Strength vs Style

[Doaks]

I wanted to get different opinions on a dilemma I've been considering, so I'm starting this thread. I'm sure many trainers have struggled when faced with two pokemon of the same breed, one shiny, the other better stats. What do people use on their team?

For the sake of argument, let's say you have 2 pokemon of the same breed. One is shiny rocking 2 perfect IV's and receiving a "relatively superior" rating from the gentleman in Kiloude city's pokemart. The other pokemon you have is not shiny, but is rolling with 5 perfect IV's and receives a "outstanding" rating from the same gent in Kiloude. Which do you put on your roster?

 

[Professor_Jared]

In my opinion: the non-shiny one with the five perfect IVs, because style really doesn't matter all that much in terms of competitive battling, because most of your opponents will be looking for a good fight, and won't concern themselves much with style in the first place.

 

[Kameken]

I always choose style over strength, at least within reason.

If you're good enough, you can usually make the 2IV one only trivially weaker. IVs matter a lot less than people tend to believe, unless the fight comes down to two of the same pokemon and one has better IVs, and even then it depends on what stats the IVs effect. A Blissey with perfect attack, defense and speed would likely lose to one with perfect HP.

 

[Doaks]

Both good points! Really it comes down to how important are IV's--obviously if the pokemon focuses on only special or physical attack 6 IV guys don't matter. But then again, the last duel I had with another player, ended with 11/12 pokemon fainted, and the last pokemon sitting on 5 hp, so every little bit can count.

But the choice still eats at me. Personally, I'd choose style over strength all the time. Shiny pokemon are just cooler imo, if nothing else on the prestige of their rarity, though quite often they are more aesthetically pleasing! But it would really grind my gears thinking I lost because I chose to use "lesser" fighters.

I guess I'm more inclined to agree with Kameken, especially in the fact that which IV's are affected matters. Though I'm still not 100% reconciled with not using my stronger fighters.

 

[Zeffy]

In-game, I go for "style." The games are piss easy anyway that anything can work :p Though I tend to shy away from using my shinies in battle because I really don't like their colours that much. not that i have a lot of shinies anyway ;a;

For competitive battles, I generally go for the best stuff. Or, relatively anyway. You don't actually need perfect IVs (having it sort of just a plus).

 

[PlatinumDude]

I go for strength over style. Having good IVs in a Pokemon is one of my top priorities, but I'm more lenient in that case; any IV of 20-31 in the stats I intend to use is good enough for me. Style is simply a mere bonus for me; because of this, the vast majority of my shiny Pokemon go unused.

 

[Dark Phantom Samurai]

Both are on the same priority. Strength without style, isn't acceptable for me. If I tried in the first place to make that Pokemon Ultimate in my eyes then it will have to be shinny with a minimum of 5-IVs in all the correct stats. Time consumption doesn't matter. Unless that Pokemon has a horrible shinny form then it some things are considered.

After all those Pokemon represent your team in the end, and to have at least one shiny Pokemon on your team already represents persistence. Style is my pick.

 

[Nah]

I generally go for strength over style. Mostly because while it's easier to get shinies in X/Y, it's not that easy, and I don't care for the appearance of most shinies anyway. The exceptions being my shiny Haxorus and shiny Genesect (and some day a shiny Mega Gardevoir with Hyper Voice would be nice). But I usually don't try to get the perfect IV spread for my Pokemon (I already do that for my trade shop customers). Gastrdon only has 4IVs? Good enough for me. Slaking has a perfect Sp.Attack IV but not an HP one? Whatever.

But do whatever you like better.

 

[Polar Spectrum]

I thought this was going to be a different discussion from the topic title lol

Um, I go for strength in style. Not in that I use shiny Pokemon, so much as I use whichever Pokemon I want to use, over whichever are considered "the best". As far as your situation goes, whip out that IV calculator brah. It may be superior with 2 IVs, but which 2 IVs are they? Which ones are high / low? If it's only superior because it's HP and Atk are 31, with 30 in def and sp def, but 0 in both sp atk and speed... But it's a CONKELDURR, dude that's perfect. Depends on the stat and the Pokemon basically

Edit: god I make so many typo's when I post from my phone ;-; fixed everywhere.

 

[Tek]

Well, I've not yet had to make such a choice. But it would really depend on which coloration looks better to me. I probably wouldn't pick a shiny 6V Kingler over my current 2V Kingler, because A: shiny Kingler is gross-looking and B: my Kingler's in an Apriball, which is a huge deciding factor for me.

And, like others have said, 6V Kingler would probably not perform significantly better than 2V Kingler in most situations. ko-kee ko-kee

 

[zygardian harbinger]

You know, style is nice, but would you rather win with good stats or lose with style?

 

[Cloudfury]

Stength in battle spot, style in game.

Superior IVs are still good though, should be decent IVs or average Ivs that are bad. I can still win with my superior Iv Dragonite against what are probably perfect Garchomps.

Honestly it's about how you use the pokemon. You can give a 6 iv Garchomp to a less experienced player and they won't know how to use it properly. A pro can do just as well with a lesser Iv Garchomp, maybe better.

Does perfect sp def ivs even make a difference when it has 4x ice vulnerability? But I'd still rather have the ivs as half of 31 rather than zero.

 

[MoxieInfinite]

I'd rather have my Latios speedtie with an opposing Latios, than to guarantee a loss. Pretty retarded discussion, "strenght" matters 100%. A shiny Pokemon doesn't win you any games.

 

[Megan]

Reminds me of that one time when I was breeding for a 6IV Gible. I got a shiny 4IV one (coincidentally covering the most important stats). So I boxed it and continued until I got a 6IV one. When going for a fight, always take the best tools for the job, or else you're just asking for a loss.

And if you want to buy a fancy knife you are not allowed to complain if it doesn't quite cut it.

 

[Handsome Samurott]

When it comes to battling, strength is more important than style. Not that you need to have 6 perfect IVs. But you should have perfect IVs where it is important. For example, I use my Vaporeon as a wall, and I also have Scald on it as a back-up, so I have perfect IVs in HP, Def, SpA, SpD, and Spe, but Atk is not so important. Or take my Dragonite as an example. I plan to use it solely as a physical attacker, so I have perfect IVs in everything except SpA. And for Ferrothorn, I have perfect IVs in everything except SpA and Spe because those are not necessary.

As for the value of shinies, I am not so impressed when people send shinies out onto the field to battle me because a huge number of shinies today have been hacked. You never know which ones are authentic and which are manufactured. So, given that fact, shinies really don't have much value to me. Although I was quite pleased today when, on my 24th egg, I hatched a shiny Larvesta :) But it only has 3 or 4 perfect IVs, so in the box it will go :)