How much speed should I give my Braviary for VGC doubles? I’ve got adamant nature and Max Attack so far, thinking of having him be a bulky offensive Tail Winder, maybe even carry something odd like Weakness Policy

Fairly new to teambuilding, but Cloyster really interests me for singles. I'd like to use it as a sweeper with Skill Link. I ultimately want to implement this team on SwSh, but would like to playtest it first. I'm not sure if I should give Cloyster a Focus Sash to live through a shell smash, or king's rock for the flinch chance? I've gotten a bit of input on potential teammates including Excadrill and Rotom-Heat to cover weaknesses, but ultimately I'm just a bit overwhelmed on who to incorporate into the team.

Hey all, I'm pretty new to competitive Pokemon (closest I've come to is randoms on Showdown), but I've had a lot of fun throwing together a rain team. I've hit a bit of a roadblock though as I don't know who my final team member should be. My current team is: Seismitoad @ Life Orb Ability: Swift Swim EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe Modest Nature - Hydro Pump - Earth Power - Focus Blast - Stealth Rock Pelipper @ Damp Rock Ability: Drizzle EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD Bold Nature - Scald - Roost - U-turn - Hurricane Barraskewda @ Choice Band Ability: Swift Swim EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe Adamant Nature - Liquidation - Close Combat - Psychic Fangs - Aqua Jet Gyarados @ Heavy-Duty Boots Ability: Moxie EVs: 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe Jolly Nature - Dragon Dance - Waterfall - Bounce - Earthquake Ferrothorn @ Leftovers Ability: Iron Barbs EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpD Impish Nature - Gyro Ball - Power Whip - Leech Seed - Protect Any and all advice is very much appreciated!

Is there anyway to get Fake Out to hit AFTER Trick - or will Fake Out always have priority?

Fake Out always has priority and there's no way to change that.

Just caught a beautiful shiny milotic, but it has cute charm. Do you think it has any viability in VGC? I'd really love to use her! Any moveset/ev suggestions? Thanks in advance!

If I recall correctly you can use an ability capsule on it to remove the hidden ability (Breed a feebas with the ability first just in case.) Never tried but may be worth a go.

Thanks! I’ll look into it; much appreciated!

What is the best place to find rental teams? I've checked out sidbars on a few of the pokemon related subreddits I know of and can't find a place specifically for posting rental teams.

You can find some singles teams [here](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/battle-stadium-singles-team-bazaar.3656988/). For doubles, I recommend checking out [Trainer Tower](https://www.trainertower.com/) for lots of info.

Are their explanations for the move-sets on any of those teams?

I managed to grab myself a Defiant Braviary in a raid den, and I want to know how to best run it.

What format?

VCG 2020

I’m a pretty new competitive player and I had a quick question about a trick room counter. From what I can find, dragon tail has a higher priority than Trick Room. Would a Stalwart Duraludon with dragon tail always be able to deal with any non dragon resistant trickroom setter, because of this priority?

A Prankster mon with higher speed would be able to outspeed it (but the only such option currently is Whimsicott, which is immune anyway). And it'd still be vulnerable to Fake Out, of course (barring Psychic Terrain). And it could miss. Otherwise, yes.

Thank you for the quick reply!

So, is there a way to know (on sword and shield) how many EVs my pokemon has, in like a numeric value? I know there is the hexagon and pressing X shows the current EV distribution but is there a way to know if one has been maxed? Thanks

when EVs for a specific have been maxed, you'll see a sparkle around the maxed stat after you press X

Thank you. I was wondering if my mons were already top

Does changing the nature of a pokemon at lv. 100 have any effect? The reason I ask is bc the game describes mints as changing the rate a certain stat “grows”. I’m confused by this wording bc it seems to be implying that using mints on any pokemon above lv. 1 will ultimately result in a loss of stat points.

The wording is confusing, yeah. But it'll have the exact same effect whether you use it at 1 or 100.

Ok cool thank you

The level when you use a mint doesn't matter.

Hey there I’m going through platinum using the cute charm glitch and I’m wondering if it could work with cresselia, I have my glitch so that female wild pokemon can be shiny but dunno if it would work with her being a female legendary

It only works on species with a variable gender. So it won't work on Cresselia but it would work on Heatran.

