An article on Team Building and Posting.

Note: I did not write this. This essay was written by UltimaLink007.

I. Introduction
II. Why Is This An Important Read?
III. Before Building a Team
IV. Build a Full Team
V. Test Your Team
VI. Formatting and Posting Your Team Thread
VII. Responding to Raters of Your Team
VIII. Rating Someone Else’s Team


This thread is here for one and only one reason: To improve the quality of the teams and the threads that are posted in Battle Strategy dramatically for the advancement, growth, and education of everyone who partakes in the Battle Strategy section as “competitive players.” Overall, and even more recently on these forums, the level of quality within “Rate My Team” threads (and many others too) has fallen precipitously, and remains as of now in a slump, held back by people who fail to make intelligent threads here in this so-called “Battle Strategy” section. Essentially the goal of this is to make Battle Strategy run more smoothly by improving the threads posted and the people who post them.

A note to those who want to skip to a specific section: Use Ctrl+F, and type in the roman numeral to skip down to the specific section.

This could be considered a continuation of the Introduction, but these are some of the important reasons why you, as a member of Crimson Knights's competitive community, should read this.

- If you’re new to competitive Pokémon and want to build and post a team in Battle Strategy, this thread should help you do just that, and more importantly, do it properly.

- This can improve the quality of our Competitive Battling section exponentially if people read this and take the advice and put it to use.

- In improving the teams posted, and improving the threads they are posted in, Marriland can become more respectable in the competitive community.

- By learning how to build and post teams well, you improve yourself and better yourself at the game.

Before starting on building a team, learn about the various important aspects of the competitive half of the game. It is important to study and know details of different parts of the competitive metagame before posting a RMT thread, even if you're an old player returning from a long break. For new players, this process is even more important. For those who are more advanced or already have the gist of what they’re doing, just taking the time to lightly look over the metagame and other aspects as a refresher and a reminder of what to do. The most important parts of the competitive game that must be paid attention to, be learned thoroughly, and studied diligently are:

- The Current Metagame: One of the top most important things to know about. The Metagame is the inner workings of the competitive online battling system. For example, currently with the advent of Pokémon Platinum, the metagame is incredibly offense-oriented due to the Move Tutors boosting offensive capabilities through the roof with such examples as Scizor receiving Bullet Punch and Superpower, or Salamence receiving Outrage. Knowing the metagame is a key factor in making a team suitable for competitive battling. Three of the best ways to learn about the current status of the metagame are to:

1. Check Shoddybattle’s usage statistics, these show how often each Pokémon is used on Shoddybattle per month, and what items and moves are most commonly used on them.

2. Observe Battles on Shoddybattle, lurking around and watching others do battle will help you by seeing who is using what, and will help you get your mind thinking also to not only how the metagame works, but predictions and how people react.

3. Lurking around Smogon’s Stark Mountain part of their forums, which is the forum equivalent of our RMT forums, but is much more advanced and bubbling over with examples of intelligent discussion and phenomenal “Rate My Team” threads. Why is it better to lurk there than on other forums? Simply because they (Both their member base AND moderating team) do not tolerate the crap their equivalents do and thus has much more intelligent discussion and such to pick up on and learn from.

- Effort Values, Individual Values and Natures: Effort Values and Natures are more incredibly important factors to take into account when you want to build a team, as they are capable of influencing the very fabric of a Pokémon, their statistics. Pokémon is all about statistics. How many Attack points to I need to do ‘x’ damage to ‘y’ Pokémon? How many Defense points does ‘x’ Pokémon need in order to survive ‘y’ attack off of ‘z’ Pokémon? How much Speed should I invest into ‘x’ Pokémon to outspeed its largest threats, and do I have enough Attack to take it out first? Individual Values range from 0-31, and help determine the final stats of a Pokemon. Each stat has a separate IV, and the higher the IV, the higher the overall end stat. Natures either boost one specific stat while reducing another, or in some cases do not boost or hurt any. A table of Natures and their effects may be found here. Effort Values and Individual Values are explained in much more effective detail in this guide by DiamondPlayer44.

