AromaFlora
floofy
I saw people posting in the other "favorite (OU) Pokemon" thread that I deleted so I might as well make them aware that this thread exists.
I love bouffalant and all but I don't know if he's any good
Competitively. I'd love to know any sets For him or how to use him effectively
I'm working on a competitive team with my favorites as of now so when I feel I'm finally ready for competitive play, I'll do so.
My number one favorite will always be Arcanine. I'm trying to make one like this:
Nature: Jolly
~Morning Sun
~Extreme Speed
~Flare Blitz
~Thunder Fang
In this thread I would like to spark discussion of players who use only their favorite Pokemon (I refer to them as prioritized players). To clarify, these are not players who like a large variety of Pokemon, nor players who use their favorites and are equally open-minded, or even players who like Pokemon that are already incredibly good, but players who only use outclassed Pokemon like Flareon or Raichu solely based on looks or other random reasons. This is NOT a hate thread and in no way am I attempting to bash prioritized players. I would like those posting in this thread to post if they play with their favorites or not and explain why. Because quite frankly, I'm curious about each and every one of you and knowing why you make your decisions is intriguing.
There is a reason a lot of competitive players will tell you to forget about using your favorites when it comes to competitive battling. I am one of them. While the entire premise of the game is designed to let the player succeed with their favorites, that is not how competitive works.
Furthermore, I note that, on average, players who use only their favorites are less-effective battlers than those who don't.
- From the very start, you are limiting your options. I feel the best thing about the Pokemon games is that there is so much variety. When you say you are only going to use your favorites, you are immediately secluding yourself to a handful of Pokemon and focusing only on those. Though individually, the sets you use for teams can be creative, the general strategies are bland or ineffective as you have to cater to your limitations.
- Players who use only their favorites generally ignore better options. Even though Heracross is exponentionally better than Pinsir, these players would still use Pinsir, the sole reason being they prefer Pinsir aesthetically. This is like saying you'd rather walk three hours to work/school instead of driving 20 minutes because you like to walk, or declining an upgraded plane ticket because you prefer 3rd class, or declining an inflated basketball at a game because you like the feel of a deflated ball in your hands, or even saying no to free money because you like how much cash you have in your wallet/bank account at the moment. Quite frankly, every reason I've heard defending prioritized players when I've touched upon this subject were only excuses.
- Through forums and live engagement with prioritized players, I have noticed a pattern of difficulty with adaptivity and/or improvement. If you use certain Pokemon exclusively, you will have issues when you run into specific threats or metagame shifts. At the same time, since players are only using their favorites, lack of exploration tends to leave their growth stunted since the players only know how to use specific Pokemon. Usually when I run into someone who plays in a closed circut (only plays with a group of friends), they believe certain Pokemon/sets are an arm and head above everything else. When a suggestion is made contradicting this, nearly none will respond with open minds or logical discussion. Instead, I tend to hear stories about poorly designed teams being crushed by a threat that they have no answer to. Since they don't move outside their comfort zone, their issues are rarely resolved and are usually done so by banning things which have no reason to be banned in a general competitive standpoint.
Some argue competitive battlers go down a similar road by banning things from tiers, such as Garchomp. However, they fail to realize general competitive battlers will use any and every mean to find an answer to a problem and when there is none, that is when a decision is made. Prioritized battlers simply don't want to face the problem because losing with your favorites a horrendous number of times makes the game no longer fun.
There is a complete flipside to all of this logic. While prioritized players do have downsides, there are upsides to them as well.
- I believe the tier system would not be what it is today without prioritized players. Beyond Ubers and OU (disregarding BL), the tiers are filled with Pokemon that would see very little use if it wasn't for the fact players wanted to use them. UU and LC are prime examples of this: you will never see things like Croagunk or Blastoise making metagame shifts or threatening one of the higher tiered Pokemon's place on the usage ladder, yet in their respective tiers they are viable candidates. Not to mention these tiers have plenty of candidates to choose from, which from a general standpoint makes them more dynamic. Even though I am a strict OU battler whenever I do battle, playing the lower tiers was a fun and exciting experience. Within the competitive battling game, there are more than 4 actual games to train, explore, and enjoy. For this, you can thank those who are dedicated to finding a place for their favorites. They are not necessarily the #1 reason these tiers exist, but they most certainly help them thrive.
- Prioritized players may not know this, but from what I have seen on average, they enjoy the game more than the average non-prioritized player. When I play against people at Nintendo and use my favorites, I enjoy it the most simply because it's fun too watch Nidoking work as a powerhouse sweeper. Without the pressure to use the strongest and best Pokemon, it's refreshing to use what you want to use. It's luxury over efficiency. Though currently I have a single tutee, I do suggest to everyone I give advice to play with your favorites every once in a while. It keeps most players playing the game longer and opens their mind to more creative ideas, as some players work very hard to use their favorites efficiently. And to those who only play one or two of their favorites that sit in OU: try it. You may enjoy yourself.
- If players only focused on the Pokemon that excell, we may not know as much about competitive as we do now. Whenever Smogon opens up the floodgates for analyses, almost everyone goes for their favorites while the common Pokemon are generally left for top players to mop up. If only metagame important Pokemon received attention like this, odds are we wouldn't know much about Pokemon like Leafeon. Players have made effective and plausible strategies for Traunt Durant, and that's saying something. Though prioritized players may not necessarily be the cause for research like this, their support for their favorite Pokemon goes a long way to promote this.