The OU Metagame - THIRD GENERATION
By Mullet / Twinkies
Table of Contents:
I. Introduction
II. Common Pokemon
III. Threats in the OU Metagame
IV. Building an OU Team
V. Credit Where Credit is Due
Section I. Introduction:
The OU (overused) or Standard metagame refers to the group of Pokemon that are most overused on NetBattle today. Some of this group of Pokemon have base stats that are Uber metagame caliber but have flaws to keep them from being uber such as their stats and or their movepool.
All of the following Pokemon are considered OU at the PokeRealm server:
Aerodactyl
Alakazam
Articuno
Blaziken
Blissey
Breloom
Celebi
Chansey
Charizard
Claydol
Dodrio
Donphan
Dragonite
Dugtrio
Dusclops
Entei
Espeon
Exeggutor
Flygon
Forretress
Gardevoir
Gengar
Gyarados
Heracross
Jirachi
Jolteon
Kingdra
Ludicolo
Magneton
Marowak
Medicham
Metagross
Milotic
Miltank
Moltres
Ninjask
Raikou
Regice
Regirock
Registeel
Rhydon
Salamence
Sceptile
Skarmory
Slaking
Smeargle
Snorlax
Starmie
Suicune
Swampert
Tauros
Tyranitar
Umbreon
Vaporeon
Venusaur
Weezing
Zapdos
Section II. Common Pokemon:
Even though all of the Pokemon listed above are considered OU. Some are more common than others.
High OU Pokemon their most common move sets include:
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Aromatherapy
- Seismic Toss
- Softboiled
- Thunder Wave / Ice Beam
Note: If using Ice Beam take around 116 EVs from HP and put them into Satk which will Make standard DD Mence take about 87%-100% damage.
Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 240 HP / 120 Def / 148 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Baton Pass
- Calm Mind
- Psychic / Hidden Power [Fire / Electric]
- Recover
Note: You will need to adjust it's EVs if using HP [Fire], Celebi needs 300 Speed to outrun non-Jolly Mence.
Donphan (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Atk / 160 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rest
- Rock Slide
Dugtrio (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Hidden Power [Bug]
Gengar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 196 Atk / 184 Spd / 128 SAtk
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Focus Punch / Hypnosis
- Ice Punch / Fire Punch / Giga Drain
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
Heracross (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Guts
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Brick Break
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Megahorn
- Sleep Talk / Focus Punch
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 240 HP / 56 Def / 16 Spd / 148 SAtk / 48 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Fire Punch
- Psychic
- Wish
Metagross @ Choice Band
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Meteor Mash
- Rock Slide
Milotic (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Marvel Scale
EVs: 212 HP / 172 Def / 68 SAtk / 56 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Hypnosis
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Surf
Skarmory (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 240 HP / 56 Atk / 196 Def / 16 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Rest
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
Snorlax (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Immunity / Thick Fat
EVs: 160 HP / 72 Atk / 136 Def / 140 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Body Slam
- Curse
- Rest
- Shadow Ball
Swampert (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Atk / 156 Def / 96 SAtk
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Curse
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Rest
Tyranitar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 44 HP / 240 Atk / 176 Spd / 48 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Rock] / Rock Slide
- Taunt
Note: Choose HP [Rock] if you want accuracy over power and chance to flinch. Also if using RS you may take 4 EVs off of Speed (because HP [Rock] gives you only 30 Speed IVs instead of the max of 31 you get without HP [Rock]) and put them into Atk or SDef.
Section III. Threats in the OU Metagame:
Skarmbliss:
Not much of a threat anymore if you know how to counter it. It involves a combination of the Pokemon Skarmory and Blissey to block Physical and Special attacks respectively.
Counters include:
Gengar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 196 Atk / 184 Spd / 128 SAtk
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Focus Punch
- Ice Punch
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
McIceGar
Tyranitar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Spd / 188 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Thunderbolt
- Crunch
Boah.
Magneton + Choice Bander (Pokemon that holds the item Choice Band) and Dugtrio + a Special attacker:
What is so dangerous about these combos are that they can easily take out a Physical or Special wall and then sweep the rest of your team.
Counters include:
Using your own Dugtrio to try and Trap their Magneton counters the Magneton + CBer and Regice and Snorlax counters the Dugtrio + a special attacker combo.
Heracross:
This guy is such a threat with his high speed and attack. When you give him a Choice Band he becomes even more deadly and he is also able to abuse his Trait Guts, one of the best ways is to switch him into a Hypnosis attack from Milotic and then use Sleep Talk which means that means he get the Choice Band Boost plus the bonus from Guts which makes him one huge pain to kill since he is so fast and can OHKO a lot of things.
Counters include:
Skarmory, or other Pokemon with extremely high Defence.
Jirachi:
Jirachi has a lot of staying power using Calm Mind in conjunction with Wish. This thing hits Pokemon hard with a STAB'd (same type attack bonus) Psychic and for Pokemon that resist Psychic it can use Fire Punch to hit them.
