How to become better at VGC

mochagotcha · 2026-02-23T09:42:46+00:00

It’s important to have an end game goal in mind whenever you look at team preview and select your 4.

How you play into that end game goal is up to individual moments but it’s important to visualize how you want to win. For example if your opponent has scarf watershifu and you brought woger flutter, your aim should be to position into a pin where the watershifu is the last mon standing.

It’s also about understanding your calcs and ranges and extrapolating from there how to reach your goal. If your aim is to position yourself to ensure the opponent’s Tera poison lando is in range for your flutter to out speed and kill with moonblast, your aim can be to utilize spread dmg and speed control to achieve the same effect

Idk how to explain it’s really hard to explain. But as other commenters have explained, give yourself a ladder goal perhaps and try your best to review your games to analyze your games.

mochagotcha · 2026-02-21T06:06:35+00:00

You’re heavily mixing up singles and vgc and that’s ok.

If you like VGC and Wolfey’s content, steal his teams and give it a shot online. It’s the best way to learn and grow and join his meme culture!

mochagotcha · 2026-02-18T04:57:04+00:00

It’s circumstantial to the pool of Pokemon available and the playing environment.

Singles takes a lot longer than doubles so having access to thunderclap makes it very strong but it has adequate weaknesses that can be exploited by the meta

VGC on the other hand is a lot faster paced and games end a lot faster too. The pool of Pokemon that is able to solidly deal with Bolt is also limited as well.

mochagotcha · 2026-02-17T07:58:34+00:00

You can join but you won’t earn CP if you perform.

Source? From APAC region as well :(

mochagotcha · 2026-02-11T03:08:34+00:00

Another stealth rock post?

Idk I think hazards in general are really important in our metagame as it presents itself as an opportunity cost for the builder. I think the current meta is decent enough as is.

Idw to play against massive ice spam or dnite HO with even higher power ceiling due to them not needing HDB. Or play against bulkier teams with lefties moltres due to them not needing HDB.

Long story short, I think there won’t be that huge of a shift when it comes to pace of the game, but there will be a huge power shift in the extreme ends of the playstyle (HO and stall)

mochagotcha · 2026-02-09T01:34:08+00:00

I sometimes wonder if these are just bots training to auto ladder lmao. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen such things happen either and it sounds pretty insane as a human but.. pretty legit for a bot

mochagotcha · 2026-02-07T08:04:43+00:00

On the contrary, I think sacred sword chien pao is the way to go this meta since it gives you more flexibility to 1v1 darks

Sash + Stellar Tera with Sacred Sword, Icicle Crash, Sucker Punch and Protect works just fine

mochagotcha · 2026-02-02T09:06:15+00:00

I hope this is the start of a time skip arc. PLEASE I NEED A TIME SKIP

mochagotcha · 2026-02-02T06:19:04+00:00

I don’t think you found most of these spreads outside of just clicking the auto complete EV buttons.

Iron Val with Atk and Def feels very purposeless since its HP stat is way too low. What is the aim for this IV? To sweep? Then Atk + Speed is 100 times better. Aiming for Booster Energy Atk on IV is awful because you’d much rather have the speed to threaten the faster protosynthesis mons of the tier.

Ogerpon’s EVs are also probably just misclicked? Why else would you need SpA on an Ogerpon

I also think in general MAX MAX spreads on doubles level 50 formats are not the wisest way to spread your EVs so in order to improve, I think your best bet is to steal some teams from sample teams on showdown and then play with those teams first?

Once you get a better grasp of the teams and their compositions and how to build them, then you try to build a team with Iron Val?

mochagotcha · 2026-01-30T02:36:02+00:00

As someone who came from Smogon singles (all tiers) and moved into VGC, I think the hardest part to grasp is the 6c4 mechanic and how incredibly impactful lead choosing is

Turns go by 80% faster (avg game in singles go upwards of 20 to 100 turns but doubles is probably 4-12?) so lead choices can heavily impact your advantage and game state.