- Roles of Pokémon: Know what each role is, how one is defined as that role, and what Pokémon can and cannot fit that role. For example, a Physical Sweeper role can be defined as a Pokémon with a high Attack stat, usually with a high Speed stat to match, meant for attacking the opponent’s team with physical moves as well as being more frail than a tank or wall. For example, Salamence with its 135 base Attack and 100 base Speed and its excellent movepool make it a phenomenal example of a Physical Sweeper candidate. Blissey, with its 10 base Attack stat would make for a terrible Physical Sweeper, and should never, EVER be used as such. Two places that should be checked out when looking for what certain Pokemon can do well are Marriland’s Moveset Compilation Project: Platinum Edition (MCP: PE) and Smogon’s Strategy Pokedex.

- Standard Battling Clauses: These are the clauses and rules which are standard in the metagame to make it more fair and they must be abided by. These include: Species Clause, which means that you may only make use of one if the same Pokémon per team, meaning for example, you can’t use six Scizors on one team; Sleep Clause, which means you may only put one Pokémon on your opponent’s team to sleep at any time during the battle, this being unaffected by self-induced sleep through using Rest; and Evasion Clause, better explained in this topic, is the banning of any move that raises your evasiveness; Freeze Clause, a clause which only allows one pokemon on each team to be frozen at one time; One-Hit Knockout Clause (OHKO Clause), which disallows the usage of moves such as Sheer Cold and Guillotine, which cause automatic knockouts of the opponent. A lesser used clause is known as Item Clause, which bans the player from using more than one of the same item on a team. There are also Clauses that players put in themselves because they either are: a. Stupid, b. They got it off of a stupid place such as youtube.com, c. Ignorant, or d. People who suck ass and need to learn to play the game. Such “Clauses” include Legendaries Clause, which is the banning of Pokemon considered to be “Legendary” (Example: Jirachi) despite tier placements normally allowing them in battle. Other Clauses ban specific Pokemon or combinations of Pokemon, such as “Breloom Clause” or “Skarmory + Blissey (sometimes + Cresselia) Clause.” These people are merely idiots who suck at the game because they aren’t even capable of beating one simple Pokemon or a simple walling combination. If you can’t beat something, it’s not the Pokemon, it’s you and your crappy team.

Remember, knowledge is power, make sure you are heavily armed to the point where you have knives sticking out every single part of your body and rocket launchers poking out of your eyes, mouth, nose, fingers and ears. The more you have, the better off you’ll be, and the smarter your teams and posts will be.

When you do start building a team, keep in mind your goal: To build a full team of SIX Pokémon that is functional, usable, and that works well in competitive play. This means that there should be zero threads asking for help coming up with a team or a 6th Pokémon to complement a set of five. Never post an incomplete set of Pokémon, because that is not a team, it is an incomplete part of a whole that is not worth a rater’s time. Remember, it is not anyone else’s job to build the team for you, the responsibility of creating a full team lies with the person making the team: YOU. You are the one building the team, other people are not, so don’t be a lazy slob and do it yourself. This includes posting a team of six Pokémon without movesets, EVs, or descriptions of what they are meant to add to the team’s overall strategy for victory. Untested teams as well as those that appear to be hastily thrown together and lacking any synergy based on observation from adequate raters also can be called stupid, pointless, and a waste of space. A “Make My Team” or “Rate this piece of crap I just threw together” thread will be considered a piece of garbage posted by a lazy bum who needs to learn how to play the game, and will thusly be treated as such, with either being ignored, a warning from other members to post a proper team, a swift locking by a Moderator, or a combination. As for building the team itself, there are many ways to get started.

The most important idea in the creation of a team is to have a beginning concept or idea laid out. For example, one day I thought of building a “Rain Dance”-based team. That would be my starting point from which I would work until I had a full team. If you have a concept of what roles you want on your team and how many of each type of role on your team, you could discover for yourself what Pokémon would be capable of fitting those roles and choose from them as a start. If you find a specific Pokémon in a specific role that you want to try out, another way to build a team is to use that as your anchor and try to build around it. Of course there are tons more of ways to get started, and once you get started it’s only a matter of time and thought until you come up with a team. There are many types of teams, and the type of team you have is dependent on the roles that you have in it. A “Balanced” setup usually contains two or three walls / support Pokémon, along with one or two mid/late-game sweepers, and a lead which can be used in many ways such as support (Light Screen and Reflect, Stealth Rock, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, Stat-Boosts + Baton Pass, etc.), weather setup, or whatever the builder decides. A “Balanced Template” such as this is meant for a team that can change as the battle does, taking hits with its defensive side and striking back with its offensive side. Another possible “standard” template would be offensive, which would consist of a team entirely built of bulky, choice, and / or fragile sweepers with a possible addition of one or two defensive or support Pokémon. This type of team would be meant to strike the opposition hard and fast with a slew of powerful offensive strikes, in other words, it’s a declaration of blitzkrieg upon your opponent and attempting to knock them out with a massive preemptive strike before they can regain themselves and fight back. A third standard possibility, despite its near impossibility to pull off in the current metagame due to it being incredibly offense-based (April 2009), is a stall team which is a full set of walls and supporting Pokémon, perhaps with a very bulky sweeper or two so that it can hit other teams. Using good amounts of status effects and entry hazards usually, walls switch in to counter the current threat and to stall them out of existence, trying to drag the opponent into a war of attrition. Each form of team is meant to be played differently, so build to fit the way you like to play! The tricky part is finding a balance of building a team which not only plays the way you prefer, but conforms and is workable in the current metagame conditions.

