Which metagame do you participate in?

[DCM]

Any competitive Pokemon fan knows there's a couple different ways to play Pokemon competitively, including Smogon, VGC and Battle Spot. Which do you participate in? Which do you build your teams for?

 

[Left_4_TF2]

Re: What metagame do you participate in?

Battle spot and singles 6vs6 with no restrictions for the most part, however, I have participated in doubles and triple battles a few times either with a partner or by myself.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

Re: What metagame do you participate in?

Those of you who know me know that I'm Smogonite through and through, here's my brief justification: I believe that Smogon provides the metagame most conducive to high level strategic play (not tht VGC isn't competitive, but gimmicks and uncompetitive things like evasion-spam, Dark Void spam, timestall, etc, while not exatly hard to deal with by a good player, are allowed in VGC and hinder the competitiveness of the meta by allowing players to force the RNG to play a larger role in matches. Don't even get me started on Battle Spot, though, who thought things like Blaziken, Mega Gengar, and Mega Kangaskhan were good ideas? Talk about overcentralized xD)and that its tiering system allows for the usage of Pokémon who would never even be considered for use in Nintendo's one-tier format (for instance Butterfree can be used to some success in NU but packing him on a VGC or Battle Spot team essentially puts you down 5-6 at Team Preview).

 

[TerraTF]

Yeah. I picked Smogon so you can just re-read everything GB said for me. Just a more balanced game tbh. If I wanted to play without any rules I'd play Ubers. And I don't play Ubers.

Can't stand Battle Spot since no one knows what they're doing.

VGC is just a little too pretentious of a community for me.

 

[Team Gaara]

Not entirely too sure. I guess I technically play Battle Spot and I guess Smogon since I play Showdown sometimes. Perhaps Other is the best choice, since most of my battles come from PSS~

 

[Farfetchd the Vigilante]

Smogon mostly :3

The tier system really is great! You can use a pokemon you want to use, even if it's absolute shit in OU. Farfetch'd , I'm looking at you..

Also after seeing the shit at the world Champs Master Division with Spore Amoongus, sleep clause is a great thing to have.

 

[Wispy Willow]

Well, I prefer to play VGC but I've recently been getting into Smogon battling, seeing as I'm the Fairy leader at the BBL.

 

[Alexey]

Eh, I picked both Smogon (OU, I pretty much ignore the tiering and play all my matches in OU, even if I don't have s ingle OU Pokemon on the team and end up losing 7 matches out of 10 with Pokes like Torkoal and Vanilluxe) and VGC.

Battle Spot... eh, it's good for Youtube, because it is entertaining to watch, but as a meta: to hell with it.

 

[Lord Kyuubi]

I generally use smogon, and play under OU, because that let's you use anything within reason. I definitely don't keep to the pokemon actually in the tier. Basically I just use it as the generally best way to use things.

More recently, I found a website called 'PokeBattle' which takes a very interesting approach. Instead of having tiers, it assigns point values to every pokemon, and gives you a limit for your team. A lot of things are still banned, mind, but as a general rule, this means if you run powerful things, you have to compensate by running weaker pokemon as well. Certain smogon rules like evasion clauses, and sleep clause still apply. It's still in its beta stage, but I think it's a very interesting concept, and it could become my main metagame.

 

[Joshawott]

I'm a VGC player personally. I just find Doubles more fun than full 6v6 singles.

 

[DasManiac]

Battle Spot Triple Battles. I don't consider Smogon to be Pokemon at all. They play a completely different game. It ceases to be Pokemon when you start banning things. I read their strategies and play on Showdown for fun but I don't take them seriously at all. I only play it because I don't have any of those Pokemon in game or just can't try out some of those strategies otherwise.

They claim to balance things but end up making things significantly worse. There's nothing broken about Mega Lucario, Mega K, Mega Blaziken, or Mega Gengar. Each can easily be countered and defeated.

 

[UB-01 Kenobi]

Battle Spot Triple Battles. I don't consider Smogon to be Pokemon at all. They play a completely different game. It ceases to be Pokemon when you start banning things. I read their strategies and play on Showdown for fun but I don't take them seriously at all. I only play it because I don't have any of those Pokemon in game or just can't try out some of those strategies otherwise.

They claim to balance things but end up making things significantly worse. There's nothing broken about Mega Lucario, Mega K, Mega Blaziken, or Mega Gengar. Each can easily be countered and defeated.

Sure, so can Arceus. The point isn't that you can't win against Ubers - a skilled player with a NU team could beat a guy who just grabs 6 Ubers - but in the hands of a good player, they centralize the meta by forcing you to run one or two of their ( relatively few) checks. Want to not get stomped by a MKangaskhan? Better grab your Rocky Helmet Ferrothorn or physically defensive Sableye. Planning to prevent Blaziken from Baton Passing +3 Speed +2 Atk and a Sub to a Kyurem-B or something? Bust out your Crawdaunt/Azumarill/Talonflame, you'll need the SE priority. By banning them we can diversify the meta by freeing team slots that would otherwise HAVE to be dedicated to checks to those Pokémon.

