How far does your competitive battling knowledge extend?

[Ho-Oh]

Are you somebody who memorises the base stats of all the Pokemon in a certain tier? Do you know type match-ups well? Do you know what all the natures do? Can you safely predict if a certain attack will 2HKO or OHKO a certain Pokemon? (No, this isn't a listing question, it's just generally name what you do know). Those are a few questions to get you started, you can discuss other things too.

And as a side question, did you learn most of the things you know through experience or through reading up on facts/theory? And! Do you know the terminology well, as in MixMence, SubSplit, etc - and if so did you learn it via experience or by reading a resource of some sort?

Either way, share how far your knowledge extends!

 

[vaporeon7]

I am one of those (crazy) people who likes to memorise everything, about every Pokemon ever. I know my type matchups perfectly. And I guess after over 10 years, I should know them off by heart. I can almost safely predict if an attack will OHKO/2HKO another Pokemon, but there are always those people who put weird EV spreads on Pokemon, just to make my life hard. I know pretty much what tier every Pokemon fits into, their usual movesets, abilities, etc. I usually get all my knowledge for either hours of reading Bulbapedia and Smogon. And I'm pretty good when it comes to terminology, again, a lot of it is common-sense and the rest is looking through the Pokemon's pages and the dictionary on Smogon.

 

[Conjurer]

I'm fairly familiar with all tiers except for NU, and I specialize in OU and UU. No, I don't memorize the base stats of everything (except for Speed), but I do have a general idea what to expect (and what not to expect) from my opponent.

I like to think that I have perfect knowledge about type matchups, and it does seem to be true.

I've memorized the common natures (Jolly, Adamant, Timid, Impish, Bold, etc.) but there are some beyond my reach.

No, I can't really safely predict that unless I ran a calc on the scenario before (or experienced it firsthand).

I don't actually spend hours on Smogon, I use it only if I'm really stumped on something, and even then I like to modify the sets to fit my team's needs. Although I do like tearing off bits and pieces from other people's RMTs and build a team around it (mind you, it's not stealing :P). So I guess it's a pretty equal combination of both, for both strategy and terminology.

 

[PlatinumDude]

I know most, if not all, the Pokemon's strengths and weaknesses, as well as which other Pokemon they work well with. I also memorize their base stats and their preferred natures for their move sets.

I learned a good chunk of my competitive battling knowledge from Serebii and Smogon. I know what most of the meta terminology was just by reading about them.

 

[Impo]

close to none, but I am getting better with prediction these days :D

 

[honorum646]

I like to think I'm good at team-building. I'm able to take an idea I have and make it into an eligible playing team. (Such as my recent Multi-hit attack team).

 

[ObeyMudkips]

I know most of the common sets for Pokemon in the OU and Uber Tiers, thus making me able to predict what comes next. I also know what all the natures do.

I learned this all from experience.

 

[Pokemaster1993]

I've been knowing how to EV train and IV breed, natures, etc. since I was 12 years old (Around July/August 2007). In 4th gen, my competitive team was pretty good, I usually only played OU. I had a UU team though, and it was beast. I based my sets off of Smogon, but made some minor changes here and there to the movepools.

I have never played 5th gen competitively before, and I don't plan to.

 

[Ooka]

First my base stat knowledge isn't great at all, not good with numbers.

I know almost all of the terminology (If not all), I know all of my types, I know what all the natures do. I can generally guess around how much an attack will do, just from battling and seeing damage output so much.

All of my knowledge is just gained from years of reading through RMTs, Analyses, Serebii, and experience. 5 years of dedicated knowledge, and another 4 of in-game stuff.

 

[xiodinex]

I know all my terminology, tiers and match-ups.

I don't memorise all the base stats exactly, but I know roughly which stat a Pokémon excels at, their frequently run movesets and common counters. I also like to know which Pokémon are "in" atm, as people tend to have crazes over certain Pokémon (like Dragonite atm, and Excadrill before that).

 

[AlphaMightyena]

Not much, I have to say. I know about Base Stats, every type advantage/ disadvantage, EV's IV's, personal natures, special abilities, most pokemon movesets, and Items/berries.

Whenever I don't know anything I try to look it up online.

 

[Oathblade]

I know all characteristics some natures and I know all weaknesses and strengths great at building teams. But I have no idea what a tier is-_-

 

[Vrai]

I know just about everything that there is to know because I'm a nerd. :( Experience is also by far the best resource you can get - unless you have an insane memory, I don't think reading and reading is going to get everything in your head the way it should be.

 

[Volcanix769]

Somewhat, I beat Random Matchup Single battles 47 times because I EV train and put a variety of Pokemon, but I sometimes lose because I over predict.

 

[NothingPersonal]

If I spend enough time in a tier, I start to get the idea, and after a while of battling, I start getting a tiny bit better and memorize some of the common pokemon. OU and Ubers are easy tiers to start in, everything's pretty obvious (Weather wars and large dragons attacking each other), but in the lower tiers, you can be creative with pokemon sets, making it harder to predict. I don't memorize EVERY pokemon, but I just 'wing' it and see how things go. Lower tiers are definitely more fun, especially with the addition of LU/RU.

 

[miltankRancher]

Type match-ups are pretty easy to know. I am playing Pokemon (though not competitively) for almost eight years now, and I know which attacks are super effective and what not.

During my time in PO, I usually predicts correctly, especially when it comes to switch-ins, moves. Critical hits are, as always, unexpected. I fairly know a bit about movesets my opponents are running, though a few gimmick sets usually threw me off track. I use gimmick sets sometimes.

I learned this through smogon, youtube. Only a tiny percentage of my battling skills came from real experience.

 

[Sensui]

I've never actually tried competitive battling, so I'm useless for predicting, unless it's obvious, and tiers.

What I do know, is to NEVER give someone a chance to set up their wall or sweeper. I guess if you had predicted it you'd have the perfect counter, but otherwise they can wreck your whole team easily.

Like I said, I've never tried, but what I have used in the Battle Subway is a Sigilyph that held the Flame Orb (it had Magic Guard), and its attacks were:

Roost
Cosmic Power
Stored Power/Air Slash
(That move that passes special conditions along)

The idea was to give them a burn, or poison if you wanted, then use Cosmic Power to become a wall and Roost to recover lost health. Stored Power will do massive damage because of your stat boosts, but Air Slash can hit anything.

I forgot the EVs and nature, it's actually been a while to be honest. :*