing and would really appreciate some help and advice for our first online competition :)
I'm 35, my daughter 13, so if you can point us in the right direction that I 13 year old can understand.... I might even understand it ;)

Cheers

Hey pokebiscuit! Welcome to the forums! You've chosen the right thread to ask competitive questions :)

I play competitively myself online, but not in real-life tournaments that are held in actual cities. I have a collection of competitive Pokemon and I breed them for other people on this forum. I'm in my 20s and have been playing since Gen I, so I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

Competitive Pokemon has changed a lot since you've played last. Now that Pokemon is online and connected to Wifi, there is an entire metagame and subculture centered around it. It will take a long time and a lot of practice to completely understand how competitive play works. It's something that you learn by doing, and by watching other people do it. I have found that watching "PokeTubers" on YouTube has helped me out a lot in understanding how certain Pokemon and strategies work together. They will battle online and explain why they chose to do what they did. I personally recommend Haydunn, shofu, and DuncanKneeDeep. However, all of these players are in their 20s, and you will want to be prepared for them to use some curse words every now and then. Just warning you since you have a 13-year-old daughter.

Pokemon now have Natures and Abilities. Natures will boost one stat by 10% and lower another by 10%. There are some neutral natures, but these are never recommended for competitive play. You choose the right nature for your Pokemon based on what it does. For example, Garchomp is a Physical attacker and does not use any Special moves at all. You will want it to have an Adamant nature, which boosts Attack and lowers Special Attack. This is a good choice because you don't use the Special Attack on Garchomp.

Abilities are a key part of competitive play. For example, Espeon has Magic Bounce as its Ability. This makes Espeon a good choice as the first Pokemon to send out in a battle, because at the beginning of battles, most people like to "set up hazards", such as Spikes, Stealth Rock, and Sticky Web. If you have Espeon out, Magic Bounce will bounce all of the hazards back to the opponent. This prevents people from setting up hazards on you.

A Pokemon's base stats (i.e., how powerful it is in HP, Atk, Def, SpAtk, SpDef, and Speed), the moves it has access to, and the abilities it has access to, allow Pokemon to be ranked against each other in usefulness. Pokemon like Dunsparce are completely useless competitively because they are weak in terms of stats, have poor abilities, and few moves that make them useful. Pokemon such as Salamence are very powerful, and so they are used by a lot of players. A website called "Smogon" ranks all of the Pokemon and puts them into tiers based on how many people use them competitively. You will find a list of which Pokemon are in which tiers here. Most people use Uber, OU, and UU Pokemon competitively online. This list will help you narrow down the species of Pokemon that you will want to focus on using, and will help you figure out which Pokemon you are most likely to face in competitions.

Competitive battling is ALL about prediction. In order to win, you need to get lots of practice so that you know how most Pokemon function within a battle and you know if they are attackers, defenders, hazard-setters, etc. For example, if I see that someone has a Smeargle on their team, I know immediately that it will likely carry Spore, Stealth Rocks, Sticky Web, and an attacking move. Smeargle almost ALWAYS is sent out first, so I will send out my Sableye who has Prankster. Prankster allows all of my non-attacking moves on Sableye to go first, so I move before the opponent. I will use Taunt because I know that Smeargle will probably go for Spore and try to put me to sleep on the first turn. This is also an opportunity to send out either Espeon or Mega-Absol on the first turn if you don't have Sableye, because they have Magic Bounce and Smeargle's hazards and Spore will be bounced back to them. Sending out Espeon or Mega Absol will likely force a switch from the opponent, so you can then predict what they'll switch into and use an attack or a switch yourself to give yourself an advantage.

Lastly, items are important. Items can boost a Pokemon's power or make it really annoying to deal with and hard to defeat. Common items to use in battle are the Choice Scarf, Choice Specs, Choice Band, Air Balloon, Eviolite, Leftovers, Rocky Helmet, Assault Vest, and Life Orb. Of course, there are plenty more that are used, but these are common ones. Items being carried can be predicted as well. If you see an unevolved Pokemon in battle, such as Chansey or Porygon2, it is likely carrying an Eviolite. If a Pokemon uses the same move over and over and it's doing more damage than normal, it's likely carrying a Choice Band or Specs. If the opponent moves before you and he is supposed to be slower even with a +Spe nature and 252 Speed EVs, he's Scarfed.

