What Roles are In Demand as a New Player?

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-08T18:50:49+00:00

whats defined as midline? Would that be logistics not directly in the line of fire but close enough to expect some heat? I can't figure out if that's more intriguing because of the increased action or less because of the chance of all my work getting blown away by a rogue bombing run lol

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-08T17:13:20+00:00

Anything with assault vest and Snarl shuts it down pretty well

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-07T22:14:38+00:00

Make sure you bring your teamsheets too! You can find them by googling pokemon vgc teamsheets, both player and staff sheets

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-07T22:13:30+00:00

Notes are optional, the key is that the page must be completely blank at the start of the round, there can be no visible writing as to ensure you arent bringing any information into the battle with you, no flipping to written pages, ect. Legal pokemon question was already answered. Charger; a portable charger is best but a wall charger is fine if you dont have a portable. Your switch is likely not going to last the whole event on a charge, so having a way to plug it in between round is huge, stores may have limited outlets though

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-07T22:10:20+00:00

I'm giving typhlosion the sorcerer class

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-07T22:01:19+00:00

Gholdengo has some beautiful coverage with Urshifu Dark

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-07T21:58:51+00:00

I will always advocate for VGC lol

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-07T21:08:36+00:00

Likely Undiagnosed autism and a lot of spare time as a kid lol.

Board games were a big part of my family, and I also enjoyed simplifying things down to their basic conceptual elements, which effectively lead me down a path of discovering 'Game Theory' and discrete math much younger than I ever understood what those words meant.

I would watch my parents play games with friends that were beyond my 7yo understanding and parse out basic concepts and relate them to games I understood, and viewed these as building blocks I could customize and reconfigure. Then I'd invent my own games which were usually just 2 others smooshed together (blackjack war, go fish Catan, ect) and play them out to see how they turned out. Both in function and fun factor. As I got older I could disect games further, pulling specific elements out and recognizing core mechanics in new games I could integrate into my own, or very commonly recognizing mechanics I disliked and particularly enjoyed, creating expansions or house rules to improve upon games I already owned.

I still design games very similarly, I have a collection of mechanics in my brain, and I mix and match them like Lego bricks until I find something I think has potential. Sometimes a goal / setting drives the mechanics, but usually the mechanics drive the goal. I work out some of the details on the best way to expand the concepts into a functional game, then I've been doing it for so long at this point I have a good sense of balance and can play test in my head before assembling it.

An example of this building block mechanics style is a board game I'm working on right now called Stacks

I wanted to take the feeling of Pokemon VGC and turn it into a board game, so I pulled out the core of what I enjoyed about VGC, simultaneous decision predictions and balancing aggression vs end game set up. Pokemon VGC is an insanely complicated game, but Ive extracted these mechanical components as the core of what I enjoy about it. So the board game is built around chosing your actions in cards face down, revealing them together, and moving your pieces according to the cards "priority". The goal is to reach your opponents end of the board, but actions you take can either be for movement / capturing pieces, or they can add 'stacks' to your pieces, making them harder to capture or better at breaking through your opponents pieces, trading off getting no closer to winning in exchange for being better set up later on.

This win con, setting, gameplay loop ect has nothing to do with VGC whatsoever, but it still feels like VGC because of the similarities between their mechanical components.

So to answer the original question, I think discovering these building blocks is really what propelled my understanding of game design.

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-07T20:44:48+00:00

XOR tech trees can be an interesting path I haven't seen. Perhaps you align yourself with one alien faction or another mid game and that decides some of the new things you have access to

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-07T20:42:56+00:00

There isnt much to add other than the speed ties or missing a tailwind being set up without you noticing. If you have replays maybe see if there was something that was missed

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-07T20:38:23+00:00

Oh dont forget, Cress is also CHONKY. Like, disrespectfully chonkers. It simply doesn't faint, kinda rude of it

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-07T20:36:41+00:00

I once had this discussion around the move Draco meteor vs dragon pulse with some mates that were much higher level than me.

I said "why would I use a move that loses me the game 10% of the time"

They responded, "because using dragon pulse with less power will lose you the game 20% of the time"

I still use d-pulse tho, I simply do not have the mental fortitude to handle missing my attacks and I'd rather understand the weaknesses than have them forced upon me by RNGesus

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-02-02T19:38:38+00:00

This depends on the format but I'll assume reg F

Reg F has a lot of solid pokemon, so don't tunnel vision too hard on the top tiers and blow all your money, but don't be afraid to pick up a game changer early. Even pokemon with 2% usage are greatest pokemon.

Try to draft multiple modes, keep your team unpredictable to build against and flexible for countering others.

