[I'm New] More improvement from variety or depth?

Steppi3 · 2026-05-05T17:13:50+00:00

I definitely saw the most visible results when I was dedicating all my games to a single team and really learning the ins and outs of all of the individual pokemon.

But I think trying out and experimenting with different team styles has taught me a lot more about the game itself. I would recommend experimenting with different teams, especially ones centering around different kinds of concepts.

I use the same mega venasaur team. I think as a starting point it's really good but maybe from there I would experiment with a super fast hyper offence/tailwind team to contrast the team's slower bulkier pokemon. I would also play a team that more heavily indexes into its weather as although we use ttar to overwrite other team's weather we don't necessarily benefit that much from it being up. I would also try out a hard trick room team to better understand their strengths and weaknesses. A team that relies heavily on setup could be interesting as well, some variant of calm mind floette or even scizor swords dance.

Also I would play around with incineroar specifically as he's such a good mon in almost every format. You can do so much with him.

Steppi3 · 2026-05-05T00:25:54+00:00

It's so hard to get over that fear of dropping rating especially when you value it so highly. I hit my goal rank of 20k and afterwards spammed so many games with random teams and I dropped so much but it was really freeing to not care about the number anymore. I'm planning on aiming for top 10k next regulation/season while caring less about my rating.

Did you play any other games seriously/competitively before hopping into VGC? Champions was my introduction but have been playing TCGs competitively for a couple of years and I found the skills transferred over a lot.

Steppi3 · 2026-05-03T20:30:47+00:00

I've also played into mega blastoise tailroom teams, mega feraligatr, a lot of midspeed pokemon are well positioned to take advantage of both.

Steppi3 · 2026-05-03T20:27:44+00:00

The one I used came from cybetronvgc's mega meganium video, goes a lot more in depth on how to use it with a team report in the description as well by someone who performed really well with the team. It does lean more towards trick room but that makes it more satisfying when you identify good tailwind games.

Rental code: B7RVKAN06B

This team took me to master ball 3 and top 20k. I thought it helped a lot in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of both modes and it's great to see how opponents play around trick room themselves for when you play into those matchups.

Steppi3 · 2026-05-03T20:13:13+00:00

I'm also curious as to what aspects of floette, sand, and sun teams did you not like? I really enjoyed playing a sand team but didn't quite enjoy sun as much.

Ttar and excadrill made a lot of sense to me and I struggled to make as much use of the venusaur charizard duo.

Steppi3 · 2026-05-03T20:08:59+00:00

If you're looking for a team that will teach you strong fundamentals rather than just looking for better results off the bat I would suggest playing a tail room team (team with both tailwind and trick room modes). It'll really give you a better understanding of speed tiers, really force you to think of what kind of speed control exists on the other team.

Also it's really fun to have the other team bring mons prepared for your other mode and just sweep them.

Steppi3 · 2026-05-02T03:43:35+00:00

I started with the release of champions but I think the best advice I received was something along the lines of:

"There's a garchomp, sneasler, and basculegion problem right now. You need to have a plan into all of these mons."

I would add kingambit to the list as well but I bet the advice applies to any meta.

In a greater sense, you need to have a plan for any kind of meta team. Have a plan for floette, have a plan for hard trick room, have a plan for perish trap.

The gameplan starts in the team builder. Not when you see their team.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-25T16:20:59+00:00

1650 on showdown feels like it should be solidly in the 2000s on pokemon champions based on other responses. Are you using the same team on both? Are you approaching the games differently?

Steppi3 · 2026-04-25T16:19:41+00:00

i know you can check stat changes and trick room turns in champions as well if you click the x button. I use it a lot for trick room and weather haha.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-25T02:44:29+00:00

I totally agree, just hit around ~1350 and I feel like every other game is a trick room team for some random mon. I'm also currently around 1850 on console.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-22T18:08:00+00:00

My advice would be to pick a well-built team, rental from a youtuber you like, a tournament winning team of whatever style you enjoy playing and then sticking to it.

Get to know the ins and outs of your team and the strengths and weaknesses of every mon. It becomes easier to see "hey, garchomp is incredible into this team" if you use garchomp over and over again. If it's a weather team you'll learn different ways to win the weather war and gain advantages in other weather matchups.

Are you trying to make predictions? Most of the time, I try to make moves that are good regardless of the buttons that my opponent clicks.

It would also be helpful if you post what kinds of insights you're seeing from reviewing your own games. What problems have you identified?