If you have questions about competitive battling, feel free to ask me here, or PM or VM me. I'm happy to help you out, because competitive battling is really fun!

Now, to answer your questions:

Does anyone know how to tell where on earth we get our pokemon from in x/y or/as?
(ie wonder trade, trading etc....)
As it's not allowed to use some in online competitions, and I do a lot of 'wonder trading' to pass time, I find it quite nice to have a gamble and see if I get something I like the look of etc.... :)

-- Competitively, you can only use Gen VI-born Pokemon in ORAS competitions. The vast majority of people breed their competitive Pokemon, because most Pokemon have really good moves that are ONLY available via breeding. For example, Sableye NEEDS Recover to be useful, and it's only available via breeding. Getting Pokemon from Wonder Trade, the GTS, or even catching them in the wild will not give you the best Pokemon, because in addition to breeding for the right moves, you need to breed for IVs (which are like Pokemon genes) and train your Pokemon to have the right EV spread.

Here is how IVs work: Each Pokemon has 6 stats: HP, Atk, Def, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. Each one of these stats has an invisible number associated with it that is between 0 and 31. This number is called an "Individual Value", or "IV". You CANNOT see this number anywhere. 0 is the worst number and 31 is the best. At level 100, the IV translates to an increase in that stat that the IV is equal to. So for example, if you have a Pokemon with 0 IVs at level 100, it might have an Attack stat of 250, while a Pokemon with 31 IVs in Attack would have an Attack stat of 281 (because 250 + 31 = 281). Obviously, this makes a HUGE difference in battles. The only way to find out what IVs your Pokemon has is to visit the IV judge in Kiloude in XY and the Battle Resort Pokemon Center in ORAS. The IV judge will tell you if your Pokemon's IV is either 0 or 31. If it's 0, he'll say "how can you manage with that kind of [x] stat" and if it's 31 he'll say "The Pokemon's [x] stat can't be beat!" If you want to know what the IVs are outside of 0 or 31, you'll have to use an IV Calculator. IVs can be bred for. If you want to know how to breed for them, I can write you up a guide.

In order to calculate your IVs, though, you'll need to know your Pokemon's EVs. EVs are earned through battles. You control which EVs your Pokemon gets. Every battle that you fight in-game, whether from a wild Pokemon or NPC, gives you EVs. So, for example, if you fight a Rattata and defeat or catch it, every Pokemon that earns experience from that battle will gain 1 Speed EV. 4 EVs in a stat = an increase in that stat by 1 at level 100. A Pokemon can earn 510 EVs total, with a maximum of 252 in one stat. So you can "max out" 2 stats, and give 6 EVs to another stat (252 + 252 + 6 = 510). 252/4 = 63. So you can increase a Pokemon's stat by 63 points at level 100 if you EV train it the right way. EV training does not take long if you do it the right way (with Pokerus, Power Items, and Hordes). If you want a guide, I'll write one up for you.

To give you an example of how important all of this is when working together, let's compare two Garchomps. One has a beneficial nature (Adamant: + Atk, - SpAtk), 252 EVs in Attack, and 31 IVs in Attack. Another has a poor nature (Modest: +SpAtk, - Atk), 0 EVs, and 0 IVs in Attack.

At level 100, the Adamant Garchomp would have an Attack stat of 394. The Modest Garchomp would have an Attack stat of 238. The properly bred and trained Garchomp has an Attack stat of OVER 100 MORE than the poor one. So, IVs, EVs, and Nature can win or lose you a battle.

What if I wanted to use one that I hatched from an egg, but one of the pokemon I bred with was a from wonder trade?

This does not matter. As long as the Egg is hatched in your XY or ORAS game, it will be Gen VI-born and legal to use in competitions. You will know if a Pokemon is Gen VI-Born and legal to be used in competitions if it has the blue pentagon.

1. Can we use pokemon from wonder trade in both games?

2. Can we use pokemon we traded with each other in both games?

3. Are we able to transfer pokemon from x/y with poke bank to or/as and use those?

4. Is there a way to find out where the pokemon came from with regards to trading with each other, friends, wonder trade, breeding and what games they were caught in etc.... ?

1. Yes, you can use Pokemon from Wonder Trade in both games. XY and ORAS are compatible in every way except for ORAS-only Mega Stones. I recommend that you pay the $5/year for PokeBank - it makes transferring en masse between games very quick and easy.

