Darvan Korematsu

Well here we are. The name’s Darv, and I’m here to show YOU guys one of the most popular, unspoken formats of battle on Reborn. The format I am here to discuss today is the Video Game Championship format, or VGC for short. The season usually updates with every year or every game, leaving us currently at the VGC 15 format (for 2015 no duh). I am probably the freshest soul there is on Reborn that’s willing to explain this wonderful format, and hopefully you guys will read up and follow in suit and maybe one day we could appreciate this cool format. What I intend to do in this thread is provide the rules and bans, and provide basic pro tips and guides for you guys as to what can and can’t work, and what to might expect. These are designed for those who both wanna get involved in the VGC format, as well as polish up on it if you need to. Without further ado, let us begin. THE GLORIOUS VGC What sets this format apart from most of the other formats you know is foremost the strategy and mindset of most other formats you have ever played. The most important factor separating VGC from other popular formats such as the usual tiered play, Random Battles, and Little Cup, is the fact that all battles are Double Battles, with four Pokemon allowed to the battle and there is no bargaining chip around it. All Pokemon are suggested for use at Level 50, as that is the standard level cap. Each battle always begins with the Team Preview where you are allowed to view the opponent’s entire team, and select your four Pokemon to use based on the scrutiny of your opponent’s team. Take most of what you’ve known about Singles and throw it out the window for the most part. THE BANLIST The actual VGC does not follow Smogon’s usual rules for the most part. This means a small number of Ubers will be allowed in the matches. However do not pine over that, because those tiers were purely designed for Singles play, and anything goes for the most part in Doubles. Although the VGC has still deemed extremely unfair in one way or another. Banned Items: Soul Dew Banned Pokemon (all forms): Mewtwo, Mew, Lugia, Ho-oh, Celebi, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Phione, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus, Victini, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Keldeo, Meloetta, Genesect, Xerneas, Yvetal, Zygarde, Diancie. - Standard Species Clause (No 2 same Pokemon allowed) - Standard Item Clause (No 2 same items allowed) - Pentagon Rule (Irrelevant on Showdown): This rule is a 3DS deal, verifying that a Pokemon was bred, obtained, or in some way caught in X/Y/OR/AS. Although this means certain combinations, particularly on legendaries, are impossible, such as Defog Latias/Latios. GENERAL TIPS One thing you rookies I cannot never stress is enough, is just because a Pokemon is absolutely amazing in Singles, does not mean it will do the same in Doubles. Traditionally what people try to do in VGC instead of beating face in like most Singles plays, is find a way to cripple the opponent, whether through status or speed control. The first thing you should do when building a team is to have a theme in mind, and build around the gaps the theme does or does not fill. For instance, adding a Mega Swampert if you want to run Politoed with Rain, or run Chlorophyll Venusaur with a Charizard Y. Synergy is King/Queen in VGC. Another general tip of VGC is to not always invest in standard 252/252/x EV spreads, and sometimes 6 perfect IVs will not always work. Sometimes the nature of your Pokemon and IVs can be tailored to work to your advantage to work. For instance, if you have a very slow Pokemon on your team, such as Aegislash or Mawile, use a speed lowering nature instead of crappy attacking lowering natures, because of things such as Trick Room out of the blue, which can turn a battle into your favor. Sometimes on your Pokemon you want to survive hits, Defenses and HP investments are usually recommended. Although stick to your Pokemon’s strengths preferably, rather than covering their weakness. Don’t be afraid of variety. This is another huge aspect of VGC. Your team is all you have. There is no PC or access point to change up any of your weak links. Your team should be designed as a catch-all safety net without stretching itself too thin and break itself. Even if you specialize in one thing, such as weather or Trick Room, don’t forget those plans can fail, and often will if your opponent is prepared and can accurately predict your moves. VGC STAPLES This is self-explanatory. Every VGC team should run something along these lines in one way or another to net. Of course you’re not freaking Superman, so don’t think you can cover all of these staple points. These are more often than not, carried on one team. Protect - This move is easily the best move the VGC has to offer, and EVERY Pokemon in your party that isn’t hindered by this move, should learn it, unless its sole purpose is to get in, do its thing, and die. This move is perfect for scouting, predictions, accumulating chip damage, and luring away your opponents for an opening. Status (Burn/Sleep/Paralysis) – Again, one of the biggest points of VGC is to cripple your opponent by any practical way necessary. These methods can include Will-o-Wisp, Thunder Wave, Spore/Sleep Powder, or carrying a Prankster to choke out your opponent. Remember, the VGC is about strategy, and beating face with little strategy will surely tear you down real quickly. Priority (Non-Speed Control) – Regardless if your Pokemon is slow or fast, beating your opponent to the punch is important in any format. Usually either killing your opponent or netting