Testing is one incredibly important step that sadly most people skip in the team building process. This is important for three main reasons. 1: If you are debating about what you want in a certain slot on your team and have a few ideas, testing can allow you to find which you are most comfortable with and which is most effective on the team. 2: You can tweak a team bits and pieces to perfect it if you test it, while if you just build it right away and want to make changes, you must start over from the beginning if building an in-game team for wifi. 3: If you build the team for wifi and then decide you do not like it or you want to make heavy amounts of changes, you waste a multitude of time and effort, while if you take the time to test your ideas beforehand, you save that time and effort. How can you test? You can test your ideas and strategies for teams by using the Pokémon Battle Simulators ShoddyBattle or NetBattle Supreme. These simulators have been painstakingly programmed to allow you to fully build and customize teams to your wishes, and to allow you to fight others online without having to put together a team and get on wifi with all of the friend codes and such. Testing against other humans also gives you a better idea of how it will compete if you ever do build it for wifi, or if you decide to fight your way up the ladders on ShoddyBattle. To download ShoddyBattle, go to shoddybattle.com and go to the download link, then install it.

Format is incredibly important when posting a team. They show that you care how your team looks, it makes you look more intelligent to post in a cleaner format that people understand and enjoy. The necessities of a Pokémon you post are the Pokémon itself, the item it is holding, the Nature of the Pokémon, the EV Spread of the Pokémon, the trait (better known by some as the ability) of the Pokémon, and a description as to how it functions, both as a member of your team (what is it’s specific role on the team, why you have it there) as well as how it works with other team members (how it promotes synergy). A couple of examples of good and acceptable formats are:

Picture
Pokémon @ Item ** Nickname
Nature: (+ Stat, - Stat)
EVs: HP / Attack / Defense / Special Attack / Special Defense / Speed
Trait: Trait
- Move 1
- Move 2
- Move 3
- Move 4

Description

Picture
Pokémon @ Item ** Nickname
Trait: Trait
Nature: (+ Stat, - Stat)
EVs:
- Move 1
- Move 2
- Move 3
- Move 4

Description

Descriptions should be meaningful and explain the role and synergy of the Pokémon, not just say something small and meaningless. A better explanation of this is done by Ekul Yenaved:

QUOTE (”Ekul Yenaved”)

Don't simply post six movesets. Say what each one does! Don't put 'physical sweeper' @ either- this is dull and uninteresting. So, for that Blissey used in point three, I would put Blissey helps my team take special hits. With its massive HP and Special Defense stat, it can take even the strongest special attacks with ease and Sing it. A bombardment of Seismic Tosses ought to finish them off, eh? Not just Special wall

Despite the massive importance of the format and description embedded within it, one of the most important things to remember is proper grammar and spelling. That means capitalizing where necessary, spelling things properly even if you must put it through a spell checker, and using proper grammar (Ex. Using their / there / they’re properly). This makes it look nice, and makes you look intelligent, which is always a nice thing.