Counters include:
A fast strong physical sweeper that has Earthquake (ie. Dugtrio), a Pokemon that packs Earthquake and high Sp.Def (ie. EQ Snorlax), a strong physical attacker that packs Earthquake (ie. Metagross).
Celebi:
It is just as bad if not worse than Jirachi it has instant healing at it's access
With Recover, and with Calm Mind to increase it's SAtk and SDef it becomes a monstrous Special tank and can stop many things in their tracks. It can pass those Calm Minds to something like Suicune when can then sweep teams. It can also learn Leech Seed to sap your HP away increasing it's staying power, it can also learn Heal Bell to heal the status conditions on your team, which can also help in abusing the move Rest. Also with Natural Cure all those nasty status conditions disappear from Celebi when you switch it out.
Counters include:
Choice Band Dugtrio with HP [Bug] (it does NOT OHKO Celebi, it only does between 85% and 95% damage to standard Celebi. DD Salamence and DD Gyarados with one Dragon Dance can OHKO standard Celebi with HP [Flying].
Spikes:
Spikes is a big threat in the OU Metagame. If three layers of Spikes are laid down then that means that your Pokemon will take 25% damage each time they are sent out. Skarmory abuses it's ability to lay down Spikes with Roar or Whirlwind by shuffling Pokemon in and out causing 25% damage to each Pokemon every time it is dragged out. Forretress is also a very good Spiker, he can also learn Rapid Spin which brings us to the counters.
Counters include:
Any Pokemon that can learn Rapid Spin. Common Spinners include Claydol, Forretress, and Starmie. Watch out for ghost types like Gengar and Dusclops who can block your Rapid Spin so you don't blow the spikes away.
Section IV. Building an OU team:
There are many important guidelines to building a successful OU team:
1) Have one to two Physical Sweepers, try to make them a different type think about Salamence and Dragonite on the same team both are 4x weak to Ice meaning that if at least on of your opponents Pokemon has Ice Beam which is highly likely then both are of your physical sweepers are gone meaning something like Blissey can wall the rest of your team.
2) Have one to two Special Sweepers again try to make them both different types.
3) Have at least on Phazer (something that can use Roar / Whirlwind or Haze to stop another Pokemon from using stat-up moves ie. Skarmory with Roar or Whirlwind or Weezing with Haze). A phazer that uses Roar or Whirlwind can also help with Spikes support.
4) Have at least one Physical wall (something that takes physical hits very well without taking much damage) and one Special wall (something that takes Special hits very well without taking much damage) (ie. Blissey as a special wall and Skarmory as a physical wall).
5) A Spiker (something that can lay Spikes) is a good thing to have but is not necessary.
6) A Rapid Spinner is needed, unless you have Magneton on your team and one layer of Spikes doesn't bother you too much. Which means Magneton can fill the role of a Special Sweeper and Skarmory counter.
7) Have a Cleric (a Pokemon that can use Heal Bell or Aromatherapy to heal status conditions ie. Celebi or Blissey). Most good teams have a Cleric weather it is used to abuse Rest, get rid of bad status conditions or both. A Cleric is a very advantageous thing to have on a competitive OU team.
Note: Many of these categories may overlap (ie. Skarmory as a Spiker and a defensive wall).
Section V. Credit Where Credit is Due and Special Thanks:
Frostweaver: without him I would have never started competitive battling.
Husk1442: Being a good friend, helping me with this guide and helping me learn how to battle competitively.
Groudon80: He helped with listing all of the high OU Pokemon.
Mr. Maser: Helped out with a couple of sets and listing high OU Pokemon.
Leafgreen386: For confirming a couple of damage calculations, and pointing out to me things that I missed.
PokeRealm: For the OU tier list.
Special thanks to the readers: I hope this has helped you better understand the OU metagame.
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Guide To Prediction
By: husk1442
I. Intro
II. Move Sets
III. Timing
IV. Surprise
V. Long Term Thinking
VI. Recording
VII. The Enemy (how to predict)
VIII. Safe Predictions[/center]
IX. Conclusion
X. Real World Application
I. Intro
Prediction is the art of knowing what your opponent will do before they do it. This said, it is obvious that with a good team you can win every game if you know exactly what your opponent will do. This is what separates the good from the mediocre.
II. Move Sets
Knowing standard movesets is key to winning. If you know what your opponent has you can switch to the appropriate counter. Having a good move set is part of prediction. If your metagross has HP:grass then you can predict the switch to Swampert and 2hko it. If you don't have it, you can't. This does not mean you can't predict the switch to Swampert. You can still earthquake on the switch but, your prediction is futile, Swampert isn't being hurt that badly by your efforts. A
III. Timing
Lets say your Zapdos has HP: Ice and its being walled by your opponents Celebi. You probably don't want to HP: ice the celebi on the switch because your prediction will be futile. Yes, you will do more damage than T-bolt but, you won't be killing it. In the future when your opponents will probably send out Salamence or Flygon against your Zapdos thinking you have HP:Grass, then you will be able to ohko it. Timing also refers to lets say: when you reveal to your opponent you have a tyranitar and it knows dragon dance. If you reveal it late game when your opponents counters have died, you will probably win the game.
