Male
Sinnoh
Seen August 15th, 2015
Posted August 14th, 2015
180 posts
9.8 Years
So, when I first started playing Pokemon I remember that all I would do is attack. I was very attack oriented, I didn't care about none of that Screech/Leer or Shell Smash or Wish strategies, I would only attack. If it didnt deal damage, it didnt have a spot in my turn slots.

It wasn't until I got into WiFi battling that I cared about how bulky a pokemon and would Dragon Dance and Swords Dance.

What about you guys?
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Male
Australia
Seen November 21st, 2013
Posted October 5th, 2013
105 posts
9.8 Years
I still only mainly just use attack, although when I see necessary, I do use stat decreases/increases. I did have a strategy with Mewtwo for tough trainers (Eg Pokemon League), I used calm mind until my Sp.Attack and Defence were maxed out, and just destroy the team with Psychic. Heh. But yeah, I only really use them when I need too, because if I can make a Pokemon faint in two or three moves and not suffer much in return, I see no need too.
Ah, yes. This is one of the most unforgettable experiences I've had in my childhood.

It all started way back in Gen 2. Pokemon Silver. I was so excited with the game, loved the new MC's sprite and then picked Hinoarashi as starter (Cyndaquil's Japanese name) because he was so cute and cool first time I saw him. I was feeling so great, happy, and awesome at the same time. I've managed to solve the Unown puzzle quickly as a noobish pokenerd-to-be with a fat gameboy and 4 pairs of batteries to spare.

Winged the first two badges then reached Goldenrod. At that time, Quilava was my only strong pokemon, proudly defeating my Rival's Croconaw without even losing more than half it's health from Water Gun. However, when I entered Goldenrod's gym, I was brutally beaten by Whitney's Miltank, and even single-handedly. It was my earliest whiteout in my pokemon gaming records ever. What was to blame? ROLL-freaking-OUT! Oh, my poor, lovely and awesome Quilava...around 6-7 levels above...wiped out in 2 hits!? WHAT?! wtfomgdatpokemooisOP!

...and that, my friends, is when I came up with Smokescreen/Sand Attack+Supersonic A strategy I desperately relied on as my last resort to avoid endless rage...I mean weeping... err... training. From then on, I've been carefully saving at least one slot for a "utility move" among one or two of my Pokemon.

Hikamaru

Age 30
Female
Australia
Seen January 24th, 2019
Posted September 4th, 2018
50,214 posts
12.2 Years
On my first playthrough of Black, in my Gym Battle against Elesa I ended up pulling off a very unusual but clever strategy no-one else would have even thought of.

I was initially training myself a Sandile for the fight but I brought in my Zebstrika as a backup but accidentally had Zebstrika, who was female, with Motor Drive and her moveset was Attract, Flame Charge, Shock Wave and one attack I can't remember, in the first slot of my party.

In fact, I ended up sweeping Elesa's entire team with just my Zebstrika but I did do a fun strategy with it. Against the two Emolgas I spammed Shock Wave against them so I could bypass Double Team and also they weren't able to Volt Switch me because surprise my Zebstrika is immune to Electric due to her ability. What did I do when Elesa's Zebstrika came out? I used Attract on it so it wouldn't be able to attack most of the time and then because I couldn't use Electric attacks I spammed Flame Charge against it and eventually defeated it quickly.

Yeah, did not even need any of my other Pokemon in the fight.
Gone forever for personal reasons.
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Age 32
Male
Seen August 21st, 2021
Posted August 19th, 2021
2,334 posts
15 Years
I mostly play in-game and not competitively so I don't really go too deep when it comes to strategies.

In more recent games I've started taking advantage of Leech Seed and Poison, I usually have a pokemon who can use both moves and it can be handy to take down stubborn pokemon who refuse to go down quickly.
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Seen October 2nd, 2020
Posted July 12th, 2014
483 posts
10.4 Years
I started playing as an adult and an experienced gamer, so I considered strategy right from the beginning. I've always treated pokemon games in much the same way as I would any turn-based strategy game - something like Fire Emblem or Super Robot Taisen or Dynasty Warriors (though without the movement part). I saw from the start that it was all about balancing each moveset, and the entire team, to deal with whatever threats I was going to end up facing- just like choosing and upgrading weapons and assembling a team in a more traditional TBS game.

