For this week, we’re going crazy.
This post is not about random battles.
We’re moving into team building!!
The tiers of competitive Pokemon are different rankings of Pokemon, so that only really powerful Pokemon can battle with other really powerful Pokemon, giving the weaker guys a chance to shine in tiers surrounded by weaker guys. The tiers are, in order:
Anything Goes – all Pokemon are allowed,
Ubers – all Pokemon except Mega-Rayquaza are allowed,
Overused (OU) – all non-ubers are allowed,
Under Used (UU) – all non OU are allowed,
Rarely Used (RU) – all non UU are allowed,
Never Used (NU) – all non RU are allowed,
PU – all non NU are allowed,
ZU – all non PU are allowed,
And Little Cup (LC) – only level 5 Pokemon that can still evolve are allowed.
This tiers are usage based, for example, if Machamp is in NU, but a lot of people start using it in UU, then the Pokemon will be moved up to UU next month.
Conversely, if Alakazam is in OU, but almost no one uses it in OU that month, then it might be moved down to UU.
Here’s a list of all the different Smogon tiers: feel free to click on the ones I described above so some more information!
Usage is important to consider when drafting your team.
Let’s say you want to make an OU team. There are too many Pokemon in this tier for you to be prepared to defeat every variant of every single Pokemon. However, teams can oftentimes be somewhat predictable. Let’s look at the usage stats of Pokemon in OU for October.
This means that if you went up against ten teams in OU, probably about four of them would have a Landorus-Therian form. Naturally that means if you’re making a team, you should be prepared to deal with Lando-T, as it is affectionately called.
Let’s have a look at a sample team and see how it deals with the top-tier threats of the OU metagame.
If you’re unfamiliar with what Lando-T can do, here’s what Smogon has to say about it.
It’s most common offensive moves, Stone Edge and Earthquake have multiple counters. Mega-Scizor and Hippowdon are both naturally bulky enough to take either move, and they both have access to recover in Roost and Slack Off, respectively. Hippowdon is then able to take advantage of Lando-T to set up Stealth Rocks or to Whirlwind it out into something else. Mega-Scizor could get off and easy swords dance as well, to hopefully do some damage.
If choice locked (by choice scarf of choice band) into earthquake then Mantine gets a free switch in, with the options to give a toxic, scald, or remove hazards with defog.
If choice locked into stone edge then Magnezone gets a free switch in, as steel types resist rocks.
Not to mention Tapu Lele is max speed with a choice scarf, meaning that it will always outspeed any variant of Lando-T, even if Lando has its own choice scarf. So even if Lando does get a kill, Lele can revenge kill it.
If you look at any of those top seventeen Pokemon, I guarantee this team has at least one counter to it. That’s not to say you need a Mega-Scizor or Hippowdon to always counter Lando-T. As this team alone shows, any Pokemon will have many checks and counters. It is important to understand that whatever team you make for any tier will have to handle the best threats.
Another important thing to notice is that of the six Pokemon on this team, only Tapu Lele is in the top 17. You don’t necessarily need to use the most popular Pokemon, you just need to be sure you can handle the most popular Pokemon.
If you’d like to watch the team in action, here’s a video of Pokeaim using it.
Hope this helps with your team building plans!
As always, good luck, and have fun.
Image credit: Julie Muncy, Antar via Smogon.com, Unami via Pastebin