IV. Surprise
If your opponent doesn't know your set, they can't predict you. Many good players use unorthodox sets and win easily because no one has any idea what they will do. That's not to say standard sets don't have their merits but, everyone gets owned by a Gengar with fire punch every once in a while.
V. Long Term Thinking
Long Term Thinking is knowing what you and your opponent wish to accomplish down the road.
Example:
Team 1 (me): Meta, Pert, Celebi, Starmie
Team 2 (opponent): Zapdos, Milotic, Dugtrio, Snorlax
If my opponent has HP:grass zapdos and I'm holding it off with celebi, I'm pretty sure I don't want to use celebi to wall his milotic incase of a ch. I also don't want to switch celebi into zapdos every time because he might swap to dugtrio quickly. The logical thing to do is to every once in a while absorb a t-bolt with pert and then take the HP: grass with meta. That way he won't swap in dugtrio when I do send out celebi. Now that I have stopped my opponent's long term goal, what is mine?
Mine would probably be to kill dugtrio and beat his team down with Celebi. Another thing I could do is kill snorlax and sweep his team with starmie. Either way it will require a lot of predicted switches. I don't want to try and sweep with meta or pert since he has 3 and 2 counters for them respectively. I could sacrifice pert to bring zapdos into K.O. range and start rolling heads with starmie.
After my opponent's Zapdos is dead, we must think and revise our idea of his strategy. He could just let milotic die and use snorlax+dugtrio to beat my team, which is quite viable. Snorlax curses against starmie and beats on celebi, a predicted dugtrio can take out celebi and metagross. So now the important thing for me to do is to kill his snorlax. So I don't want meta to die as it is my only sure way of killing lax. Since, I don't want it to die I'm not going to randomly switch into snorlax with meta. What I might try to do is:
~Use starmie to kill milotic
~Use celebi to seed snorlax and dick around
~Let dugtrio kill celebi
~Send out meta against the HP:bug'ing dugtrio
~Meteor Mash his snorlax and then either explode if not cb or just keep mashing if I am
~Dugtrio comes in on snorlax's death and kills meta
~Use starmie to beat dugtrio
Seeing as how some logic just turned a bad situation into a good one, your opponent could probably use this same technique against you.
VI. Recording
Writing the HP, moves, and pp of your opponents pokemon in a notepad document is extremely useful. That way you know just how long you need to stall to win, or if your DDtar can sweep yet. Writing everything down means you don't miss a thing and eventually when you get good enough you can estimate their evs based on how fast they are or by how much damage they do.
VII. The Enemy
Standing in your enemies shoes is probably the greatest way to outright know what they will do. Most people don't realize that their opponents don't want to do max damage to their team. Opponents (like you) want to do maximum damage to their opposites team at the lowest risk to themselves. Knowing this, you can know what they will do based on what you would do if you were in their situtation.
VIII. Safe Predictions
A safe prediction is a good one.
For example:
Lets say you use a non-cb meteor mash on regice, bringing it into the red zone. Then you want to use eq because it will kill regice and because if your opponent does switch out they won't be switching to something that will get destroyed by meteor mash. Which probably means something weak to eq if they haven't already sent it out. This will get you a lot of kills.
IX. Conclusion
If you know what, where, and when your opponent will act you win the game. Taking safe predictions is probably the best way to win. Just remember to think about the consequences of your prediction. You obviously don't want to predict a switch and surf when your opponents DD'ed mence is up against your 55% milotic.
X. Real World Application
https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=2176546
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Effort Values
By: Synchronize
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. What's an Effort Value?
II. How do I get EVs?
III. Let's EV Train!
IV. Speeding up the Process
V. Maximum Leftovers Recovery and HP Evs
I. What's an Effort Value?
An Effort Value (EV) is the building block of the potential of each individual Pokemon's stats. A Pokemon has a capacity of 510 EVs to split between all 6 of its stats (HP, Atk, Def, Spd, SAtk, and SDef), each having their own capacity of 255 EVs.
II. How do I get EVs?
In-game, battling a specific Pokemon will help your Pokemon gain a certain amount of EVs in a specific stat (and in some cases two stats). That Pokemon must be able to gain EXP. however, and cannot faint.
If you would like to know which Pokemon gives specific EVs, here's the link to a GameFaqs guide that spells it out for you:
https://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbad..._ev_points.txt
On Pokemon NetBattle, you can manually mess around with Pokemon EVs in the Team Builder.
III. Let's EV Train!
Ok, it's time to make the most out of your stats, but keep these guidelines in mind:
1) Yes, your pokemon's EVs and Stats will grow, but you won't see the significance of these gains until level 100. Now that you know that, it is required to have 4 EVs to gain 1 point in that specific stat (i.e. If you battle two Marills, you will gain 4 HP EVs, and gain 1 more point in HP once you level up). But like I said, you won't necessarily know the actual change until level 100. So let's say we didn't give a Salamence any speed EVs during training. Once it reaches level 100, it will have a 236 Spd stat. Now what if we had given it 8 Spd EVs? It would've had a 238 Spd stat.
In other words don't mix the fact that you got +8 Spd once your Pokemon leveled up with your actual EVs and Stat totals.