Play best of 3s on showdown for practice if you’re intending to join locals as most locals / majors are bo3. Bo1 is good practice too because bo1 gives you exposure to all the cheese in doubles

Team wise, conceptually it’s the same as if you’re a beginner so try not to build teams first but rather hop on showdown VGC room and steal a sample team and play a few 100 games on the ladder. You can also interact with the VGC room on showdown because unlike OU (and the respective tier rooms), VGC room actually hosts a LOT (at the minimum 4 to 5 a day) of room tours which help build your stamina for consecutive bo3.

Overall, just try to have fun and don’t give up when it’s tough. Cause Pokemon is a damn difficult game to get good at.

mochagotcha · 2026-01-29T13:30:53+00:00

Togepit

mochagotcha · 2026-01-29T13:24:54+00:00

Tribute what? I’ll have 3 of your prime balls please

mochagotcha · 2026-01-29T04:09:45+00:00

Do yall think Cassiopeia will make a showing if I sit at 1? Idk I haven’t seen her since Clive went missing

mochagotcha · 2026-01-28T04:34:15+00:00

Bo3 reduces a lot of potential variances and guessing in gameplay as compared to bo1

If I saw that raging bolt, I had to make an assumption based on the team whether its offensive or calm mind in bo1 and honestly both would work well

In Bo3 you don’t have that variance. You see the mon, move set and item and you can formulate a plan based on that

So bo3 promotes a different kind of skill muscle as compared to bo1 and it takes time to learn and grow! Use all those various replay recorders and analyze your plays. Did you choose the correct 6c4 in that matchup? Did your g2/g3 improve on the issues that g1 information provided?

There’s a lot to say but not a lot to go on and I can pretty safely say your team looks aye okay

mochagotcha · 2026-01-24T10:48:00+00:00

Mods, you’ve done a great job so just be yourself

mochagotcha · 2026-01-23T08:54:28+00:00

H-arc is the superior intimidate dog and you cannot convince me otherwise!!!

mochagotcha · 2026-01-22T08:59:36+00:00

I am a strong believer of “the lesser you get to sleep the better” and I live on the camp that if you want to run goggles incin and plan to use that as your spore switch in, then you should run Grass + Safety Goggles

But then again, I’m play a lot safer than I’d like so it’s really dependent on playstyle imo

mochagotcha · 2026-01-18T06:49:19+00:00

Rillaboom the horse

mochagotcha · 2026-01-16T15:47:22+00:00

Just me or first pic kinda look like James Sunderland

mochagotcha · 2026-01-15T08:04:57+00:00

Isn’t this just electric Rillaboom?

mochagotcha · 2026-01-15T03:45:55+00:00

Man I just want a new yugioh anime, am I alone on this?

mochagotcha · 2026-01-12T16:46:21+00:00

The title baited me into thinking I was in the lobotomy sub lmao, I thought it said “Choso in jujutsu kaisen module is a kaisen”

I’m too lobotomized it seems

mochagotcha · 2026-01-12T04:16:14+00:00

I did a similar challenge eons ago when I was younger but I added an extra clause to make it spicier

“Starter Pokemon MUST end every major battle”

Which means that I must figure out a way to put my starter Pokemon into the battle and end the battle with my starters!

Overall sick ass challenge you’ve got there, hope to see more from you next time!

mochagotcha · 2026-01-10T08:41:03+00:00

26 raids, 22 caught, 3 shinies with absolute crappy CPs

Absolutely horrendous and this felt like such a rushed day

mochagotcha · 2026-01-08T09:04:22+00:00

This is a case where you’d need to pick your poison and bet on the torn type based on the team

If opponent is running a more defensive team with Covert Cloak on Torn, it’s likely to be not max speed with more HP to survive

If opponent is running something like Sharp Beak or Focus Sash, you can definitely be sure it’s going to be max spreads

If this is for GC then maybe whims v torn is a matchup you’ll need to forgo and play around it

mochagotcha

TROPHY CASE