the turn you need to get your combo pieces off, Priority in one way or another should be fitted on a team in one way or another. The most common ways of Priority come with Fake Out, Sucker Punch, and Priority. Priority (Speed Control) – Completely different from regular priority moves, when you think them, getting out the gate quicker than your opponent is usually better in VGC. Simple methods can include increasing your speed, decreasing your opponent’s speed, or screwing them out of it in one way or another. Increasing your speed can usually be done through Tailwind, which a large number of VGC-viable Pokemon can learn. Decreasing your opponent’s speed can be obtained by Paralysis and Icy Wind. Or the final method of speed control can be flipped through use of Trick Room, thus crippling your opponent. Intimidate/Intimidate Counters – Often times, one way to cripple your opponent is to soften their attacks, often through Intimidate, and select Pokemon that can learn Snarl, giving less bite to a Pokemon’s bark. Vice-versa, the abilities Defiant and Competitive can counter this, and in fact turn it to their advantage, giving a free +1/+2 off of what was originally a check/counter. Spread Moves – To specify, this implies moves such as Earthquake, Explosion, Discharge, Heat Wave, Hyper Voice and Rock Slide. Sometimes picking off Pokemon one by one just isn’t good enough, and you need to more quickly get rid of multiple Pokemon in one go. Move-Jamming – All of the staples listed so far are all usually achieved through the use of status moves, which requires wishful thinking with appropriate counters. And as such, the moves Taunt and Encore, although more often Taunt, are good ways of crippling your opponent than crippling you, or locking your opponent. Often, your combo pieces with status are rendered about as harmful as a crumpled piece of paper otherwise when Taunted or Encored. Mega Pokemon – Lemme put it like this: I have yet to see a team that does not carry a Mega Evolution. Megas are just so much better when paired up to most teams, and I’ll leave it at that. COMMON VGC TEAMS AND CORES When I say common, I don’t mean that you’ll see these with every 3-4 battles, although when you see appropriate Pokemon that could inhibit such conditions, you’ll know immediately that is the central glue to the team. Sun Team – Usually if you see Charizard, literally more than 99% of the time, said Charizard is running Charizardite Y, because Y is more commonly used for weather setting purposes to check Water types, and is generally used more often than X. Often when you see Charizard, you may see Venusaur too. Almost always, said Venusaur will not be Mega, and have Chlorophyll, which turns the formerly slow Venusaur into a monster, capable of outspeeding the majority of unboosted Pokemon in VGC, which is way scarier with its Sleep Powder than one may imagine. Rain Team – If you see Politoed, it always has Drizzle, unless the owner is just a dumb person and forgets to add that ability. Rain is the literal ying-yang to sun in VGC. More often than not, you’ll see either a Ludicolo or Swampert on the same team. Both Pokemon serve the exact same purpose as Venusaur with their weather speed-boosting abilities, and being able to beat the opponent to the punch. Trick Room – Trick Room teams are usually easy to spot, but a little hard to detect the setter than Rain or Sun, because there is no auto-setter for them like Rain or Sun. The most common Trick Room setters you may see are Cresselia, Jellicent, and other slow Pokemon that can be considered of “otherworldly” typing (usually Psychics or Ghost types). Trick Room is easy to spot when you see a lot of Pokemon that can never be considered speed demons by themselves. Examples of popular options include Mawile, Aegislash, Sylveon, and Conkeldurr. Sand Team – The rarest of the listed teams so far, Tyranitar is a telltale sign of sand, and Excadrill just only reinforces this. The point of this team is using the bulk of Tyranitar with increased Special Defense and the Sand Rush of Excadrill to quickly dispose of select opponents under the sand, while being immune to chip damage. Perish Trap – If you guys don’t remember what got Mega Gengar banned to Ubers, this is what dropped the hammer. Basically one uses Perish Song and Gengar Mega Evolves, and stall until the two Pokemon of your opponent faint. This is a relatively hard combo to pull off, and not all Gengars hold Gengarite in the VGC. (Focus Sash is usually the preferred item). COMMON VGC THREATS Lots of Pokemon are used in VGC, and more often than not are either good in on themselves, or are checks and counters to the Pokemon in on itself. Here are a few Pokemon that are used a lot in VGC as well as their reasons. The list changes, and is consistent only on the 3DS, but much logic can be applied to the select threats below, which are commonly seen on teams. http://3ds.pokemon-gl.com/battle/oras/107/#double MY SAMPLE TEAM For you new guys, I'll throw out the first team I ever made for VGC, and still use it often to this day, and give some good reasons to my selections. AT A GLANCE Again, even my own team has weaknesses. Although don't be fazed at all by the intimidation of massive variety to VGC. Do your own thing and make it work. I'm currently working on a Mega Sceptile team for instance. Nothing is unviable in VGC, it's just what you have to work with it. Hope you guys learned a little bit about the official tournament format. And if you want, I can battle you on the server, or you can PM me for any select questions you have about the VGC format. Hope you guys enjoy, and I'll see you on the circuit.