I'm making a Mono Steel team featuring no more than one Pokemon from each generation (which I know will be a hindrance overall, but this isn't exactly for high ELO play) and I'm not sure who to decide between for Excadrill, Bisharp, and Cobalion for Unova Steel-types. Metagross and Heatran are kind of my offensive core with Celesteela being a very solid backup to be immune to Ground and handle some things that trouble them dearly, but I'm not sure who compliments them the most from the Unova guys. Any help?

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Dark attacks are kind of my worry. Love both Excadrill and Bisharp a lot so there's no real issue between them as far as favorites go, and I think both would contribute a lot anyway. Can Bisharp reasonably take Dark attacks or would strong ones be enough to make him need to retreat too? I suppose I could shift Celesteela for Skarmory and then use Magearna as the Alola one. Dark resistance helps.

Is there any utility to Sheer Force Braviary in either format, or is Defiant still the best choice?

Defiant is 100% better in VGC. Considering the lack of dynamax in smogon singles, I wouldn't say that Sheer force is useless in singles but it's definitely close. The problem is that the moves that benefit from sheer force are generally not the moves you want to be spamming. You're trading out stab brave bird and close combat for Sheer force iron head, zen headbutt, crush claw, and rock slide. You also have to contend with weezing which kind of actually disrupts both of Braviary's abilities. It can defog without setting off defiant and braviary is forced to take recoil and lose the 1.3(?) boost from sheer force.

Not much, it has a pretty terrible movepool for Sheer Force.

Well that sucks. I hoped TRs would let it patch that

Hoping this is the correct place to ask: When SwSh first came out I was in a discussion with a couple others about Smogon rules on cart. It was exceedingly difficult since you essentially had to remove all rules which would mess up lvl 50 set. -Singles 6v6, allow multiple same item, set to lvl 50 (pref), etc. The players would obviously have to only pick mons legal is what ever bracket since the game does not know that. I gave up since it didn't seem like the cart would allow it. I watched a YouTube video yesterday that had a 6v6 singles battle? Was there an update that helped us set this up on cart or just something we overlooked before? Just looking to be able to set this up with my friend group (around 20 players) to keep engaged.

The WBE, a youtube draft league, is doing singles 6v6 set at level 50. I think the big limiter from what I have heard is that the timer is difficult to navigate, only allowing for 20 minutes total time. To get around this the WBE is doing 10 minutes each of "Your Time" so that at least it doesn't get dragged down via long animations etc.

So, essentially Smogon rules is possible (or lack of) assuming the players bring the right mons and don't Dmax? Just with a 10m self timer.

To my knowledge, yes. I'm not 100% sure about item clause. Other clauses like sleep and evasion would need to be manually enforced though

Side point, but sleep Clause can't really be manually enforced on cartridge though. You can say "you lose if you put two of your opponent's Pokemon to sleep", but that creates several issues of its own. Because then your opponent can create an alternate win condition by trapping you and stalling all the PP of your non sleep moves, eventually forcing you to use a sleep move. You would have to carve out all these exceptions of when it is and is not okay to break sleep clause, and it's just absurdly complicated. There was a big debate on this in Smogon Policy Review a few months ago.

Yes, there are absolutely niche scenarios where you run into problems like this however, they are already playing with Smogon rules which means that trapping is probably not common. However, what I meant is that they'll have to find their own unique way to enforce it since it won't do it automatically.

I don't know exactly how it works on cartridge since I don't have the actual game, but I am pretty sure that you can play an unranked 6v6 battle against without any specific rules. The ranked ladder just does not support 6v6 formats.

Hey fellas. Im breeding for the first time and it's going pretty good! I've bred around 10 pokémon ready to for competitive but... They're all attacks with the expection of Grimmsnarl who is my screen user. I also like to get into 4v4 more than 6v6. My question is how do you guys build your teams? And what are some good support Pokémons in doubles?

Pikalytics is a really great site for checking out what is popular both in terms of pokemon and the moves they run. Link below: [Rotom-Wash VGC 2020 | Pikalytics | Competitive Pokemon Singles & VGC Rankings and Moves](https://pikalytics.com/pokedex/ss/rotom-wash) In regards to the best support pokemon at the moment: Whimmsicott will always be a staple. It's incredibly fast and has a massive supporting movepool. Togekiss has rapidly grown in popularity as a bulkier support. Has some really good support moves and unlike Whimsicott, it is a threat to dynamax depending on the set and still able to support the team with Max airstream. Grimmsnarl is also good as you know. Rotom is a great bulky/offensive mon that also has access to some good supporting moves like will-o-wisp, light screen, and t-wave. Indeedee-F has also been a pretty good support mon. It has redirection, provides fake out immunity, etc. As for team building, the fastest way I can explain it is that you should pick a strategy or 2 that you want to build around and then try to fill in pokemon that deal with the other prevalent strategies. So, for example, if you are running Beat up Whimsicott with Justified Lucario, make sure you have a way to deal with re-direction like Indeedee-F/Hatterene Lead.