2) Wow, that was a long guideline. Anyways, the next thing you should know is actually branched off from guideline #1 - As mentioned, 4 EVs = 1 point increase in stats. Since you have a capacity for 255 in a stat, the maximum EVs you SHOULD put into a stat is 252, which is divisible by 4.
3) JOT IT DOWN! If you're EV training, it's wise to have a piece of paper, or at least an online EV Tracker, as I doubt you'll count out all 510 EVs iny your head and still remember how many you used within the next 2 minutes.
4) Ever used one of those Proteins, or Irons? These medicines are actually what you should start your EV training with, as for each one you use, it increases its respective stat by 10 EVs. Given that you can use only 10 of each medicine, and still are limited by the 255 and 510 EV limits, you'll be able to increase your EVs by 100 per stat.
5) Make sure to ask around for a good "EV Spread" for the Pokemon your training, otherwise, you might think that a Smeargle needs 252 Def EVs to cover for its low defense, and that's not going to help you.
Other than that, consider breeding first for a good Nature or good IVs (not included in this guide) and get crackin.
IV. Speeding Up the Process
*Whew* This EV training is a grueling process. There must be a faster way to do this...
INTRODUCING THE MACHO BRACE!
The Macho Brace is a hold item that doubles the amount of EVs you gain from a fainted Pokemon. So if you normally get 2 Def EVs from Skarmory, if the Pokemon you use is holding Macho Brace, you gain 4 Def EVs instead. The only downside is that the item decreases your speed, but you don't care anyway.
Another helpful, but random, way to speed the process, is for your Pokemon to receive the PokeRus (did I spell that right?) virus. Lol, it's actually a beneficial virus, applying the same effect as Macho Brace without lowering your speed.
Now here's a thrill:
What if your Pokemon holding the Macho Brace is inflicted with the Virus? Your EVs Double twice. So now you get 8 Def EVs from Skarm. Cool, no?
V. Maximum Leftovers Recovery and HP EVs
So you've got the hang of EVs now. Now there's a couple of other important factors to learn, that mainly apply to pokemon that tank, wall, or use Rest. that's Max Lefties.
To understand this, you must know that Leftovers heals a Pokemon by 1/16th of a Pokemon's HP. So unless your Pokemon's total HP stat is divisible by 16, you won't heal as much as you possibly could (you may also have one more HP than your max lefties point and still get the most out of your leftovers. For example, 400 HP is divisible by 16, acheiving Max Lefties Recovery, but you may use 401 HP and still acheive it, as decimals are exempt from the division). This is not necessarily a setback in all cases, but it's valuable to know.
Here's the Max Leftovers Recovery Stat Totals from 272 HP to what ever Blissey's range covers:
272 288 304 320 336 352 368 384 400 416 432 448 464 480 496 512 528 544 560 576 592 608 624 640 656 672 688 704 720 736
Another important piece of info to know about HP EVs is how they relate to your walls and tanks. Health accounts for most of your defenses, so the more HP you have, less you need to put into your Defense EVs, and the better your pokemon can tank or wall. Skarmory is a prime example. At first, a standard EV spread included 196 HP EVs for a max lefties point, putting the rest in Defense, Attack, and Speed. CBed Fighting types started to hurt it more until a solution was found to give Skamory 252 HP EVs, and easily walls physical attacks better than it could before. Some walls, however, require max HP just becase their base HP stat is pitiful, like Cloyster or Dusclops.
The road to training a pokemon to its max potential is a long and hard one, but you'll competively reap the benefits if you have your EVs right. After that, it's only a matter of gaining and understanding/mastery of breeding, IVs/Pokemon genes, and Natures, and you're on the start to making some of the best teams around.
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Nature's List
By: Synchronize
Specially Made for your Quick Reference. Keep in mind that Non-Neutral Natures gives a 10% boost to one stat, while deducting 10% from another.
Neutral Natures
Bashful Nature (Neutral)
Docile Nature (Neutral)
Hardy Nature (Neutral)
Serious Nature (Neutral)
Quirky (Neutral)
+Attack Natures
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
Lonely Nature (+Atk, -Def)
Naughty Nature (+Atk, -SDef)
+Defense Natures
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
Lax Nature (+Def, -SDef)
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
+Speed Natures
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
+Special Attack Natures
Mild Nature (+SAtk, -Def)
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
+Special Defense Natures
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
Gentle Nature (+SDef, -Def)
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
By Mullet / Twinkies
Table of Contents:
I. Introduction
II. Common Pokemon
III. Threats in the OU Metagame
IV. Building an OU Team
V. Credit Where Credit is Due
Section I. Introduction:
The OU (overused) or Standard metagame refers to the group of Pokemon that are most overused on NetBattle today. Some of this group of Pokemon have base stats that are Uber metagame caliber but have flaws to keep them from being uber such as their stats and or their movepool.