Half-full always unless you're a damn nihilist. Do you have a weird kink to you?

Banned for snitching.

So what you're saying is hippies and tree huggers?

Tfw Intensity intensifies.

How about a Speed-Boost Baton Passer core with Mega Heracross or similar. See what you can make with that.

9/10. Nice looking Skarm.

3/10. It reminds me of Nichijou, which was 2weird4me.

12/17 If it were an awesome Sanik, I'd rate it a 66/20.

Banned for hating on people who don't make trainer cards.

A general rule of thumb I would suggest is trying to avoid secondhand consoles, but the 3DS especially. Amazon is usually the best site to order these consoles off of, and reviews are generally not full of ass-kissers. I bought a Luigi's Mansion special blue regular 3DS off Amazon new back in October of last year, and the thing was a decent piece of machinery. One thing I do warn is the triggers. They are notorious for wearing out real easily. Mind wore out in April and Nintendo was nice enough to replace them for free when I sent it in, since I was under warranty. The 2DS and New 3DS might be your best bets for getting a 3DS imo. And try to stick with new with these things, because they aren't tanks like the Game Boy Advance was. I still got mine, and it works amazingly.

Aaaaannnndddd the award goes to Hilda for 1-upping any response I had for Black and White. Yep that's right. The Black and White series as a whole, because even the elements from the first game lingered well into the second one. BW the original version was my favorite for a lot of reasons, starting with Team Plasma. Where Team Galactic was a group of reckless badasses, Rocket was a group of thugs, and Magma, Aqua, and Flare all had very misguided goals, Team Plasma, at least on the surface and in BW (not BW2) had a believeable and even sympathetic goal to them, and even the grunts thought they were helping. Everyone except Ghetsis (you dick) thought their goal was pure, and EVEN FROGGIN N thought he was gonna help the word as Plasma's "king". Secondly, BW was the biggest grassroots movement that Pokemon ever had, to remind people that Pokemon could be as fresh and relevant by making an entirely new cast of Pokemon, very much like RBY where you had to figure out the 150 Pokemon, with 150 different ideas. The rivals were believeable and easy to relate to, the Gym Leaders were pulled out of their marble thrones the Leaders prior always seemed stuck to them, and even interacted and helped you usually quite a lot, and even made the gameplay a little deeper. (Here's to you Burgh, Elesa, and Clay). I liked how they diverged from the usual Champion crap you had to go through, and even commence in a fight of legends where two fabled beasts of old duke it out for supremacy. Then the fk you the game throws with the actual final boss before the post-game. (Alder is not techincally the "champion" of BW on the first E4 grind.) Again the music was amazing and appropriate. Never has it felt so right listening to Gym Battle music like the original BW's, except maybe RSE's. The game also incorporated dark themes and feelings of hopelessness, something I've never felt in any Pokemon game prior to it, nor since, in any storyline. The game was by all means stunning and I'll never understand why people EVER hated on BW. It was the fresh resurfacing of Pokemon after a stale run of somewhat mediocre titles, much like Frozen with Disney. Yup BW was where it was at.