Other optional, yet enjoyed parts of team threads that are nice when added include an interesting title, which is also detailed by Ekul:

QUOTE (”Ekul Yenaved”)

You'd be suprised how much an interesting title sways people. Interesting is by definition quite hard to pin down; some interesting titles are simply lengthy (a title that takes up to or three lines might attract attention). Others are clever anecdotes or puns. Alliteration is an excellent idea to use in your thread names. If you are using a team that focuses on an interesting Pokémon, point that interesting pogey out in your title. Surely, putting 'RMT- includes Octillery related goodness!' is better than putting 'RMT'. Whatever you do, don't put 'my first RMT' or something of that description in a topic title. It is very, very unappealing to me and I suspect many raters. So, to recap: -Use clever titles to attract attention -The bigger, the better -Avoid using things that make the team sound bad- such as saying 'my first RMT' or 'I have no idea what I'm doing, but RMT' -Cliffhangers make for good titles- 'This is standard in theory, but...' -Rhetorical questions- 'What harm could one little Octillery do?' -Alliteration is good- 'Obnoxious Octillerys Obviously Obey Oblongular Oboes' -Always use good grammer in your titles, as titles in all caps or without capital letters are unappealing -Avoid excess exclamation marks

Another good idea to put in a team thread is pictures. These make it easier on the eyes of those rating your team, so that they do not have to stare at nothing but a wall of text that is your team. They add in a nice bit of color to add interest too! The best pictures to use (therefore the only ones that should be used) are either the art of Ken Sugimori (found at either pokebeach.com or legendarypokemon.net), or the Pokémon sprites from the games themselves, found at http://www.pokemonelite2000.com/sprites.

One last idea to put into team threads is a composed threats list, which lists Pokémon that can be considered threats offensively or defensively to teams, and how your team can handle the threats.

Once you’ve posted a team for rating, it is subject to the criticism and picking apart from the masses. The biggest thing to remember is that your team is out there TO be criticized, constructively yes, but still criticized. Meaning: If you can’t take criticism or don’t like people nitpicking at your work, don’t post it. There are different types of rates you can respond to. One is the helpful rate. An example would be

“Hey, due to none of your team having a Water-type resistant Pokémon or a strong enough Physical attacker to take it out, Calm Mind + RestTalk Suicune wreaks havoc on your team. If I may, I would suggest using Leech Seed Celebi over Donphan in order to alleviate this weakness. Although a repercussion would be losing Rapid Spin, since your team doesn’t have many Pokémon weak to Stealth Rock so I believe that you wouldn’t need it as much.”

In this case, you would thank them for the advice, and try out their advice to see if it helps, because they backed their theory with viable support and reasoning. They were also nice about it, which is always a plus. If their idea works out better than what you have, thank them again for the suggestion and then edit your team to show that you made a change. Giving credit is nice, but optional.

Other raters may say something along the lines of: “You’re MixApe weak,” and nothing else. This is unhelpful, so ask them to clarify on how they see your team as weak to the threat, and if you believe your team handles the threat, be sure to make the point about how it handles it and politely ask them to back up their claims with reasoning before shooting their mouth off.

Even more others will rate it using numbers, flame you with non-constructive criticism, and try to say that you are weak to a type, or even say that you are weak to a Pokémon, but only if a certain counter on your team dies. These rates and people are better off ignored, unless you choose to correct them. While this gives self-satisfaction and sometimes a chuckle or two, depending on the person you correct, it could evolve into an argument and flame war, which is less-than-ideal for a Rate My Team thread, which is looking for constructive criticism to improve the team, not fighting over whether a team that has Forretress is weak to Weavile just because it can kill the team after Forretress dies.

People are taking their precious time to help you by rating your team. Always remember this and take it into account when you are responding to those who choose to spend their time on your team.

When choosing to rate someone’s team, know what the hell you’re talking about. If you need to learn so that you DO know what you’re talking about, please refer to section III of this guide. This is so that you don’t end up as a poor rater or as someone who makes rates like the second to last paragraph in the previous section. Meaning that if somebody has 5 Pokémon that can be easily disposed of by Weavile, but a Forretress which counters Weavile, they are NOT weak and you should NOT say that Weavile beats them once Forretress is gone. What you COULD do is suggest something else that might handle it better as well as doing more for the team. An example of what you could say would be:

“I like how Forretress counters Weavile, but Tentacruel I think works much better on your team and performs the same function in Rapid Spin along with more benefits such as laying down Toxic Spikes which can fix your weakness to stall teams. In addition, you gain even more support in the ability to counter Scizor more effectively using Tentacruel.”

Really, just only post something that you would expect of others, and that you see as helpful. What goes around comes around, so if you're unhelpful and say something along the lines of "Gud teem, I giv it a 9.5/10," do not expect any better in return for your teams, or any thanks from the people whose teams you rate.

Bump cause it is so good.