Battling styles

[WingedDragon]

I know there are a variety of battle styles from very offensive to very bulky and everything in between.

The style that Id like to play is very offensive. Hit fast and hard as possible. However. I get walled by basically anything reasonably bulky or Trick Room.

So I guess my question is can I be hyper offensive or do I need to adopt more of a mixed style

 

[WolfAndSheep]

I generally working with well rounded teams of tanky Pokemon and offensive sweepers with custom EV spreads and like to work out what builds will work most effectively vs common threats. My favourite teams usually end up being primarily made up sponges / tanks that can take a hit from anything offensive (So they specialise in either HP or one of the defensive stats and then an attacking stat, sacrificing speed - and I like having status inflictors like Wil-O-Wisp and/or a recovery move) but I like running offensive stuff alongside them to balance it out. I'm always quite happy to fodder off one of the slow tanks when they've done their job and are on low HP so I get the free switch for a revenge killing sweeper. So I tend to like Pokemon like Slowbro, Multiscale Dragonite, Goodra, and Ferrothorn for some examples off the top of my head. And I'll pair them with fast things like Greninja, Talonflame and Alakazam or something that can use set up when my opponent makes a bad switch anything that can learn Dragon Dance. I don't really care for outright walls relying on toxic stall. I find that very boring to work with, but I quite like playing against it because it's so dumb to try to beat.

I like playing singles, so stuff that cripples a threat and/or makes my opponent want to waste their turn with a switch pre-emptively is a point in my favour. I've always believed that a lot of singles is based around prediction and knowing when to and when to not switch Pokemon out rather than going full damage with a team of fast sweepers / revengers.

I'd recommend mostly using balanced teams with some offensive, some defense and status inflicting skills or just anything frighten an opponent into switching badly in singles. You can run a team full of hyper offense - it does work, but you'll likely encounter some problems if your opponent knows how to cripple you well enough or stop you OHKOing them.

 

[WingedDragon]

I generally working with well rounded teams of tanky Pokemon and offensive sweepers with custom EV spreads and like to work out what builds will work most effectively vs common threats. My favourite teams usually end up being primarily made up sponges / tanks that can take a hit from anything offensive (So they specialise in either HP or one of the defensive stats and then an attacking stat, sacrificing speed - and I like having status inflictors like Wil-O-Wisp and/or a recovery move) but I like running offensive stuff alongside them to balance it out. I'm always quite happy to fodder off one of the slow tanks when they've done their job and are on low HP so I get the free switch for a revenge killing sweeper. So I tend to like Pokemon like Slowbro, Multiscale Dragonite, Goodra, and Ferrothorn for some examples off the top of my head. And I'll pair them with fast things like Greninja, Talonflame and Alakazam or something that can use set up when my opponent makes a bad switch anything that can learn Dragon Dance. I don't really care for outright walls relying on toxic stall. I find that very boring to work with, but I quite like playing against it because it's so dumb to try to beat.

I like playing singles, so stuff that cripples a threat and/or makes my opponent want to waste their turn with a switch pre-emptively is a point in my favour. I've always believed that a lot of singles is based around prediction and knowing when to and when to not switch Pokemon out rather than going full damage with a team of fast sweepers / revengers.

I'd recommend mostly using balanced teams with some offensive, some defense and status inflicting skills or just anything frighten an opponent into switching badly in singles. You can run a team full of hyper offense - it does work, but you'll likely encounter some problems if your opponent knows how to cripple you well enough or stop you OHKOing them.

I run VGC doubles, but I can guess it could apply to doubles too

 

[WolfAndSheep]

I don't play doubles much, but by my own experience doubles is a lot less reliant on forcing switching out because you can double attack something that would otherwise threaten you into forcing your opponent to switch, and it's a lot more about knowing how to switch your own Pokemon out appropriately vs a threat on the field (ofc you need to do this in singles too though). Then there's the addition that you can double target any threat if you want to get rid of it immediately and it's a bit tankier so tanks can possibly be rendered useless. Using sweepers in doubles probably works really well if they have a partner that can make up for their shortcomings. My own battling style would probably lead me to using something with a status inflictor and/or recovery move as the partner to a sweeper, so your opponent gets frightened by the fast damage dealer initially and overlooks its less damaging opponent and probably accidentally takes the Wil-O-Wisp or whatever. I would say that running two fast hard hitting squishies next to each other on a team of squishies while it's scary to face for your opponent initially, as soon as you take out one of his Pokemon he'll have the free switch and can revenge kill your most threatening squishy or bring out a check to it at the very least.

Doubles is trickier because there are so many more variables x_x but yeah, I guess balance is better.

 

[Nah]

You can go hyper offensive if you want. All the of major playstyles (hyper offense, bulky offense, balance, semi-stall, and stall) are arguably viable, and different playstyles are going to appeal to different people. Balance is the most commonly used and recommended style by other people because balance is possibly the easiest style to build a team for and use, and there's probably this notion floating around that balance means you have everything covered and have no weaknesses, though I don't think that's really true.

Though the thing is with the metagame this generation, no matter what your team is, you're probably going to struggle against certain 'mons and/or team archetypes because that's what happens with an enormous list of creatures to choose from and the ever-encroaching power creep. Though I think that you issue with bulky teams is more you lacking suitable wallbreakers/plans or dealing with bulky shit than anything else. Trick Room teams are harder for faster or more offensively inclined teams to deal with though since Trick Room is essentially an anti-offense strategy.

Though idk how in doubles anyone could run semi-stall or stall....