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Playing With Your Favorites

Do you play with your favorites?


  • Total voters
    215

Latias_

Passive voice
not using favourites is like someone saying build a building and you just building it like every other building, because you can and its not risky. obviously a team of your six favourites is unlikely to work, but making a team around favourites can make great teams that are less predictable than a vast majority of the metagame and improve team building skills. But what some people also forget it, it's funner that way

I never said to not use favourites. In fact I'm pretty sure a lot of competitive players have favourites that they build teams around, or will almost always include, although that is only when their preferred Pokémon is viable in the current metagame. Similarly in designing a huge complex structure you can definitely design it in a preferred form to give it creativity but the design must be plausible and you can't randomly design an ocean liner or 1000 metre tower without incorporating structural knowledge and the laws of physics.
 

PokeMaster366

Well-Known Member
Teams that are made from the mind are called unique while teams that you are taught how to build are named based on what it does. Don't be afraid to use your favorites; even if they're weak, you might surprise someone when you use them. The biggest mistake that anyone can make is to create a team that they can't call their own, for when they do, the team will never work properly b/c it simply isn't their style. Make a team that fits your style and personality well, and you'll be able to do well in the battles to come. Remember this the next time you decide to make a Sandstorm/Rain/Hail team b/c "It looks powerful" or it sweeps your team.
 

kaiser soze

Reading ADWD
There's using your favorites, then there's bringing a knife to a gun fight. It's your responsibility to win, which is why C+Ping Smogon sets is popular: they work and give you some shot at winning. But that's not enough: you need 6 pokemon, not 1 or 12, and there's more to teambuilding than a few C&Ped sets. And of course there's more good sets than what Smogon puts in its guides, but they try. Several things might not work all the times but work on your team because you tailored it to close a weakness (like when I add Energy Ball to my Gengar's moveset). Like BH said, the good players can make underappreciated pokemon work. But just because you use t=it to be unoriginal doesn't make you good, just as making a team with the top 6 OU usage pokes doesn't mean you're a great player.
 

Pichu47

Fear Me, If You Dare
Using your favorites is pretty fun. I usually build my team around one or two, then add pokemonto compliment them. I tried out using a zebstrika today, and you can laugh while you still can, because it works.

Zebstrika@Fire Gem
Ability: Motor Drive
Nature: Naive
Ev's: 212 speed 200 attack 110 sp. Atk

-Overheat
-Wild Charge
-Pursuit
-Me First

Now you may think zebstrika is outclassed, but he isn't he has very useful options that set him apart from jolteon, electivire, etc. This thing OHKO's ferrothorn + Skarm, revenge kills latios when he tries to flee, 2HKO's most super-bulky waters, and can steal incoming draco meteors/outrages to turn the opponent's dream team into a nightmare.
 

PokeMaster366

Well-Known Member
There's using your favorites, then there's bringing a knife to a gun fight...

"Even a wielder of shuriken can be defeated with pebbles thrown by a master."
Naruto Shippuden

The point is that if everyone kept on using the same guys over and over again, someone would get smart enough to build a team that counters those common guys. That's why some OU pokemon have their hands full with UU or RU pokemon, and as a reference to one of my previous threads, try looking at Bisharp vs. Latios. It's rare, if not unseen, for a Latios to have a Focus Sash. If Latios attacks, he'll be owned by Sucker Punch; and if he switches out, Bisharp gets to set up for a Sucker Sweep. Now what will happen if Bisharp just uses Swords Dance on the first turn regardless of what set Latios could have? BTW, Bisharp has enough speed to outrun most of your common Fighting types, and I doubt a lot of them can survive a +2 Iron Head from Bisharp.
 

AmericanPi

Write on
Then, don't play competitive Pokemon, and don't gasp in shock and horror at the people who would rather try to win than try to make sure that their favorite Pokemon is on their team and that it knows the four coolest looking moves.

Hell, it would be a good idea to avoid posting in forums that say things like "Competitive Pokemon" and "Competitive Discussion" if this is your viewpoint. That would be like me going over to the Libertarian forums and denouncing trickle-down theory.

Truthfully, I stumbled upon this thread on Smogon Community, where there was a thread that linked to this thread right here. What was I doing on Smogon? Lurking around to get some material for my fanfiction...

So yes, I'm here on accident. I would NEVER click Competitive Discussion on normal circumstances.

And no, I don't play competitively, and I don't intend to start, so yes, I just stumbled here on accident.

*leaves forever to go back to GPD and fan fics*
 
While I don't make a team simply full of my favorites, I almost always use my 3 favorites:

Whimsicott
Medicham
and Typhlosion


These were my favorites from Gens 2, 3 and 5, and I use them often.
 