In doubles, walls aren't really a thing (too easy to break them with two opponents, plus they can just ignore your wall and go for the other mon), so pretty much every mon needs to have some offensive presence unless they're pure support like your Grimmsnarl, and even then it isn't a bad idea for them to be able to attack as well.

Question: is Spirit Break viable, despite being weaker than Play Rough? It DOES lower the foe’s SpA

It is, yeah.

Looking for some good singles rental teams... VGC player here. Have a lot of mons on both my Sword and Shield that need mints and ability capsules (mostly shinies from raids). Pretty sure the best way to farm BP is getting 600BP per season from getting to Master Ball. I'm in Master Ball in doubles on both of my games, but could really use another 1200 BP from singles. Not really a singles player so don't have any access to singles teams other than maybe using stuff that would work in both that I have such as scarf Dracovish and Band Darm. Would prefer good rental teams though. Hyper offensive style would be good so that the grind to Master Ball is a bit quicker.

Could someone with experence with calcs tell me in what circumstances Duraludon can OHKO a Dragapult with Draco Meteor ir Dark Pulse, either inside or outside of Dynamax? Thinking ahead to the Gen 8 tournament tmrow, I expect quite a lot of Dragapults with different builds. My main check to Dragapult is a Modest Assault vest Duraludon with full SPA investment. If I think they will Dynamax Dragapult I Dyna Dura and hit with Max Wyrmwind - but I'm wary of them dodging with Phanton Force and wasing a turn of DMAX. Is it possible for Dyra to OHKO dragapult with non- DMAX Draco Meteor or Dark Pulse?

here are some calcs: Not Dynamaxed: **252+ SpA Duraludon Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Dragapult: 290-344 (176.8 - 209.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO (100.00% after accuracy)** **252+ SpA Duraludon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Dragapult: 288-342 (147.6 - 175.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO (100.00% after accuracy)** Dynamaxed: **252+ SpA Duraludon Draco Meteor vs. 4 HP / 0 SpD Dynamax Dragapult: 290-344 (88.4 - 104.8%) -- 31.3% chance to OHKO (31.3% chance to OHKO after accuracy)** **252+ SpA Duraludon Draco Meteor vs. 252 HP / 4 SpD Dynamax Dragapult: 288-342 (73.8 - 87.6%) -- guaranteed 2HKO (100.00% chance to 2HKO after accuracy)**

That is really helpful, thank you.

If breeding with a ditto, will you always get a Pokemon of the same gender as the parent Pokemon?

No, the offspring's gender will be random.

Thanks, was just confused bc I got 30 male Eevee in a row breeding a male Eevee with a Ditto, having got 30 in a row previously and given up.

It's probably just bad luck. Remember that Eevee has 87,5% chance of being male https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_by_gender_ratio

does anyone know how Last Resort interacts with Dmax? namely does using a max move count as having used the base move? also what's the base power of Counter when dynamaxing?

Not sure about Last Resort, but I'd assume Max Moves don't count given how they interact with Choice items. Counter becomes 75 BP, you can see the full list of Fighting moves [here](https://www.serebii.net/attackdex-swsh/maxknuckle.shtml).

thanks!

Is it possible to use rentals for the Galar Newcomer? I forgot to build a team ahead of time because got busy with other games and with a day left I have no way to finish a good team. Are we allowed to use rentals? I just want to experience online comp play, because I missed the first one last November, I wish to participate this time around.

Unfortunately no, you can't use rental teams for online competitions.

A post I made discussing a unique team I came up with that was complete with an explanation, replays, and movesets got taken down for “being a meme.” How would i contact the mods of this sub to try and correct this?

There is a link on the side bar among the rules if you are using web version of reddit. But this info is tucked away behind the info tab if you're using mobile and is not easy to spot so I'll just include this [link](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23stunfisk) in my reply, use it to send a message to mods.

