Help Beginning VCG player

The Last Shaymin

Floof
Member
Hi, shaymin here, I am looking to get into competetive VCG

I got a fresh copy of ultra moon and a subscription to pokemon bank

I know the basics about EV's and IV's

But I need help learning basically everything else.

I read the breeding article and the EV/IV article

Any tips?

basic teams, etc?
 

Blakers

Holder of the Holy Diamond!
Member
@The Last Shaymin are you pursuing Singles, or VGC? Spikes isn’t really viable in VGC, but stall teams with entry hazards can have potential in singles.
 

The Last Shaymin

Floof
Member
I've got an Aegislash based on the smogon vcg18 with ghostium Z

anything that compliments it?

so far my strategy is to catch the pokemon in pokemon X, super train it, level it up, transfer it to sun, use bottle caps, and finally put it in ultra moon.

any way better than this?
 

GamePhoenix

Fellow Mortal
Member
I've got an Aegislash based on the smogon vcg18 with ghostium Z

anything that compliments it?

so far my strategy is to catch the pokemon in pokemon X, super train it, level it up, transfer it to sun, use bottle caps, and finally put it in ultra moon.

any way better than this?
Only thing I can say is if you plan on playing competitively, the Pokemon have to be captured in Alola.
 

Blakers

Holder of the Holy Diamond!
Member
It’s impossible to send stuff back in generations, I’m sorry but it looks like you’ll have to settle for Alola’s breeding and EV training methods.
 

Attix

Electric Delivery Driver from Washington
Member
How do I even train in alola then? Any tips?

Go to Poni Grove, find a rustling bush, save next to it, then trigger encounters until you get a Chansey. Then, SOS chain for Chanseys. That's how you get levels.

For EVs, first get the six bands (Weight, Bracer, Belt, Lens, Band, and Anklet) from the Battle Royale Dome, then go out and find the following Pokémon for each stat. You get double EVs from each backup Pokémon that is summoned. That means a minimum of 18 EVs from each one. Just do this until trained to satisfaction, then either run or wipe 'em all out. Note that you MUST use Adrenaline Orbs in order to SOS chain in USUM.

  • HP: Wailmer (Seafolk Village)
  • Attack: Yungoos (Route 1 or Verdant Cave)
  • Defense: Alolan Geodude (Route 12)
  • Sp. Attack: Psyduck (Sandy Cave)
  • Sp. Defense: Tentacool (anywhere)
  • Speed: Zubat (Verdant Cave or Sandy Cave)
 

The Last Shaymin

Floof
Member
Go to Poni Grove, find a rustling bush, save next to it, then trigger encounters until you get a Chansey. Then, SOS chain for Chanseys. That's how you get levels.

For EVs, first get the six bands (Weight, Bracer, Belt, Lens, Band, and Anklet) from the Battle Royale Dome, then go out and find the following Pokémon for each stat. You get double EVs from each backup Pokémon that is summoned. That means a minimum of 18 EVs from each one. Just do this until trained to satisfaction, then either run or wipe 'em all out. Note that you MUST use Adrenaline Orbs in order to SOS chain in USUM.

  • HP: Wailmer (Seafolk Village)
  • Attack: Yungoos (Route 1 or Verdant Cave)
  • Defense: Alolan Geodude (Route 12)
  • Sp. Attack: Psyduck (Sandy Cave)
  • Sp. Defense: Tentacool (anywhere)
  • Speed: Zubat (Verdant Cave or Sandy Cave)
Thanks! This is very helpful
 

double o squirtle

Sweet Summer Child
Member
Speed: Zubat (Verdant Cave or Sandy Cave)
Don't Zubat have supersonic? You'd be better or chaining A Rattata if you have moon or A diglett.

There are no "meta teams" per say, but there are Pokemon who are fairly common in the format. Probably the two most popular Pokemon rn are Incineroar and landorus. Both of them have intimidate, a nice movepool, and great stats, so I'd advise using one of those two. (Note: Incineroar should have intimidate, which was a bank giveaway. Idk if the giveaway is still going but I have multiple breedject littens if you need some.)

If you shoot me a message on discord I could give you some more help on teams. It's a lot easier to message people for me and I'm almost always on. :p
 

StarChar

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Here is a link to a team that I personally enjoy in the VGC format right now. This website is called trainer tower and is "the hub" for VGC outside of Smogon and Twitter. This website also has good guides for breeding, EV training, and other basics to help ease you into the scene. All articles that have teams usually come with a pastebin, and QR code for Pokemon Showdown and USUM respectively.
https://trainertower.com/big-mama-top-8-roanoke-regional-team-report/

There is a website called VGCstats. https://vgcstats.com/#/ This is the best website to track tournament usage of pokemon. It doesn't have team articles but it tracks the meta extremely well, and has a list of teams that topped all events from Midseason Showdowns to Internats.

There are YouTubers that people like to watch such as CybertronVGC, and James Baek. Both of these players are very well respected in the community.
https://www.youtube.com/user/CybertronProductions
https://www.youtube.com/user/JamesWBaek

I hope that these sources can help you in your journey of learning VGC as they helped me when I used to play a lot. I'm definitely open to any questions that you may have as well.
 

j2y8n2x

Aspiring Trainer
Member
There's also another website called Pikalytics
It has the statistics of most Pokemon, like:
1. % of users who used a specific Pokemon.
2. % of that species of Pokemon with a certain move, ability and item
3. Common teammates of that Pokemon.
 

Collin

Aspiring Trainer
Member
There's also another website called Pikalytics
It has the statistics of most Pokemon, like:
1. % of users who used a specific Pokemon.
2. % of that species of Pokemon with a certain move, ability and item
3. Common teammates of that Pokemon.

I haven't used it in a while, but I agree, Pikalytics is very neat.
 
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