2. Yes, you can use Pokemon you've traded with each other in both games.

3. Yes

4. Yes. If the Pokemon has a blue pentagon underneath its image when you look at its info, it was born in either XY or ORAS. If it does not have the blue pentagon, it came from Gen V or before. If you bring up the info page on the Pokemon, it will have a tag that says "this Pokemon traveled through space and time to reach you from the [x] region" or something to that effect. That's how you know where it's from.

Let me know if this was helpful and if you need any more advice! Remember, the best way to get good at competitive battling is to just do it, learn what other players do to win, and learn to combat those strategies.

You can find recommended uses for certain Pokemon and recommended natures, EV spreads, and movesets at Smogon Strategy Pokedex. Start off by looking up some Pokemon recommended by the Tier List. Smogon is the go-to website for moveset recommendations. Sometimes they will have team recommendations, but if you want advice on which Pokemon work well together, you can visit PokeBattle Strategy Pokedex. Type in a Pokemon and it will give you recommended teammates.

As a final bit of advice, I cannot stress how important it is to be familiar with what different Pokemon do and what their abilities are. For example, if you have a weakened Mega Manectric out and your opponent sends out a Talonflame, you need to know that while Electric is strong against Flying and Mega Manectric is faster than Talonflame, Talonflame has the Ability Gale Wings and the move Brave Bird. This means that Talonflame's Flying moves have priority, and it will go first and hit you with a 120-base-power Brave Bird before you can attack it. Now your Manectric is dead. What you should have done is predict this and switch into a Pokemon like Ferrothorn. Ferrothorn will not only take the Brave Bird easily because of its high defense and resistance to Flying, but its ability, Iron Barbs, and its item, Rocky Helmet (which is the best item for a Ferrothorn to have) will do massive damage to the Talonflame when it hits you. Plus, the Talonflame takes recoil damage from Brave Bird. Now Talonflame is almost fainted, Manectric is saved, and you haven't even moved yet. However, Talonflame is also a fire-type, and Ferrothorn is 4x weak to fire. You shouldn't stay in and attack Talonflame because it's faster than you now and will just use a Fire move and kill you. The flip-side to this is when you have Manectric out, if your opponent knows you have Ferrothorn, they might predict that switch and take a risky move and use the Fire-move, expecting Ferrothorn to come out. But if you predict that they will do this, you can be risky and leave Manectric in, because you will be faster than Talonflame if it chooses the non-flying move. It's like a complicated session of chess and mind games.

Another example is Clefable. If someone sends out a Clefable, you should know that there is no point in trying to Toxic it because it probably has Magic Guard, which means it only takes damage from attacks and nothing else. And if you have a Clefable, you can use it for prediction - if you know the opponent is about to Burn or Toxic you, then you switch into Clefable on purpose because you won't take damage from the status move.

I hope that helped you get started with competitive battling. Let us know if you have any more questions!
 
Last edited:

pokebiscuit

New Member
Let me know if this was helpful and if you need any more advice!

Was that a rhetorical question? I'm not sure if you could have possibly answered my questions or gone into anymore detail than that!!

Thank you for taking the time to post all that, it's simply amazong.... and I always thought it was such a simple game.

We wont be going to any real life tournaments, just saw the 2015 International Challenge February Online and we fancied having a go.... we've only ever battled friends and each other so it's a whole new world for us, hence coming here for some advice so we don't use the wrong pokemon and get banned from competitions, as if we like it, which I'm sure we will, we'll want to enter the others that pop up on the website too. Obviously needed to understand the rules so we don't get disqualified ;)

Thanks for the 'poketubers', I'll look them up. As for the swearing, she's 13, high school and has a londoner for a father.... she probably knows more bad language than I do ;)

I have been playing since Pokemon Red on the Gameboy and gaming since I was four (so about 32 years a gamer this year and still going strong) on a hand me down spectrum zx81 with 3D monster maze.... and I'm not sure I've ever gone so deeply into a game and it's characters/mechanics as you have detailed here. You're a legend mate.

I found the little blue pentagon, thanks for pointing that out. I didn't even notice those little symbol's there.

So there are some that they omit from competitions by name, taking a quote from the 2015 International February Challange:
Mewtwo, Mew, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Phione, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus, Victini, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Keldeo, Meloetta, Genesect, Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, and Diancie.
I noticed that the Darkrai is mentioned there, so even though he has a little blue pentagon, they don't let you use him for that particular event....