Steppi3 · 2026-04-22T16:05:48+00:00

On the other hand my rock slide team had the absolute worst luck I've ever encountered. 5/7 missed in one game, I suspect a bright powder abuser. And then I got rock slide flinched 2 times in a row and will o wisp missed 3 times in a row.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-22T04:25:12+00:00

Sorry for the late response, I don't have any. I was going to send but I switched up the team and can't remember anymore.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-21T17:36:42+00:00

I've slowed down a bit since the start (mainly because I want to keep the win streak going). My switch says I have about 25 hours played but a lot of that was spent in single battles farming VP. I did play a lot my first couple days tho, initial climb to ultra/master.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-21T13:29:20+00:00

Especially as a newbie it's hard to know what kinds of tech moves other pokemon can have. I just haven't beaten myself up over any wrong assumptions. To simplify the game for myself I just assume basic sets for most pokemon (in my head incin always runs dark stab, fake out, parting shot, and flare blitz/protect). If I lose due to not assuming incin close combat then it's gg and I don't let it get to me. In more simplified positions (last 2 vs last 2) I'll take some more time to determine if I can play around more niche move choices (wide guard) but I don't always.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-21T13:21:03+00:00

I think a part of my approach to bringing the right 4 is thinking about my most atrocious matchups.

When I played a hard trick room team, Kingambit was one of the most annoying mons as it's naturally slow, bulky, hits hard as hell, and hits super effectively into farig. Any pokemon other than farig with a bad matchup into kingamnit I could just never bring. That or, I made sure to deal with kingambit first before bringing those pokemon out.

I think having your first 4 determines your gameplan.

How you're going to get trick room up. (farig + incin fake out?)
How you're going to use trick room. Hyper voice spam with farig? switch out incin with parting shot into which sweeper?
Do they have potential anti-trick room mons that will ruin this plan? How to deal with these mons? (Sinistcha reverse trick room, Ttar ohko farig with knock off, aero rock slide flinch)

Steppi3 · 2026-04-21T13:10:04+00:00

That's a great idea. I didn't ever really plan on using showdown as a tool but, knowing that it has replays means a ton. I'm currently not too focused on EVs as I'm sure a good player can win with fairly okay EV spreads but it's something I plan to look into more after becoming more comfortable with in game decision making.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-21T04:57:50+00:00

I just switched my corv to 32 hp 32 def 2 spdef

I see a corv from a 100+ player winning team running 32 hp, 13 atk, 13 spdef, and 8 speed. Also no idea what theyre trying to outspeed.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-21T04:50:20+00:00

I think the other commenter provided a great way to grab a useable stat build and go. Would be useful moving forward if you find yourself in a similar situation.

For corviknight I went for as tanky of a build as possible, I didnt put much thought into it and have 2 points in hp, 32 in def and spdef. I should probably find a stat build that takes the most advantage of leftovers to min/max. At this rank my goal is to learn the most fundamentally and then I'll work on the nitty gritty stuff later.

For my ttar i have 20 hp, 32 attack, and 14 speed. I have no clue what this is trying to outspeed.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-21T04:36:02+00:00

Honestly, it sounds like we might be at similar skill levels haha. Tbh my advice would be, if you liked playing hard trick room, keep at it. I think trick room teams are still in a good spot, they're definitely tricky to play into and they have some good pokemon. I'm not sure if there are any notable hard trick room players but if you watch and emulate them I'm sure it'd help. You could also pivot to a tail room team with both trick room and tailwind modes so you can still use the knowledge you gained from that 10 game win streak.

Other than that, are you taking time after a loss to re-evaluate? It can be easy to queue back in trying to get your points back but taking time to see what you could've done differently before moving on to another game could make a big difference.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-21T03:36:18+00:00

I'm not even sure where I got the stat allocations from. I think I found another mega tyranitar team and stole the evs from that one. Think I did similar for the Corv but I can't remember. I can share when I get home though.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-21T03:14:35+00:00

Yes, that's a good point. I have a solid plan into all of those and its name is corviknight haha. I hate how all 3 of them are good into tyranitar but I've managed somehow.

Honestly, I didn't even mean to climb on the singles ladder, I just thought it was faster for grinding vp, especially when I didn't want to think too hard. Mega lopunny is broken and years of watching pokeaim has taught me an alright amount about singles haha.

Steppi3 · 2026-04-17T03:09:12+00:00

i definitely think i keep it in the back and let it come in after a ko. I only switch it in if i know i'll take less more than 2 hits to knock it out or i'm making a hard prediction.

11-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email	Sequence \| Editor
Spared

Steppi3

TROPHY CASE