To clarify. All 6 Pokemon at least in the first Gym would match the type, assuming Jacob's gonna do the 6v6 Leader system like Reborn and Rejuv, but after that, only 5 would match the type, and the 6th is the Gym guy's Ace, which I'm just throwing out a progressing Duskull. If you've noticed in rematches in Reborn, like Fern, Cain, Victoria, etc. Their whole team could be altered, except they have that one Pokemon that's always been there, regardless of the changes, like Fern kept his Serperior, Cain his Nidoking, and Victoria her Emblar.

You know, I picked up a few small things about King Dedede that could make him deadly. For instance, the Down tilt does a good job at reflecting Gordos that were reflected at you once, particularly at midrange and usually netting a free hit on an unsuspecting person, because if close, you won't react quickly enough and too far, the Gordo disappears. Also his quick combo. The 1-2 hammer spinny thing. If you catch your opponent when they're close enough in the "1-2" motion, you can Down Smash quite often on most characters, and sometimes netting a KO. Just the little things mate.

@Omega. Try this one on for size @Sonikku. We need to bring them here for this If someone could find me a flaming Sanik or Shedew riding a motorcycle doing a wheelie, I'll give 750 Rupees.

Pbood, what I thought would be a cool idea was, if you remember correctly how each gym has the guy telling you about the Gym and some strengths and weaknesses? What I envisioned is what if the guy could battle you as a prelude, just so you have an idea what to expect, and turn him into a pseudo-rival. By sets, I meant he would change his team each Gym with the majority representing the Gym's type, exception to an Ace, which I suggested could be a Duskull steadily becoming a Dusknoir, since the first Gym is a Ghost one. It was my attempt to get something a little better than average generic trainer and a way I thought could make the game even more original.

Also here's some more music I'll throw out there that's a little better than the first batch for all the admins.

Well that's some pretty nice reasons you post for your ten favorite mons in OU, and those are similar to what I'll say, but here goes. 10. Suicune - I don't give a big rat's ass what people think leaves this thing down in UU. It's my favorite RestTalker in the whole game, and can easily back it up, albeit with gimmicky sets in OU. Suicune's not the best, but it's sure as hell a cut above the rest. 9. Mega Altaria - One of my favorite designed Pokemon, which I used in BW2 on my first time, absolutely blew me away when the puff of cotton candy got a Mega Evolution. It got so many damn buffs and stood alone with so much utility in OU, but I kinda hate it for not being used more since it's easily one of the best Megas we have. 8. Landorus-Therian - I hate Lando-T with a passion, particularly on the recieving end. I hate it having only one or two decent sets, unlike it's jank Uber Incarnate counterpart. Other than that, the thing is a sexy neko beast with cloud feet. 7. Mega Metagross - One of the few Pokemon that was still amazing without a Mega Evolution, but was nearly broke as fuck in early ORAS. Mega Metagross was so good it got a suspect test for Ubers, but was turned down, because people were smart to avoid jumping the bandwagon like a certain sword and jackal Pokemon. 6. Heatran - Would be much higher on my personal list if not ABOUT EVERYONE used this damn thing. It's great, but I hate it 'cause too many love it (see below for similarity). 5. Cloyster - I still see this baby in OU, although not as much as Heatran. I never understood why this Pokemon got demoted to OU when it was easily the best Shell Smasher in the game. Shell Smash is what made me love this Pokemon. Skill Link was gravy. 4. Chansey - I like this Pokemon more for the people who bring the brass balls to use this thing, which I will argue is a much better UU Pokemon. 3. Garchomp - Most of the same reasons shared with Heatran (see above). But Garchomp is a Pokemon with so much more option than Heatran to me, as well as speedier and a better tank. Especially when you don't die to every Earthquake, you're doing something right. 2. Mega Lopunny - One of the most straightforward and advantageous Mega Pokemon there is, and it's simplicity and sheer face-beating stats are what win it out to OU. 1. Clarice. A.K.A Breloom - Spore + Mach Punch + Technician + Sash = Heavy amounts of salt. I have nothing else to say about Breloom.

Banned for being the second spot below a pseudo ban-chainer.

Aye Jacob, also of you want, I can come up with sets for Gym guy as each Gym progresses. Cause yeh know, still waitin and stuff.

And I have a cunning vacuum cleaner. It's to suck up your sanity. You won't be needing it here. Also here's some Vladimir Putin humor. Just enjoy it. I am Darvan, your trash man. I'll be sorting out garbage as you need be. Enjoy yourself and I'll see you around.