Firox

eepz, come help pwease!

Age 37
Male
Seattle, WA
Seen September 15th, 2021
Posted July 17th, 2020
2,585 posts
11 Years
I never use strategy in any of my games. I always rely on luck the most, Pokemon's held item. All my Pokemon always have at least 1 non-attacking/damaging move (such as Detect, Sword Dance, Agility... and so on, anything to aid in battle).
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Ahri

Age 30
Female
Seen 1 Week Ago
Posted 4 Weeks Ago
1,102 posts
10.4 Years
In my younger years and even when I got back into Pokémon after years of not playing, I used to go for brute force alone. The higher the number under "Power", the better.
But as I played on and joined challenges, I slowly realized how wrong my play style was.
So I slowly started relying on status changing moves as well. Ever since then, I've used moves such as Thunder Wave, Attract, Confuse Ray, Screech, Swords Dance and so on and so forth to suit my needs.
And I always include such moves when planning out teams for challenges. Or well, at least I try to xD


If you'd like to play with me, you better be sure you know the game.

Sableye~

Back to PC~

Male
Seen January 4th, 2018
Posted October 11th, 2015
4,016 posts
10.5 Years
Once I learned how to play (I never bothered with instructions or websites), I did what pretty much everyone else here said. Just went for the most powerful moves. I didn't understand the difference between Attack and Sp.Attack, nor between Defense and Sp.Defense.

It took until I began to battle competitively before I gave other moves (i.e. Substitute, Swords Dance, etc.) a chance.
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The Local Joke

Trubbish in the Classroom

Age 27
Male
Seen August 8th, 2013
Posted August 8th, 2013
38 posts
9.9 Years
I would stick to straight attacking for the majority of my fights, but sometimes, a little strategy was in order. For example, during my Platinum playthrough, the only strong Pokemon I had was a Level 22 Budew. I got to fight Mars, and she sent out her Purugly that absolutely destroyed me. After a little bit of leveling, I decided to try again with a strategy in mind.

I sent out my Piplup to use Stealth Rock at the start of the fight, then I threw out my HM Slave. It got killed in one hit, but that let me switch into my Budew without losing a turn. I stunned the Zubats with Stun Spore, and proceeded to use Growth six times, Mega Drain the Zubats, and then Stun Spore Purugly and Mega Drain it over and over again.
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Goals: Play with friends much more often, catch every Pokemon ever released, make my character resemble myself, breed excellent Pokemon and share with friends.

Male
In a Rabbit
Seen July 13th, 2022
Posted June 9th, 2022
824 posts
9.8 Years
1. In Diamond, I was so desperate to beat Cynthia in the Elite 4 without starting entirely over, that I used ~4 Max Revives on my Gengar to spam Destiny Bond.

2. In White, I had a Whimsicott which I lead with in all Elite Four matches to cripple the heck out of the opponent's team. Stun Spore + Leech Seed --> Teammates.

3. In Black 2, I had a Magneton with Sturdy. I'd be guaranteed to survive on 1 HP. Then I'd paralyze. Then I would heal back to max health, and repeat healing until the opponent could not move. Then I'd Volt Switch to a better teammate with Sturdy in tact.
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BDSP Final Team:


Seen September 18th, 2020
Posted February 18th, 2018
7,741 posts
16.6 Years
Sure thing. Filling up the move slots entirely with high-power attacks is just boring. It comes down more to individual tactics per monster than overall strategy though, I don't have the competitive knowledge and mindset to put together a team of monsters that will compliment each other effectively.

Noir

Sir Lucious Left Foot

Male
Cambs
Seen March 20th, 2023
Posted November 19th, 2021
119 posts
10.5 Years
Normally, strategy in-game amounts to "send out powermon and use Surf/Earthquake/Flamethrower/Thunderbolt/Psychic/Ice Beam/Crunch/Hi Jump Kick." so nope.