.... though with the eligible pokemon I noticed that bulbasaur/ivysaur, squirtle/blastoise etc.... are listed there, though you cannot get them in ORAS, but we have those in XY, and they have the little blue pentagon so we can just use poke bank to trade them across. That's good :)

I do have pokebank (I think I got a little pokemon with it when I first got it called celebii), well about 50odd days left, my daughter doesn't though, so I'll sort that out for her and renew mine when it's up.

I knew about the items, and use them now and then, but never knew about this IV stuff and moves only learned through breeding.

Regarding EV:
If you want a guide, I'll write one up for you.
That would be great mate, but please, take your time.... this is already a plethora of information to take in, it might take me a while to get my head around it all ;)

As well as you tube, I'll check out twitch and start watching more pokemon series with my daughter (well, that'll be my excuse :D ). I haven't watched the series since college, so I expect there's a fair bit to catch up on.

Again, thanks ever so much for all this, top banana mate, you're a star....

Now to start trying to work more of this out and get some pokemon in their battle boxes, as I think they need to be in there before the registration period ends.... Might help if we get the ones we'd like to use leveled up to 50 too.

Can't wait, feel like I'm a kid again at the moment.... sad innit ;)

tris
 

varanus_komodoensis

they call me Varanus
Was that a rhetorical question? I'm not sure if you could have possibly answered my questions or gone into anymore detail than that!!

Thank you for taking the time to post all that, it's simply amazong.... and I always thought it was such a simple game.

We wont be going to any real life tournaments, just saw the 2015 International Challenge February Online and we fancied having a go.... we've only ever battled friends and each other so it's a whole new world for us, hence coming here for some advice so we don't use the wrong pokemon and get banned from competitions, as if we like it, which I'm sure we will, we'll want to enter the others that pop up on the website too. Obviously needed to understand the rules so we don't get disqualified ;)

Thanks for the 'poketubers', I'll look them up. As for the swearing, she's 13, high school and has a londoner for a father.... she probably knows more bad language than I do ;)

I have been playing since Pokemon Red on the Gameboy and gaming since I was four (so about 32 years a gamer this year and still going strong) on a hand me down spectrum zx81 with 3D monster maze.... and I'm not sure I've ever gone so deeply into a game and it's characters/mechanics as you have detailed here. You're a legend mate.

I found the little blue pentagon, thanks for pointing that out. I didn't even notice those little symbol's there.

So there are some that they omit from competitions by name, taking a quote from the 2015 International February Challange:

I noticed that the Darkrai is mentioned there, so even though he has a little blue pentagon, they don't let you use him for that particular event....

.... though with the eligible pokemon I noticed that bulbasaur/ivysaur, squirtle/blastoise etc.... are listed there, though you cannot get them in ORAS, but we have those in XY, and they have the little blue pentagon so we can just use poke bank to trade them across. That's good :)

I do have pokebank (I think I got a little pokemon with it when I first got it called celebii), well about 50odd days left, my daughter doesn't though, so I'll sort that out for her and renew mine when it's up.

I knew about the items, and use them now and then, but never knew about this IV stuff and moves only learned through breeding.

Regarding EV:

That would be great mate, but please, take your time.... this is already a plethora of information to take in, it might take me a while to get my head around it all ;)

As well as you tube, I'll check out twitch and start watching more pokemon series with my daughter (well, that'll be my excuse :D ). I haven't watched the series since college, so I expect there's a fair bit to catch up on.

Again, thanks ever so much for all this, top banana mate, you're a star....

Now to start trying to work more of this out and get some pokemon in their battle boxes, as I think they need to be in there before the registration period ends.... Might help if we get the ones we'd like to use leveled up to 50 too.

Can't wait, feel like I'm a kid again at the moment.... sad innit ;)

tris

You're very welcome! I love helping people out competitively. You can always Google IV and EV guides online if you need more information on them.

Yeah, Pokemon is definitely not simple anymore! It's actually very mathematical, and there is a LOT of strategy involved, but also some luck!