All of the following Pokemon are considered OU at the PokeRealm server:
Aerodactyl
Alakazam
Articuno
Blaziken
Blissey
Breloom
Celebi
Chansey
Charizard
Claydol
Dodrio
Donphan
Dragonite
Dugtrio
Dusclops
Entei
Espeon
Exeggutor
Flygon
Forretress
Gardevoir
Gengar
Gyarados
Heracross
Jirachi
Jolteon
Kingdra
Ludicolo
Magneton
Marowak
Medicham
Metagross
Milotic
Miltank
Moltres
Ninjask
Raikou
Regice
Regirock
Registeel
Rhydon
Salamence
Sceptile
Skarmory
Slaking
Smeargle
Snorlax
Starmie
Suicune
Swampert
Tauros
Tyranitar
Umbreon
Vaporeon
Venusaur
Weezing
Zapdos
Section II. Common Pokemon:
Even though all of the Pokemon listed above are considered OU. Some are more common than others.
High OU Pokemon their most common move sets include:
Blissey (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Aromatherapy
- Seismic Toss
- Softboiled
- Thunder Wave / Ice Beam
Note: If using Ice Beam take around 116 EVs from HP and put them into Satk which will Make standard DD Mence take about 87%-100% damage.
Celebi @ Leftovers
Trait: Natural Cure
EVs: 240 HP / 120 Def / 148 Spd
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
- Baton Pass
- Calm Mind
- Psychic / Hidden Power [Fire / Electric]
- Recover
Note: You will need to adjust it's EVs if using HP [Fire], Celebi needs 300 Speed to outrun non-Jolly Mence.
Donphan (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 252 HP / 96 Atk / 160 Def
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Rapid Spin
- Rest
- Rock Slide
Dugtrio (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Aerial Ace
- Earthquake
- Rock Slide
- Hidden Power [Bug]
Gengar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 196 Atk / 184 Spd / 128 SAtk
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Focus Punch / Hypnosis
- Ice Punch / Fire Punch / Giga Drain
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
Heracross (M) @ Choice Band
Trait: Guts
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spd
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Brick Break
- Hidden Power [Rock]
- Megahorn
- Sleep Talk / Focus Punch
Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 240 HP / 56 Def / 16 Spd / 148 SAtk / 48 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Calm Mind
- Fire Punch
- Psychic
- Wish
Metagross @ Choice Band
Trait: Clear Body
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Def
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Earthquake
- Explosion
- Meteor Mash
- Rock Slide
Milotic (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Marvel Scale
EVs: 212 HP / 172 Def / 68 SAtk / 56 SDef
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
- Hypnosis
- Ice Beam
- Recover
- Surf
Skarmory (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sturdy
EVs: 240 HP / 56 Atk / 196 Def / 16 Spd
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Hidden Power [Flying]
- Rest
- Spikes
- Whirlwind
Snorlax (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Immunity / Thick Fat
EVs: 160 HP / 72 Atk / 136 Def / 140 SDef
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Body Slam
- Curse
- Rest
- Shadow Ball
Swampert (F) @ Leftovers
Trait: Torrent
EVs: 240 HP / 16 Atk / 156 Def / 96 SAtk
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Curse
- Earthquake
- Ice Beam
- Rest
Tyranitar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 44 HP / 240 Atk / 176 Spd / 48 SDef
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
- Dragon Dance
- Earthquake
- Hidden Power [Rock] / Rock Slide
- Taunt
Note: Choose HP [Rock] if you want accuracy over power and chance to flinch. Also if using RS you may take 4 EVs off of Speed (because HP [Rock] gives you only 30 Speed IVs instead of the max of 31 you get without HP [Rock]) and put them into Atk or SDef.
Section III. Threats in the OU Metagame:
Skarmbliss:
Not much of a threat anymore if you know how to counter it. It involves a combination of the Pokemon Skarmory and Blissey to block Physical and Special attacks respectively.
Counters include:
Gengar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Levitate
EVs: 196 Atk / 184 Spd / 128 SAtk
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
- Focus Punch
- Ice Punch
- Substitute
- Thunderbolt
McIceGar
Tyranitar (M) @ Leftovers
Trait: Sand Stream
EVs: 252 HP / 68 Spd / 188 SAtk
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
- Substitute
- Focus Punch
- Thunderbolt
- Crunch
Boah.
Magneton + Choice Bander (Pokemon that holds the item Choice Band) and Dugtrio + a Special attacker:
What is so dangerous about these combos are that they can easily take out a Physical or Special wall and then sweep the rest of your team.
Counters include:
Using your own Dugtrio to try and Trap their Magneton counters the Magneton + CBer and Regice and Snorlax counters the Dugtrio + a special attacker combo.
Heracross:
This guy is such a threat with his high speed and attack. When you give him a Choice Band he becomes even more deadly and he is also able to abuse his Trait Guts, one of the best ways is to switch him into a Hypnosis attack from Milotic and then use Sleep Talk which means that means he get the Choice Band Boost plus the bonus from Guts which makes him one huge pain to kill since he is so fast and can OHKO a lot of things.
Counters include:
Skarmory, or other Pokemon with extremely high Defence.
Jirachi:
Jirachi has a lot of staying power using Calm Mind in conjunction with Wish. This thing hits Pokemon hard with a STAB'd (same type attack bonus) Psychic and for Pokemon that resist Psychic it can use Fire Punch to hit them.
