Transitioning from Smogon OU Singles to VGC?

[Alfieri]

So I absolutely love doing 6v6 single battles but like, the "official" way to play is VGC and my ocd makes me want to try out the game the way Nintendo and Game Freak plan it. For any of you who have done VGC type battles, how difficult is the transition? What should I erase from my memory of single battles to make better strategies for doubles?

 

[oshimas]

i'm actually learning how to play vgc format. it took me a while to get used to it as i had to rethink of pokemon teams and change around some strategies. (even though, i got lucky with some of my teams on online battling) i don't really use any of the banned pokemon in vgc, but i had to research on some of the most used pokemon in the format and how to get around certain attack spreads, items used most often, and the pokemon's abilities and how they affect battles. to this day i'm still learning more about vgc formats work.

 

[Griffinbane]

I'd suggest you go to nuggetbridge.com and check out all the guides and whatnot they have there. They're the premier English website for VGC.

As for transition, it really depends on you. I've preferred doubles since gen 3 but wasn't able to do live tournaments so got stuck in singles until gen 5 came out. Transition was super smooth for me because I've always preferred doubles and already understood the more common things like spread moves, and my singles playstyle tanked. Hard.

If you're curious about VGC players here on PC, I can tell you that our numbers don't total to more than maybe 5. And I'm the only one who goes to live tournaments.

 

[MoxieInfinite]

Had never played doubles until when I signed up for Smogon Grand Slam not long ago, so I got a couple of teams from a friend, and I played like 30 games on the ladder for each team, and then I played the tour. I then tried VGC too, which was pretty much a less fun Smogon Doubles, and though I've won a couple of irl tourneys, I never really enjoyed VGC, as Smogon Doubles is pretty much superior in most ways.

tl;dr
The transitioning is really easy as long as you know what you're doing in singles. They're not THAT different.

 

[s0nido]

I dabbled in VGC a bit after playing OU/UU heaps, and there are a few things you really need to watch out for that don't appear anywhere near as often in singles. Trick Room and weather teams are far more common in VGC, since battles are much shorter and can take advantage of the 5 turns of Trick Room/Weather a lot easier. VGC and Smogon OU share a lot of the same threats such as Talonflame, Mega Charizard X/Y and Mega Manectric, as well as Pokemon like Mega Kangaskhan and Mega Mawile. I'd also say that boosting moves are slightly less common, since there's not much time to be boosting your stats and there's a possibility that the Pokemon you're boosting with can be double-targeted.

There's only so much that we can tell you in this thread, but if you go to Nugget Bridge and Smogon's VGC forum, as well as try out VGC on Pokemon Showdown, you will gain a better understanding of the metagame and what there is to look out for.

 

[Polar Spectrum]

I'm typing this from a phone so pardon any mistakes in spelling :p

The main difference is in strategy. Singles involves a lot of setting up a specific thing, and banking on them doing enough damage or sweeping, and / or your opponent not being able to deal with it one on one. VGC is more fast paced, in the way that you can't expect constant switches to counter something the other player has, on your part or your opponents. For this reason, you'll have to adapt to teams that focus less on entry hazards, less on switching into a pokemon that can't do anything to set up, and less on any one pokemon on a team in particular since if something gets too threatening in any doubles battle, it'll attract more attention. Oh, and yeah attracting attention. Get used to that in doubles; you have to predict more than just which slight variation of build your opponent is using on a pokemon, you have to gauge the situation to predict where they'll attack, if they even do on any given turn. Protect games make or break a lot of battles in VGC.