It's only when I'm doing special playthoughs that I have to mix things up a bit: in my recent Little Cup playthrough of HG I used a Light Screen, Thunderwavin' Cirno Mareep to cripple clair's pokemon and stop Kingdra from never missing with Hydro Pump ever so I could attempt a clean up with an Ice Fang totodile, with Perish Song/Mean Look misdreveous a very real backup plan.

pompayyy

Forever and Ever

Male
In a White Room with Black Curtains
Seen April 9th, 2019
Posted February 23rd, 2015
484 posts
10.3 Years
Not too much. I'm not really a competitive battler anyways, so I very rarely use moves that aren't some form of attacking. I do use quite a lot of healing moves though, and I sometimes use Swords Dance.


Pink Moon is on its way.

Age 30
Male
Lansdale, Pennsylvania, USA
Seen April 3rd, 2023
Posted March 17th, 2018
803 posts
15.8 Years
In normal playthroughs I don't really need any strategy other than type advantages. The typical 386/493/649 hacks are different because the battles are way harder. This is where I actually take some advice from the metagames and try to figure out what will be good counters. Entry hazards are always good because the AI never uses them, and when it does, it uses them badly. I haven't seen any rapid spinning opponents in any ROM hack.
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moon

they/them
Seen 32 Minutes Ago
Posted 2 Days Ago
37,443 posts
15.5 Years
Haha, no. Really, I'm a move spammer and seldom use switchout tactics or anything like that. The smartest thing I do in-game is putting stuff to sleep or leech seed them xD Type advantages are so much easier for strategy in-game than competitively, since your AI opponent isn't thinking... much... at all.
paired with Ivysaur

Sydian

fake your death.

Age 30
they/them
Georgia
Seen May 22nd, 2022
Posted November 29th, 2021
33,354 posts
15.2 Years
I used to. I became a move spammer as I got older, which is funny, because it's normally the reverse. I used to use way too much strategy when I was a kid.

I still use things like Toxic, Attract, etc and all, but I like to just have moves that cover all my needs instead. You don't need a ton of strategy when playing the games really, unless you're doing something like a NFE only run or monotype.
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blue

gucci

Male
United Kingdom
Seen September 26th, 2021
Posted August 7th, 2019
21,056 posts
15.4 Years
I just tend to go through the game keeping my team evenly leveled, trying to keep on par with the upcoming Gym Leader so that it's a little more challenging.

Sweets Witch

I just love ham jerky.

Age 30
Male
Old People Community, USA
Seen December 10th, 2014
Posted December 10th, 2014
1,388 posts
10.3 Years
Aside from typing matchups? Not really. I know what the opponent's bringing so I can easily counter it. When I was a kid I thought Defense Curl + Rollout was the pinnacle of strategy so I'd go out of my way to use it all the time, but eventually I realized that I was just making everything more difficult for myself.

Mp3beast

Master of Sound

Age 25
Male
Illinois
Seen November 26th, 2013
Posted November 26th, 2013
22 posts
9.7 Years
I recently started the "Smokescreen the crap outta them" strategy, but back when I first started playing if the attack didn't do damage I didn't need it. In fact, the first time I tried using Perish song, I killed my own lapras. :( But as of late I've been trying to improve my strategy. I feel that as the games have progressed they have required more strategy.
Owner of the FOXHOUND Challenge! http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=307941

Ig you want to battle or trade PM me and we'll exchange Friend Codes!
-I don't calculate stat values, I don't breed my way to perfection, and I don't care about natures. I catch my Pokemon the way they are, and treat them like individuals instead of brainless drones. If you use this philosophy, copy & paste this into your signature.-

alisaie

they/them
Seen March 14th, 2023
Posted February 3rd, 2022
13,598 posts
14.8 Years
I make sure my Pokemon are even which doesn't help because I don't like grinding so the drawback for that is that I always end up underleveled once I started to get past the third or fourth gym. Other than that I'm not really strategic I just tend to go with the flow.