Counters include:
A fast strong physical sweeper that has Earthquake (ie. Dugtrio), a Pokemon that packs Earthquake and high Sp.Def (ie. EQ Snorlax), a strong physical attacker that packs Earthquake (ie. Metagross).
Celebi:
It is just as bad if not worse than Jirachi it has instant healing at it's access
With Recover, and with Calm Mind to increase it's SAtk and SDef it becomes a monstrous Special tank and can stop many things in their tracks. It can pass those Calm Minds to something like Suicune when can then sweep teams. It can also learn Leech Seed to sap your HP away increasing it's staying power, it can also learn Heal Bell to heal the status conditions on your team, which can also help in abusing the move Rest. Also with Natural Cure all those nasty status conditions disappear from Celebi when you switch it out.
Counters include:
Choice Band Dugtrio with HP [Bug] (it does NOT OHKO Celebi, it only does between 85% and 95% damage to standard Celebi. DD Salamence and DD Gyarados with one Dragon Dance can OHKO standard Celebi with HP [Flying].
Spikes:
Spikes is a big threat in the OU Metagame. If three layers of Spikes are laid down then that means that your Pokemon will take 25% damage each time they are sent out. Skarmory abuses it's ability to lay down Spikes with Roar or Whirlwind by shuffling Pokemon in and out causing 25% damage to each Pokemon every time it is dragged out. Forretress is also a very good Spiker, he can also learn Rapid Spin which brings us to the counters.
Counters include:
Any Pokemon that can learn Rapid Spin. Common Spinners include Claydol, Forretress, and Starmie. Watch out for ghost types like Gengar and Dusclops who can block your Rapid Spin so you don't blow the spikes away.
Section IV. Building an OU team:
There are many important guidelines to building a successful OU team:
1) Have one to two Physical Sweepers, try to make them a different type think about Salamence and Dragonite on the same team both are 4x weak to Ice meaning that if at least on of your opponents Pokemon has Ice Beam which is highly likely then both are of your physical sweepers are gone meaning something like Blissey can wall the rest of your team.
2) Have one to two Special Sweepers again try to make them both different types.
3) Have at least on Phazer (something that can use Roar / Whirlwind or Haze to stop another Pokemon from using stat-up moves ie. Skarmory with Roar or Whirlwind or Weezing with Haze). A phazer that uses Roar or Whirlwind can also help with Spikes support.
4) Have at least one Physical wall (something that takes physical hits very well without taking much damage) and one Special wall (something that takes Special hits very well without taking much damage) (ie. Blissey as a special wall and Skarmory as a physical wall).
5) A Spiker (something that can lay Spikes) is a good thing to have but is not necessary.
6) A Rapid Spinner is needed, unless you have Magneton on your team and one layer of Spikes doesn't bother you too much. Which means Magneton can fill the role of a Special Sweeper and Skarmory counter.
7) Have a Cleric (a Pokemon that can use Heal Bell or Aromatherapy to heal status conditions ie. Celebi or Blissey). Most good teams have a Cleric weather it is used to abuse Rest, get rid of bad status conditions or both. A Cleric is a very advantageous thing to have on a competitive OU team.
Note: Many of these categories may overlap (ie. Skarmory as a Spiker and a defensive wall).
Section V. Credit Where Credit is Due and Special Thanks:
Frostweaver: without him I would have never started competitive battling.
Husk1442: Being a good friend, helping me with this guide and helping me learn how to battle competitively.
Groudon80: He helped with listing all of the high OU Pokemon.
Mr. Maser: Helped out with a couple of sets and listing high OU Pokemon.
Leafgreen386: For confirming a couple of damage calculations, and pointing out to me things that I missed.
PokeRealm: For the OU tier list.
Special thanks to the readers: I hope this has helped you better understand the OU metagame.
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Guide To Prediction
By: husk1442
I. Intro
II. Move Sets
III. Timing
IV. Surprise
V. Long Term Thinking
VI. Recording
VII. The Enemy (how to predict)
VIII. Safe Predictions[/center]
IX. Conclusion
X. Real World Application
I. Intro
Prediction is the art of knowing what your opponent will do before they do it. This said, it is obvious that with a good team you can win every game if you know exactly what your opponent will do. This is what separates the good from the mediocre.
II. Move Sets
Knowing standard movesets is key to winning. If you know what your opponent has you can switch to the appropriate counter. Having a good move set is part of prediction. If your metagross has HP:grass then you can predict the switch to Swampert and 2hko it. If you don't have it, you can't. This does not mean you can't predict the switch to Swampert. You can still earthquake on the switch but, your prediction is futile, Swampert isn't being hurt that badly by your efforts. A
III. Timing
Lets say your Zapdos has HP: Ice and its being walled by your opponents Celebi. You probably don't want to HP: ice the celebi on the switch because your prediction will be futile. Yes, you will do more damage than T-bolt but, you won't be killing it. In the future when your opponents will probably send out Salamence or Flygon against your Zapdos thinking you have HP:Grass, then you will be able to ohko it. Timing also refers to lets say: when you reveal to your opponent you have a tyranitar and it knows dragon dance. If you reveal it late game when your opponents counters have died, you will probably win the game.