Yes, definitely look for that blue pentagon when searching for competition-legal Pokemon. Those other symbols next to it are actually symbols meant to help you when you IV breed. There are 6 symbols, and 6 stats. When you get a Pokemon with flawless IVs (a 31 in a stat), you use the Marking system through the PC to darken those symbols. The circle is HP, the triangle Attack, the square Defense, the circle Special Attack, the star Special Defense, and the diamond Speed. If you are ever traded a Pokemon that has some of those symbols marked, it likely means that the Pokemon has flawless IVs in those stats (although you'll have to ask the IV Checker to be completely sure). Competitive players mark their Pokemon so they remember what IVs the Pokemon has. The marking system is also important for IV breeding, which brings me to this guide.

IV Breeding Guide

There is a difficult way to do this and an easy way. The easy way involves finding a kind soul to trade you a 6IV (flawless) Ditto from a game that is a different language than your own. I have tons of flawless Japanese Dittos sitting on PokeBank that I cloned before the Gen V WiFi shutdown, so if you want one, I'll give you one so you and your daughter can breed some flawless Pokemon of your own. The reason that you want a foreign one (different language than your own game) is so that you can use the Masuda Method. When you breed Pokemon from two different language games, you have a MUCH higher chance of hatching shinies. The chance of hatching a shiny without the Masuda Method is 1/8192. With the Masuda Method, it's around 1/1400. If you have the Shiny Charm AND use the Masuda Method, the chance of hatching a shiny are 1/512.

Once you have a foreign 6IV Ditto, you must have the Ditto hold the Destiny Knot or this won't work. The Destiny Knot transfers 5 IVs BETWEEN the parents (so 5 out of the 12 available IVs, since each parent has 6) down to the offspring. So if you have a 6IV Ditto breeding with a no-IV Gible, the Destiny Knot will pass down some of the 31 IVs from the Ditto onto the Gible offspring. When you hatch your Gible babies, take them to the IV Judge. He will tell you how many IVs your baby Gibles have. If any of them have more IVs than the parent Gible, then switch in the offspring with the IVs for the parent. Repeat this process until you have the IV spread that you want.

An IV spread means that you have 31s in every stat that you need them in. So for Gible, you would want an IV spread of 31/31/31/x/31/31. <-- This is the standard nomenclature for writing an IV spread. It translates to HP/Atk/Def/SpAtk/SpDef/Spe, so the example I gave you has a Gible with 31s in every stat except Special Attack. This is because Garchomp does not use its Special Attack. Garchomp learns Special moves, yes, but its Special Attack is awful, and you should never use Special moves on it. This is why you breed for the above IV spread and give Garchomp either an Adamant or Jolly nature, depending on if you want it to be better at attacking or faster.

Now that you know how to get the IVs you want, you also need to remember that you need to breed for Nature and Ability as well. The Garchomp above that I am using as an example needs an Adamant nature. So in order to get an Adamant nature on it (if you don't already have one) without breeding a million Gibles and hoping luck gives you one is to get a female Gible and a male Pokemon in the same Egg Group as Gible that is Adamant and have it hold the Everstone. The reason that you do this is because if you aren't breeding with Ditto, then the offspring will always be the same Pokemon as the female in the breeding pair. The Everstone passes down the Nature of the Pokemon that is holding it to the offspring.

Ability is a little bit different. All Pokemon can have up to 3 Abilities. 2 of them will be "normal abilities" and one of them will be a "Hidden Ability". Some Pokemon don't have Hidden Abilities. If the Ability is a normal Ability (i.e., not a Hidden one), then all offspring have a chance of getting either one of the normal abilities through breeding, no matter what the female Pokemon has as its ability. If you are breeding for a Hidden Ability, only the female will pass down the HA (Hidden Ability) if breeding with a non-Ditto Pokemon. If you are breeding with a Ditto, either male or female can pass down a Hidden Ability.

When breeding for moves, either male or female Pokemon can pass down moves to their offspring no matter what they're breeding with. However, most of the time, if you're breeding for a move, it means that you don't have the move already on a Pokemon of that species (otherwise you wouldn't be breeding for it). So normally, when you breed for moves, you need to find a male Pokemon that has the desired move and breed it to the female of the species that you want it on. The male and female must be in the same Egg Group. Breeding for moves is that simple. Any Pokemon will pass down Egg Moves when breeding with Ditto. You can look up which Pokemon will pass which moves to other Pokemon by looking up the Pokemon species in Serebii's Gen VI Pokedex.