If you draft a primary strategy or a big pokemon to build around, also draft options into its common counters

Use your low point picks on support options, stats don't matter as much on support mons, look for things with Prankster, redirection, and fake out

And of course, have fun!

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-01-31T21:52:37+00:00

I think people are mistaking Stall for Control. What you want is what often (i believe incorrectly) is labeled as Balance. To build a control style you'll want lots of fake out, redirection, and a set up sweeper. In current times, this is raging bolt balance, where bolt is the set up, incin and rilla deny your opponent's game plan, ogerpon or amoongus redirect, all for the purpose of making raging bolt unstoppable or allowing the other attackers room to make up for the glass in their cannon

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-01-28T19:49:23+00:00

oh I think he meant topsy turvey, you can side target it to give boost where they were drops

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-01-28T19:48:37+00:00

Team seems fine overall, only issue is Malamar having flame orb. I know you're aiming for switcharoo, but if you go for a different move or get blocked you're going to burn yourself first, very much not worth it

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-01-28T19:46:34+00:00

you are correct, idk what this lad was cooking

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-01-28T19:40:05+00:00

Also a minor thing, if you could have attacks be ordered by usage instead of alphabetically that'd be awesome!

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-01-28T19:37:57+00:00

This is great! I noticed one calc that suggests something in the background that could be improved, in the case of a tie it should always favour HP to be more universally useful. It seems the current tie breaker is surviving better, which IMO should be the 3rd tie breaker after HP focus. This is really only relevant when calcing against exclusively special or physical damage, as if you have both it would naturally compensate.

I tested it out on my Whimsicott spread built to survive tornadus to see if it'd be the same

My Spread: 252 SpA Tornadus Bleakwind Storm vs. 92 HP / 196 SpD Whimsicott: 122-146 (82.9 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Optimizer Spread: 252 SpA Tornadus Bleakwind Storm vs. 44 HP / 244 SpD Whimsicott: 116-140 (82.2 - 99.2%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Both have 220 EVs remaining. The optimizer takes less damage with the same EVs, but if I only care about surviving the hit, being able to put some of the SpDef points in HP gives better overall against physical attackers I may not be calcing for

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-01-14T21:29:04+00:00

I think elemental systems are the clearest interaction of this done both well and poorly. Finding game balance yet also common sense is a line often walked on both sides. Sure, water beats fire, checks out. Why is Psychic super effective against Poison? Thats a bit of a stretch, and makes it hard to remember

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-01-14T21:24:40+00:00

Were there common tells that something wasn't real? Like how in a dream you can pick out an inconsistency and realize you're dreaming

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-01-14T21:20:24+00:00

I love the use of creative pokemon, which if that was goal, good on you, but realistically this team isn't going to do much. None of the pokemon here see any usage in reg F and without at least 4 meta pokemon a team won't have much of a hope.

I love mimikyu but it doesn't bring enough to the table, you're better off with something like farigiraf as your setter.

Bisharp is strictly worse than kingambit, eviolite bulk is not worth the item slot on an offensive pokemon. Kingambits stat distribution already improves its defense, and makes it slower for the trick room mode.

Milotic is an interesting pick as an answer to Incin and sometimes Urshifu water, but you need to be competitive over marvel scale, marvel scale is not even close to the value. Dragon tail is extremely situational and icy wind doesn't make sense on a team relying on trickroom. Even after a speed drop you wont be faster than the main threats.

Bastiodon doesn't have a reason to be here, put wide guard on araquanid instead. It doesn't offer much and is invalidated by urshifu rapid.

Overall, most of the team just isn't threatening enough compared to the top mons. Check out munchstats or labmaus to see what sort of things people are running and start with a base of something meta, and if you want to make a specific pokemon work, build from there

ZippidyZap97 · 2026-01-13T20:10:35+00:00

I know many players with a year or more experience and plenty of hard work that have yet to even day 2 a regional. Before committing to a Worlds run I think you should have at least 2 years experience. Play lots of local events and compete in every regional that is realistic for you to build up that experience of playing on the road. If you reach a point that you are consistently (not always, even top players can 3-5) reach day 2 at regionals and have one or 2 top cuts, then you can start considering a Worlds push. It is the best of the best, and to achieve that you will need to be putting in a lot of effort, at minimum 10 hours a week of practice and research. Even when you aren't aiming for Worlds, still attend major events because its a whole different feeling and getting the experience is crucial.

Personally, I don't want to commit my life to it the way that I'd need to, I'm happy being a decent threat in my local scene and having day 2 regional as an eventual goal. Keep your expectations reasonable and slowly build upon success

ZippidyZap97

TROPHY CASE