IV. Surprise
If your opponent doesn't know your set, they can't predict you. Many good players use unorthodox sets and win easily because no one has any idea what they will do. That's not to say standard sets don't have their merits but, everyone gets owned by a Gengar with fire punch every once in a while.
V. Long Term Thinking
Long Term Thinking is knowing what you and your opponent wish to accomplish down the road.
Example:
Team 1 (me): Meta, Pert, Celebi, Starmie
Team 2 (opponent): Zapdos, Milotic, Dugtrio, Snorlax
If my opponent has HP:grass zapdos and I'm holding it off with celebi, I'm pretty sure I don't want to use celebi to wall his milotic incase of a ch. I also don't want to switch celebi into zapdos every time because he might swap to dugtrio quickly. The logical thing to do is to every once in a while absorb a t-bolt with pert and then take the HP: grass with meta. That way he won't swap in dugtrio when I do send out celebi. Now that I have stopped my opponent's long term goal, what is mine?
Mine would probably be to kill dugtrio and beat his team down with Celebi. Another thing I could do is kill snorlax and sweep his team with starmie. Either way it will require a lot of predicted switches. I don't want to try and sweep with meta or pert since he has 3 and 2 counters for them respectively. I could sacrifice pert to bring zapdos into K.O. range and start rolling heads with starmie.
After my opponent's Zapdos is dead, we must think and revise our idea of his strategy. He could just let milotic die and use snorlax+dugtrio to beat my team, which is quite viable. Snorlax curses against starmie and beats on celebi, a predicted dugtrio can take out celebi and metagross. So now the important thing for me to do is to kill his snorlax. So I don't want meta to die as it is my only sure way of killing lax. Since, I don't want it to die I'm not going to randomly switch into snorlax with meta. What I might try to do is:
~Use starmie to kill milotic
~Use celebi to seed snorlax and dick around
~Let dugtrio kill celebi
~Send out meta against the HP:bug'ing dugtrio
~Meteor Mash his snorlax and then either explode if not cb or just keep mashing if I am
~Dugtrio comes in on snorlax's death and kills meta
~Use starmie to beat dugtrio
Seeing as how some logic just turned a bad situation into a good one, your opponent could probably use this same technique against you.
VI. Recording
Writing the HP, moves, and pp of your opponents pokemon in a notepad document is extremely useful. That way you know just how long you need to stall to win, or if your DDtar can sweep yet. Writing everything down means you don't miss a thing and eventually when you get good enough you can estimate their evs based on how fast they are or by how much damage they do.
VII. The Enemy
Standing in your enemies shoes is probably the greatest way to outright know what they will do. Most people don't realize that their opponents don't want to do max damage to their team. Opponents (like you) want to do maximum damage to their opposites team at the lowest risk to themselves. Knowing this, you can know what they will do based on what you would do if you were in their situtation.
VIII. Safe Predictions
A safe prediction is a good one.
For example:
Lets say you use a non-cb meteor mash on regice, bringing it into the red zone. Then you want to use eq because it will kill regice and because if your opponent does switch out they won't be switching to something that will get destroyed by meteor mash. Which probably means something weak to eq if they haven't already sent it out. This will get you a lot of kills.
IX. Conclusion
If you know what, where, and when your opponent will act you win the game. Taking safe predictions is probably the best way to win. Just remember to think about the consequences of your prediction. You obviously don't want to predict a switch and surf when your opponents DD'ed mence is up against your 55% milotic.
X. Real World Application
https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?p=2176546
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Effort Values
By: Synchronize
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. What's an Effort Value?
II. How do I get EVs?
III. Let's EV Train!
IV. Speeding up the Process
V. Maximum Leftovers Recovery and HP Evs
I. What's an Effort Value?
An Effort Value (EV) is the building block of the potential of each individual Pokemon's stats. A Pokemon has a capacity of 510 EVs to split between all 6 of its stats (HP, Atk, Def, Spd, SAtk, and SDef), each having their own capacity of 255 EVs.
II. How do I get EVs?
In-game, battling a specific Pokemon will help your Pokemon gain a certain amount of EVs in a specific stat (and in some cases two stats). That Pokemon must be able to gain EXP. however, and cannot faint.
If you would like to know which Pokemon gives specific EVs, here's the link to a GameFaqs guide that spells it out for you:
https://db.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbad..._ev_points.txt
On Pokemon NetBattle, you can manually mess around with Pokemon EVs in the Team Builder.
III. Let's EV Train!
Ok, it's time to make the most out of your stats, but keep these guidelines in mind:
1) Yes, your pokemon's EVs and Stats will grow, but you won't see the significance of these gains until level 100. Now that you know that, it is required to have 4 EVs to gain 1 point in that specific stat (i.e. If you battle two Marills, you will gain 4 HP EVs, and gain 1 more point in HP once you level up). But like I said, you won't necessarily know the actual change until level 100. So let's say we didn't give a Salamence any speed EVs during training. Once it reaches level 100, it will have a 236 Spd stat. Now what if we had given it 8 Spd EVs? It would've had a 238 Spd stat.