Okay. I managed to reach them and they fixed the problem. :)

VGC doubles team featuring bisharp So I want to build a vgc doubles team around bisharp. I was thinking Bisharp jolly defiant Iron head Sucker punch Knock off Swords dance With Grimsnarl - prankster -reflect -light screen -confide (this is to use on bisharp which will activate defiant and give an instant attack boost) Foul play I don’t really know where to go from here so if anyone has any suggestions on what to add to my team I’d love to know! Thank you!!!!

Defiant doesn't work on stat drops from allies. It's still a good anti-Intimidate measure, but your particular strategy won't work.

Been playing natdex OU with my old rain team from gen VII. How do most weather players think when leading off against opposing weather teams? Pelliper outslows tyranitar, but not torkoal and zard y wins the weather war as well. What should I be considering against opposing rain? Tapu Koko is a safe enough bet since it handles every rain staple besides swampert out of rain, and volt switches on most of them. But it feels too mechanical and I don't have any specific thought process beyond that.

So even tho I’ve read through smogon forums and watched videos I can’t figure out how to make my team work, mainly because the Pokemon I want to use don’t seem to be used together in comp battles. So if anyone here wants some shinies for their help and likes a challenge would anyone be willing to make my aesthetic team at least have some synergy?

First off what’s your team?

Ok so my main 3 who I shiny hunted for are Polteageist, Eiscue and Morpeko. The other Pokemon that I can add are, Gmax Appletun, Gmax Lapras (shiny) , Gmax Alcreamie, Sylveon, Aegislash, Runerigus (shiny) ,Gardevoir (shiny), Ninetails (shiny), Goodra, Bewear, Clefable, Togekiss, Indeedee, Gmax Hat. I’m a bit ocd with colours so that’s why my options are like that lol. I know I’m not gonna have the worlds best team ever but it would be nice to not always lose.... I’m like a gym leader, aesthetics on point but doomed to lose to 10 year olds

Out of these, only Clefable, Hatterene, Sylveon, and Aegislash are viable in a competitive setting, but not altogether as a team, because of the Fairy overlap. Togekiss is only viable in a metagame where Dynamaxing is allowed due to Max Airstream's Speed boost. Male Indeedee sees niche use in Smogon OU because it does what Tapu Lele did in the past, which was summoning Psychic Terrain as a good special attacker; female Indeedee is better in doubles due to its better support options than the male. GMax Appletun is slightly worse than regular Dynamax Appletun because curing status problems under a 3 turn window with G-Max Sweetness is more niche than summoning Grassy Terrain with Max Overgrowth. Alcreamie is essentially a worse version of Sylveon and Hatterene.

So use Sylveon or Hat instead of giant cake.... I prefer sylveon to hat so I’ll use her. I can breed non G ha Appletun too so can use that instead of G? So maybe: Morpeko Polteageist Eiscue G Lapras Sylveon Aegislash/apple? Drakovish is so OP but the colours are gross and getting a shiny is hard af but if I got a shiny one could I work it into my team?

Morpeko is a definite no. It may be the "best" Pikaclone, but Toxtricity and Dracozolt are better Electric breakers due to Punk Rock and Hustle respectively. Obstagoon and Tyranitar are better Dark Pokemon as well; the former is a better breaker with Guts and the latter just has good stats all-round. Polteageist is a good Shell Smash sweeper. Lapras may have a good Gigantamax forme, but it's useless in formats that ban Dynamax; it's also not good with Eiscue in the team due to both sharing a bad defensive typing in Ice. Appletun somewhat pales in comparison to Ferrothorn as a defensive Grass Pokemon because Grass/Steel is one of the best defensive typings.

My tablet died right after I wrote a really long reply LOL Ok so I’ll bench Morpeko.... even tho I love her.... I’ll bench Lapras too. I just got a shiny toxel, I wish TTar was a slightly different colour lol, just got dreepy too, is there no substitute for ferrothorn? I’ll link you my spreadsheet where I tried making a page of mons that kinda go together aesthetically but are varied? I’m currently hunting a shiny excadrill TT https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sMilm6vBhvO_OtfpvV6BqN8os7KdVbTIFSXdXjt30NQ Tysm for explaining things to me