Vandslaux

Well-Known Member
Chandelure is my absolute favorite pokemon ever, but I do not slap it on every team I make. I try and use it, though. I always use it when I'm making a Hail team, though. Epic synergy revenge killer, resisting Fire, Fighting, and Steel.
 
The point is that if everyone kept on using the same guys over and over again, someone would get smart enough to build a team that counters those common guys.

The truth is that countless teams have been made in an attempt to counter every common threat in the metagame. It's a lot easier said than done. I mean, just think about how many Pokemon you have to account for. There are around 50 different OU Pokemon, but there are plenty more OU viable Pokemon that simply don't make the usage cut. There's also plenty of other uncoventional Pokemon that have small niches that some players may utilize. That said, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to develop a team capable of countering every common threat in the metagame perfectly.
 

ParaChomp

be your own guru
Truthfully, I stumbled upon this thread on Smogon Community, where there was a thread that linked to this thread right here. What was I doing on Smogon? Lurking around to get some material for my fanfiction...
Again, that was me. They don't have a section where I can place this thread.
 

PokeMaster366

Well-Known Member
The truth is that countless teams have been made in an attempt to counter every common threat in the metagame. It's a lot easier said than done. I mean, just think about how many Pokemon you have to account for. There are around 50 different OU Pokemon, but there are plenty more OU viable Pokemon that simply don't make the usage cut. There's also plenty of other uncoventional Pokemon that have small niches that some players may utilize. That said, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to develop a team capable of countering every common threat in the metagame perfectly.

It's pretty much a given that nothing is perfect in this world. All we can do is prepare for what we think is the biggest threat, and in this year's VGCs, we WILL have to watch out for Rain and Sandstorm teams.
 

windsong

WEST SIDE
"Even a wielder of shuriken can be defeated with pebbles thrown by a master."
Naruto Shippuden

The point is that if everyone kept on using the same guys over and over again, someone would get smart enough to build a team that counters those common guys. That's why some OU pokemon have their hands full with UU or RU pokemon, and as a reference to one of my previous threads, try looking at Bisharp vs. Latios. It's rare, if not unseen, for a Latios to have a Focus Sash. If Latios attacks, he'll be owned by Sucker Punch; and if he switches out, Bisharp gets to set up for a Sucker Sweep. Now what will happen if Bisharp just uses Swords Dance on the first turn regardless of what set Latios could have? BTW, Bisharp has enough speed to outrun most of your common Fighting types, and I doubt a lot of them can survive a +2 Iron Head from Bisharp.
lol what is with your obsession with Bisharp.

(Seriously can't you just accept that it's really pretty bad in OU?)

Because opinions made from such a clearly biased party are pointless...
 
"Even a wielder of shuriken can be defeated with pebbles thrown by a master."
Naruto Shippuden

Exactly. A good player can use crap to beat bad players, but what happens when both players are good? The shuriken wielder would be at an obvious advantage.
 

ParaChomp

be your own guru
Exactly. A good player can use crap to beat bad players, but what happens when both players are good? The shuriken wielder would be at an obvious advantage.
It happens all the time with younger siblings.
 
I'm not sure what you mean. My point is unless you are MUCH better than me I will likely never lose to a team of Absol / Zebstrika / Rogenrolla / crap like that.
 

ParaChomp

be your own guru
I'm not sure what you mean. My point is unless you are MUCH better than me I will likely never lose to a team of Absol / Zebstrika / Rogenrolla / crap like that.
You know how little kids play casually and know little about competitive battling while you do. That's what I mean.
 

Pichu47

Fear Me, If You Dare
^^I do that all the time. When i face bad people, i tell them that they can use legends and i won't. It's then somewhat fair.
 

Latias_

Passive voice
I saw... it just got closed. :(

You do know that DragonSpiral Tower isn't the place to discuss this kind of material right? There are already enough **** posts in DST to begin with, we don't need anymore. You should be glad that the thread wasn't bad enough to be sent to Trou Du Cul.

I don't believe any of the sh** they said about my second favorite Pokemon. In fact, almost all of my favorites are in NU, because... well, OU Pokemon aren't cute or pretty, and they're WAY too overrated. :K

But they are aesthetically pleasing. Everyone likes Tyranitar, right? And don't you think Latias is cute and pretty?

My fanfiction (Meganium userbar in my signature) expresses my viewpoint towards Smogon... seriously, why was competitive battling even invented?

Why wasn't it invented? Competitive Pokémon is about trying to become the very best, like no one ever was, no? And if one strives to succeed, do you think he would care about "fun" if it causes him to fail? Similarly, almost everyone doesn't like going to school, but hey, you have to do it, otherwise you'll end up as a low-skilled worker or something.
 
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