In other words don't mix the fact that you got +8 Spd once your Pokemon leveled up with your actual EVs and Stat totals.
2) Wow, that was a long guideline. Anyways, the next thing you should know is actually branched off from guideline #1 - As mentioned, 4 EVs = 1 point increase in stats. Since you have a capacity for 255 in a stat, the maximum EVs you SHOULD put into a stat is 252, which is divisible by 4.
3) JOT IT DOWN! If you're EV training, it's wise to have a piece of paper, or at least an online EV Tracker, as I doubt you'll count out all 510 EVs iny your head and still remember how many you used within the next 2 minutes.
4) Ever used one of those Proteins, or Irons? These medicines are actually what you should start your EV training with, as for each one you use, it increases its respective stat by 10 EVs. Given that you can use only 10 of each medicine, and still are limited by the 255 and 510 EV limits, you'll be able to increase your EVs by 100 per stat.
5) Make sure to ask around for a good "EV Spread" for the Pokemon your training, otherwise, you might think that a Smeargle needs 252 Def EVs to cover for its low defense, and that's not going to help you.
Other than that, consider breeding first for a good Nature or good IVs (not included in this guide) and get crackin.
IV. Speeding Up the Process
*Whew* This EV training is a grueling process. There must be a faster way to do this...
INTRODUCING THE MACHO BRACE!
The Macho Brace is a hold item that doubles the amount of EVs you gain from a fainted Pokemon. So if you normally get 2 Def EVs from Skarmory, if the Pokemon you use is holding Macho Brace, you gain 4 Def EVs instead. The only downside is that the item decreases your speed, but you don't care anyway.
Another helpful, but random, way to speed the process, is for your Pokemon to receive the PokeRus (did I spell that right?) virus. Lol, it's actually a beneficial virus, applying the same effect as Macho Brace without lowering your speed.
Now here's a thrill:
What if your Pokemon holding the Macho Brace is inflicted with the Virus? Your EVs Double twice. So now you get 8 Def EVs from Skarm. Cool, no?
V. Maximum Leftovers Recovery and HP EVs
So you've got the hang of EVs now. Now there's a couple of other important factors to learn, that mainly apply to pokemon that tank, wall, or use Rest. that's Max Lefties.
To understand this, you must know that Leftovers heals a Pokemon by 1/16th of a Pokemon's HP. So unless your Pokemon's total HP stat is divisible by 16, you won't heal as much as you possibly could (you may also have one more HP than your max lefties point and still get the most out of your leftovers. For example, 400 HP is divisible by 16, acheiving Max Lefties Recovery, but you may use 401 HP and still acheive it, as decimals are exempt from the division). This is not necessarily a setback in all cases, but it's valuable to know.
Here's the Max Leftovers Recovery Stat Totals from 272 HP to what ever Blissey's range covers:
272 288 304 320 336 352 368 384 400 416 432 448 464 480 496 512 528 544 560 576 592 608 624 640 656 672 688 704 720 736
Another important piece of info to know about HP EVs is how they relate to your walls and tanks. Health accounts for most of your defenses, so the more HP you have, less you need to put into your Defense EVs, and the better your pokemon can tank or wall. Skarmory is a prime example. At first, a standard EV spread included 196 HP EVs for a max lefties point, putting the rest in Defense, Attack, and Speed. CBed Fighting types started to hurt it more until a solution was found to give Skamory 252 HP EVs, and easily walls physical attacks better than it could before. Some walls, however, require max HP just becase their base HP stat is pitiful, like Cloyster or Dusclops.
The road to training a pokemon to its max potential is a long and hard one, but you'll competively reap the benefits if you have your EVs right. After that, it's only a matter of gaining and understanding/mastery of breeding, IVs/Pokemon genes, and Natures, and you're on the start to making some of the best teams around.
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Nature's List
By: Synchronize
Specially Made for your Quick Reference. Keep in mind that Non-Neutral Natures gives a 10% boost to one stat, while deducting 10% from another.
Neutral Natures
Bashful Nature (Neutral)
Docile Nature (Neutral)
Hardy Nature (Neutral)
Serious Nature (Neutral)
Quirky (Neutral)
+Attack Natures
Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk)
Brave Nature (+Atk, -Spd)
Lonely Nature (+Atk, -Def)
Naughty Nature (+Atk, -SDef)
+Defense Natures
Bold Nature (+Def, -Atk)
Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk)
Lax Nature (+Def, -SDef)
Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd)
+Speed Natures
Hasty Nature (+Spd, -Def)
Jolly Nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
Naive Nature (+Spd, -SDef)
Timid Nature (+Spd, -Atk)
+Special Attack Natures
Mild Nature (+SAtk, -Def)
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
Quiet Nature (+SAtk, -Spd)
Rash Nature (+SAtk, -SDef)
+Special Defense Natures
Calm Nature (+SDef, -Atk)
Careful Nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
Gentle Nature (+SDef, -Def)
Sassy Nature (+SDef, -Spd)
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