 

[TerraTF]

Battle Spot Triple Battles. I don't consider Smogon to be Pokemon at all. They play a completely different game. It ceases to be Pokemon when you start banning things. I read their strategies and play on Showdown for fun but I don't take them seriously at all. I only play it because I don't have any of those Pokemon in game or just can't try out some of those strategies otherwise.

They claim to balance things but end up making things significantly worse. There's nothing broken about Mega Lucario, Mega K, Mega Blaziken, or Mega Gengar. Each can easily be countered and defeated.

Doesn't the Battle Spot have a ton of Pokemon banned from it? Smogon's bans make the game more balanced and easier for new comers to start in.

 

[maneaterliongirafff1]

I mainly do Smogon OU singles. I know some people hate their tiering system and banning of certain pokemon, but I think it's great that they do that. If they didn't have tiering system, everyone would be using ubers cuz everyone wants to win. And then if I'm a fan of say.. Litwick. I know I won't be using it in OU or Ubers cuz it just has no chance in hell. But with tiers, I can actually use it in LC. I mean that's just cool man.

 

[Zeb]

Smogon and Battle Spot Singles for me. I don't play on PS! as much lately, since I suck at teambuilding, though. Battle Spot singles tends to be using the stuff I've bred in-game and it can be pretty fun. VGC interests me, but doubles is a whole other ball game so it would take a lot of learning, which is why I don't have time to play it. And the team variety seems very repetitive on large (with the same ~15 or so Pokemon being on pretty much every team [some exaggeration but honestly not much]) when I've watched recent Youtube videos which has put me off a little.

 

[Lord Clowncrete]

Smogon for me, the tiers make the game a lot more interesting and balanced.

Many of smogon's clauses were introduced by GF them self. Banning Soul-dew, species clause, banning base 670 legendaries, sleep clause, etc. were all introduced in PBR/battle facilities ingame.

And thank god for Smogon. I hated smogon initially but my early random-battles in gen 5 taught me how terrible a metagame without bans and tiers is. Imo, stepping into battling properly made me appreciate the job smogon is doing.

 

[Winterdaze]

Smogon and Battle Spot.

I generally trust Smogon's judgment when it comes to providing a good clean metagame, and the tier system means I can battle with my favourite Pokemon without having to worry about them being outclassed. I haven't been on showdown much since Gen VI started, but when RU and NU are properly established I'll probably be on there a lot more.

Battle Spot is fun though, and there really is nothing like using Pokemon you've raised yourself in full animated 3D battles.

 

[chaos_Leader]

I'm used to the VGC metagame, and it's the official tournament format if I ever enter one, so that's mainly what I've been playing and building for.

I understand the mentality that encourages what the Smogon metagame does in regards to tiering and banning, and I can agree with them in singles battles definitely. Mainly though, I really enjoy the complexity of playing in the doubles format. Even despite the tendancy of the VGC metagame to gravitate toward certain common choices, I do enjoy the puzzle-like problem-solving aspect of teambuilding; finding ways to address the threats that crop up because of the what the metagame does. I feel there is enough diversity in Pokemon that the common metagame choices can be overcome, and playing in doubles allows for a wide variety of inventive options to counteract such choices that would not otherwise be viable in a singles setting.

From my experiences in VGC lately, facing off against players that use the most popular mons in the metagame has been largely quite easy for me. It's always been the more creative players, the ones thinking outside the same dozen mons and same tried-and-true strategies, that really make me sweat for my win or defeat me outright. Part of that may be that I build teams knowing the lay of the metagame, and so considered options to defeat those popular choices, as well as addressing common reactions to popular choices. Still, to me that phenomena simply reinforces my belief that the VCG metagame isn't nearly as fargone as many seem to believe.

Even with all that said though, even though I've pretty much said "I really like VGC!", I am interested in branching out to other metagames. Honestly, the main reason I haven't gone to anyone on this forum and asked for a battle, or entered a forum tournament, is because I've built my team(s) and playstyle well outside the Smogon-approved pedigree, and so a vast majority of my strategies and teams would simply not be permitted. I have been working lately to raise a number of Smogon-approved mons to amend this, so maybe I'll some of you in the arena soon!

 

[Aestivate]

What Format and Why?

kind of self-explanatory, but what format to you prefer to play and why? smogon tiers, inverse, vgc, ubers, what have you?

For me I'm all about VGC doubles. It's the official format and I really prefer the pacing, strategy, and mind games that happen with it. That being said I think I really want to see Team Multis or Team matches or something.

 

[Norzan]

Re: What Format and Why?

VGC Doubles or Double Battles in general, it's my favourite type of battle and i love how fast paced and intense it is and love the mind games.