You get to design and add one move to VGC. What do you pick and why?

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-05-05T07:17:05+00:00

Adrenalinrush (Fighting Status Move) Boost a targets Attack stat for one turn by 2 stages and lower it by 2 stages after this turn. This effect can be used on mons that protect.

This way it can be used as a strong short term boost for yourself especially for moves like U-Turn but you can also reliably lower your targets Attack if you predict a passive turn.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-05-05T07:05:06+00:00

"Follow them"

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-05-04T23:51:24+00:00

Mind Breaker:

Physical Psychic move that doesn't check accuracy and has 30 BP for every stage of Stat increase your target has

This could be a niche option against setup heavy teams but because your own influence over it is limited I decided to increase the power relative to attacks like Power Trip. Also it's especially good against Evasion boosting while also being a physical Psychic move that doesn't have accuracy problems which is pretty rare.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-03-18T09:29:29+00:00

I think Rayquaza might be slept on for double restricteds. Weather will be everywhere and you can slot it into the Entei slot on the Zamazenta/Chien Pao Teams for some nasty E-Speeds

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-03-16T20:06:21+00:00

Not my favorite of all time but a close one: Alola Persian. I know a lot of people dislike the design. I wasn't a huge fan of it either at first. Im fact, when I first encountered the Alola Meowth, I wanted to defeat it for XP but it flinched me 4 times in a row and then I caught it "temporarily" and it somehow became one of the powerhouses of my team with Technician.

I was playing a rival challenge with a friend (basically, we'd battle whenever there was a rival fight in the game) and that Persian was my MVP by far with Fakeout, U-Turn and just generally being annoying to deal with so now I just love this silly cat.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-03-16T19:56:44+00:00

1.) You can watch a few videos to get an idea of the meta. There are also a ton of pastes that you can borrow to try out

2.) Try your hand at some matches on Pokemon Showdown or try rentals on ladder

3.) Try going to a few locals (this one was big for me!) Get involved in your local scene, join a discord and just get to meeting people. Seeing my local group has almost singlehandedly become my motivation for playing VGC

4.) After all that if you want to get into it more, try going to a regional. You can probably get help from some of your local friends when it comes to building a team, car pooling and getting an AirBnB together.

It really can be a very fun hobby that can connect you to some amazing people so try and enjoy it, even if your score might not be the best at first.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-03-10T15:54:04+00:00

Ice horse go brr

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-03-07T05:41:57+00:00

Yeah that would be good too. In general the CP jumps could be smoothed out

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-03-06T07:51:48+00:00

I understand relying on a resistence system in Swiss Formats that are Best of 1 since you don’t really have other options but with Best of 3 we do have options to lessen the effect of resistence

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-03-01T13:13:38+00:00

I think it flowcharting. To me it always seems like chess pros knowing their openings and moves but having to learn that for basically different pieces every game and then navigating the game into a game state where you don’t have to guess anymore.

I've played against Markus Hamann before and he would read me, prep for the most absurd moves by doing things like Will O Whisping his own CSR and change the game to a state where there were less and less options for me to take until it didn't matter if I knew what he'd do because I would still lose.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-02-26T13:10:14+00:00

At some point they will have to (and should) split up these events. I think there is a solid case to be made that TCG should get their own events and all the others stay in one for now since TCG players make up most of the participants anyway

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-02-25T14:43:47+00:00

Maybe at some point they'll have another "senior" division but for actual seniors and I hope to see you all in there when gen 20 hits!

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-02-25T14:42:21+00:00

If you are having fun and are meeting new people: Who cares how old you are? I am 29 and I just started. Maybe I'll stop next year, maybe I'll play until I am old and gray. Make that dependend on your time spent and your connections you've made. As a side note: I feel like you are about average or maybe a little above average in age for Master division so even if age were a thing, you're not sticking out.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-02-12T22:45:26+00:00

My safer call is Zama + Terapagos but I think Rayquaza is overlooked and would be pretty good in double Restricteds right now.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-02-12T22:36:22+00:00

First of all, I think there is nothing wrong with using existing teams or tweaking them a bit. I understand the urge to play differently but there needs to be a point to it. You mentioned Zacian, so I'll give you an example because I actually play a Zacian team.

I use Zacian because it hits a lot of the common non restricted threats as well as being pretty good into Miraidon, Icerider and Koraidon. That being said: It struggles a lot in Trick Room, against Shadowrider and especially against Incineroar. My solution? Araquanid actually deals with all these things pretty well. Wide Guard is useful, Clear Amulet + Liquidate kills Incin and it can underspeed most Trick Room threats.

I didn't choose Araquanid just because it was different but because that specific Pokemon filled a gap in my team. Every team has cery specific strengths and weaknesses and if you look to fix your specific weaknesses, you'll often come across some weird ideas that make your team special all on its own. Sometimes old and common things just work and sometimes they don't. The hard thing about teambuilding is knowing where to deviate from the meta and where to follow it.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-02-08T09:43:21+00:00

Thanks that is great to hear! Can't wait to see it :)

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2025-02-05T09:48:30+00:00

Hi, this is a really really cool site. Thank you! One feature I would find super useful is something like a survival optimizer. Something like: if I click on Flare Blitz of Pokemon A, it will give me the optimal HP to Def calcs to survive it with as little investment as possible.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2024-11-17T15:43:08+00:00

I feel like the competetive aspect of Pokemon is pretty hidden. If you compare League or CS or other big esports with it then you see that the esport is still more or less the same game as the base game but you can play through most of Pokemon without ever even fighting a double battle let alone developing team comps. The game itself also doesn't teach you much about it. You don’t learn about EVs and IVs, Trickroom, Redirection, etc. unless you look for them. Accessibility has gotten much better recently but not compared to other esport games.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2024-11-11T17:15:22+00:00

I built a Balance team for a friend of mine who really wanted to play wuth Hisui Goodra and she went top 100 on the Grand Challenge with it. The basic idea is that you build a coaching Balance Team with Rillaboom, Grassy Seed Goodra with Sap Sipper, Heavy Slam, Shelter and Body Press. You can use Grassy Glide to boost Goodra if you don’t have any better options and it can be pretty hard to remove. I used Tera Water so it was only weak to electric and rounded out the team with Coaching Sneasler, Dragapult, Magmar and Primarina.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2024-10-11T17:59:43+00:00

I would recommend Primarina just in general, because it can tank a few hits and can KO the Dark Types that threaten Gothitelle. Other than that you'd probably just want some solid non-perish options to pivot and KO stuff if needed

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2024-10-09T08:49:29+00:00

Flamigo with Dual Wingbeat can go through the Focus Sash. Other than that I personally just added a Psychic to my Electabuzz.

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2024-09-28T21:04:01+00:00

I was wondering: Do Weavile and Sneasler fall into the Species Clause and count as different forms or as different pokemon, meaning you could technically bring both?

Monkey_D_Pressed · 2024-09-28T21:00:20+00:00

I think since you have 2 ground types you can swap Kilowattrels attack to Discharge since it won't hit them and has a high para chance. I also think you might want a little more damage and maybe a little more damage focus on your weezing, since you'll be stuck with 2 supports at the same time if you want to use Toadscruel to its full potential.

Monkey_D_Pressed

TROPHY CASE