There are very few Pokemon where you would need a completely flawless IV spread (31/31/31/31/31/31). The only Pokemon who need this are called "mixed attackers", and they use both physical and special attacks. Examples of this are Infernape and Greninja. Infernape does not have to be mixed, but sometimes it is. Greninja is a special attacker that also uses U-Turn, which is physical. However, fully flawless IV spreads are VERY difficult to get, even when breeding like I have described, and a lot of times it's not worth it to put in the effort to get them if you're just playing for fun.

When you are hatching Eggs, always be sure to have a Pokemon on your team that has the ability Flame Body or Magma Armor. If you do this, the amount of time it takes to hatch Eggs will be HALVED. It's a HUGE help. Talonflame and Volcarona are perfect candidates for Egg-hatching because they both have Flame Body and they can both learn Fly.

EV Training Guide

EV training is really easy once you've gotten Pokerus and the Power Items. Pokerus is a VERY rare Pokemon "virus" (not the bad kind - it's programmed into the game on purpose) that you get by battling wild Pokemon. It is 3 times rarer than finding a shiny. If you get it, it will double the number of EVs that you earn per battle. Pokerus has made its rounds around the competitive community and it's very easy now to find someone on a forum who will give it to you. I have Pokerus if you would like me to give you a Pokemon with it. It's also considered common courtesy to infect Pokemon that you Wonder Trade with it so that others can have it. You know if you have a Pokemon that is contagious for Pokerus because on its info page, next to the Pokemon type, there will be a pink box that says "Pokerus" (see the image below). This box means that the Pokemon is CONTAGIOUS and can spread Pokerus to other members of your team. This is good. After 3-5 days, the pink box will turn into a smiley face next to the blue pentagon. This means that the Pokemon is NOT CONTAGIOUS, but still gets its double EVs from battles.

Pokemon that are contagious will stay contagious indefinitely if you leave them in your PC. It is always a good idea to infect many Pokemon in your PC with Pokerus and keep them there so you never lose the virus.

Here is what a contagious Pokemon looks like:

[IMG300]http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x374/emstauss/pokerus_zpsef71fdf1.jpg[/IMG300]

The Power Items are bought from the Battle Maison using BP. They cost 16 BP each. Battle Points (BP) are earned by battling in the Battle Maison, and also from using PokeBank. Personally I hate the Battle Maison and I get all of my BP from PokeBank, or I trade for these items. But for a newcomer to competitive battling, the Battle Maison would be a great place for you to try out your competitive teams. The Battle Maison trainers are not easy to defeat - they have good teams with strategies and well-bred and trained Pokemon.

What the Power Items do is they add +4 of their respective EV to EACH Pokemon you defeat. So the Power Bracer, for example, will add +4 Attack EVs to each Pokemon you defeat in a battle. An example of how this works will come in a second.

The best way to EV train quickly and efficiently is to use Sweet Scent to find Hordes, give your Pokemon the Power Item it needs, and give it Pokerus. First, you decide what you want your Pokemon's EV spread to be. You NEVER bring your Pokemon into any battle until you are done with its EV battles because this will mess up your EV spread. So if you have bred the Gible I'm using in my example, and you want it to have 252 Attack EVs, you would infect it with Pokerus, give it a Power Bracer, and fight a Horde of Pokemon that give Attack EVs. In ORAS, this would be Mount Pyre, where all Hordes are Shuppet, which give 1 Attack EV per Shuppet. Normally, a Horde of Shuppet would give you 5 Attack EVs, because each Shuppet gives 1 Attack EV and there are 5 Shuppets. However, the Power Bracer gives you +4 Attack EVs PER SHUPPET, and then Pokerus stacks on this and DOUBLES your EVs. So Pokerus + Power Bracer + Horde = (1+4)*5*2, or 50 Attack EVs PER HORDE. So if you want 252 Attack EVs on your Gible, you need to defeat 6 Hordes of Shuppet and you're done!

When you are doing this, your Gible does not need to battle. Make sure that the Exp Share is turned on, there are no other Pokemon in your party that will be affected by the EV training, and bring a Pokemon with Sweet Scent and a spread move such as Surf or Earthquake that will kill all of the Shuppets at once. I use Tropius to do this (Sweet Scent + Earthquake), or bring a Pokemon with Surf that does all of the battling for you. Surf is important because Earthquake won't hit the Hordes of flying types.

Game Freak has blessed us in ORAS with places called "EV Hotspots", which are routes or places that only have Hordes that give a certain EV. You can find a list of ORAS EV Hotspots here, and a list of XY EV Hotspots here.

If you have more than one of each Power Item, you can EV train Pokemon that need the same spreads all at once by putting them all in your team and turning on the Exp Share.

You can get a general idea of how your EV training is going and if your Pokemon is fully trained by looking at the Super Training section of your PokeGear (it's in the same list as PSS and Pokemon Amie). There is a graph there that shows you where your Pokemon's EVs are. When your Pokemon is fully trained, a flashing image of a guy with muscles will appear above the Pokemon on this screen. I have uploaded an image below of a Greninja with 4 HP/252 SpAtk/252 Spe. This Greninja actually has 6 EVs in HP, but only 4 boost the stat by a point, so the other 2 are useless. That's why EV spreads are written 252/252/4, or some combination of numbers that add up to 508 instead of 510.

[IMG300]http://i1178.photobucket.com/albums/x374/emstauss/supertraining_zpsf4adf4f0.jpg[/IMG300]

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Okay, I think that pretty much it for IV breeding and EV training! If this is confusing, you can ask me or anyone else on this thread to clarify, or you can always Google some guides to help you.

Let us know if you need more help! And if you want, I'll give you a 6IV Ditto infected with Pokerus to help you get started. Just send me a VM or PM!
 
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pokebiscuit

New Member
Thank you very much again for all the info, I think I actually understand everything in the previous post to some extent :)

We're doing contests at the moment and almost got master rank up so we'll probably get the destiny knot from one of the fans, well from what I have read I believe. It's a shame I only get to see my daughter on the weekends, may have to have words with the ex and see her after school now and then (we mainly play ORAS together so we're at the same pace, but she's excited about this breeding so told me I can go on a bit as long as I breed her some nice pokemon ;) ), we're almost at Mount Pyre, so it's a good place to be now you've mentioned it :).

Thank you also for the offer of the 6IV Ditto infected with Pokerus, I'll send you a pm, no idea what a vm is :redface:

I recieved a pokemon that I think is hacked from the wonder trade today, I put the stats and level into the calculator thing you mentioned earlier and for most of the stats it stated 'Impossible':
20150223_233331 (Copy).jpg

I presume the best course of action is just to release it so I can get rid of it?
Don't really want a hacked pokemon going round and ruining peoples games.

tris
 

Rocxidi

The Jim Reaper
:

I recieved a pokemon that I think is hacked from the wonder trade today, I put the stats and level into the calculator thing you mentioned earlier and for most of the stats it stated 'Impossible':
View attachment 14365

I presume the best course of action is just to release it so I can get rid of it?
Don't really want a hacked pokemon going round and ruining peoples games.

tris

Check out the Hack Check Thread to ensure that this pokemon isn't hacked.
 
Posted this in the General Pokemon Questions thread but I'm thinking maybe it's more appropriate here?:

So I opened up Pokemon Diamond which I haven't played in forever. I skipped B & W and started again with X. Anyhow, apparently I had saved in front of a delivery man who is waiting to give me an ALAMOS Darkrai and a Gamestop Deoxys.

I've been SRing and I've got a Timid Darkrai with a spread of 14, 15 HP / 24, 25 ATT / 16, 17 DEF / 30, 31 SPA / 31 SPD / 28, 29 SPE.

Should I keep this or keep trying for something better?
 

phanpycross

God-king
Posted this in the General Pokemon Questions thread but I'm thinking maybe it's more appropriate here?:

So I opened up Pokemon Diamond which I haven't played in forever. I skipped B & W and started again with X. Anyhow, apparently I had saved in front of a delivery man who is waiting to give me an ALAMOS Darkrai and a Gamestop Deoxys.

I've been SRing and I've got a Timid Darkrai with a spread of 14, 15 HP / 24, 25 ATT / 16, 17 DEF / 30, 31 SPA / 31 SPD / 28, 29 SPE.

Should I keep this or keep trying for something better?
Yeah, I would say that's good for a darkrai in all honesty
 

XxForrestxX

New Member
I have a general question about EV's, I'm not sure if its been asked before, but I couldn't really find any answers. Anyway, I tend to fully EV train my Pokemon at level 1 through super training. My question is, if my Pokemon are then fully EV trained right out of the gate, does it matter which Pokemon I battle considering without being fully EV trained a Pokemon will gain EV's through battle? Be it wild Pokemon, trainer battles, etc??
 
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