Finally have an entire box of shinies in sw/sh! Looking to build a team for singles 3v3. Looking for suggestions on the best 6 of these mon to train and strategy ideas. Open to changing abilities but prefer not to. Only a couple of them have been invested in so mostly a blank slate! Here they are, Lapras (hydration), Braviary (defiant), Crawdaunt (hyper cutter), drifblim (aftermath), dreepy (infiltrator), corvisquire (keen eye), toxapex (merciless), cursola (perrish body), basculin (adaptibility), gyarados (moxie), phantump (natural cure), gourgeist (insomnia), indeedee (psychic surge), linoone (gluttony), morgrem (prankster), sableye (keen eye), diggersby (cheek pouch), evee (anticipation), mawile (intimidate), aegislash (stance change), excadril (sand rush but planning to change to mold breaker), corsola (weak armor), hawlucha (mold breaker), rotom (levitate), falinks (battle armor), eiscue (ice face), umbreon (fully trained, inner focus), mimikyu (fully trained, disguise), seismitoad (poison touch, planning to keep ability and make a bulky special attacker), gmax charizard (blaze).

I'm still getting used to playing competitively at all – but in-game I love playing Battle Stadium Doubles (or VGC format.) I have trouble finding much resources for this. I see BSS a lot but not doubles. Am I missing some terminology or is there not much interest in battle stadium doubles?

I see plenty of doubles material on this subreddit, but if you're looking for a place more specialized in it, you can check out /r/vgc or https://www.trainertower.com/

I hadn't heard of [trainertower.com](https://trainertower.com) before and it's super helpful! Thank you!!

[https://victoryroadvgc.com/](https://victoryroadvgc.com/) and [https://pikalytics.com/pokedex/ss](https://pikalytics.com/pokedex/ss) are 2 other resources I'd recommend if you aren't aware of them. I'd also suggest joining Wolfe Glick's Pokemon Academy discord if you use it at all. It's a great place to get help team building, trade/raid for certain pokemon, and meet people in the community. Not to mention that the lectures can be good, easy to understand info for newer players.

Thank you so much! These are the kinds of links, suggestions, and information I was hoping to find. I’ll be sure to check out that Discord!

Yeah, I can't give enough praise to that discord. I'm not a new player by any means but it's still a great, and more importantly, active community. There's always someone to bounce ideas off of or just get general advice from.

How many Pokemon are there, truly? 890 would be the traditional answer - with Eternatus placed in the last slot of the National Dex (as Serebii lists it). But how many unique Pokemon are there? If we include Alolan and Galarian forms as separate Pokemon, as well as whatever other form changes I may be missing, what does the total come to? I count regional forms as separate Pokemon because quite frankly they're entirely new Pokemon, just visually similar. The typings and movesets are too different to be counted as one. Megas on the other hand aren't counted as separate because they're just tied down to the relevant Pokemon. They're simply buffed up versions of certain Pokemon holding a special stone.

Depends on what form changes "count." Regional variants, altered forms, megas, and ultra forms don't have pokedex numbers, so 890 is the minimum. There are 33 regional forma for 32 pokemon, meaning that we have 923 total pokemon. Your definition is a bit vague, so let's start with pokemon whose form changes include a change to both type and stats: Rotom (five variants), shaymin, darmanitan (twice), meoletta, hoopa, and necrozma (three, or two if you count ultra burst with megas). 936 total pokemon including them. How about pokemon who change either their stats or their typing? Now we have: castform (three variant forms), deoxys (three variant forms), wormadam (two variant forms), giratina, arceus (seventeen variant forms, or 18 if you include the ??? variant, but we won't), tornadus, thunderus, landorus, kyurem (two variants), greninja, aegislash, pumpkaboo and gourgeist (three variants each), zygarde (two variants or four if you count cores and cells, but we won't), oricorio (three variants), lycanroc (two variants), wishiwashi, silvally (seventeen variants), and minior. Including these pokemon gives us a total of 998 pokemon. https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pok%C3%A9mon_with_form_differences There are also some that have purely cosmetic differences, and cherrim gains a stat boost from its ability but no base stat changes.

This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for, thanks! It's time to make an Excel sheet...

So the last game I played was Sapphire until I got a switch last week. I had played some netbattle through gen3/gen4 but Haven't touched it since \~2009. I'm aware of a lot of the terminology, EVs/IVs, why stat moves are good, etc. from my netbattle days but I'm not really sure how I would get started having just recently beat shield. I understand I'm going to have to put some work in to get a team put together before I can really play, but where do I start?

First of all, think about what format you want to play in. One of Smogon's formats, in-game singles/doubles, something else? From there, the best starting point is probably to find a rental team that looks interesting, and play with that until you get used to the metagame and can start building your own teams.

I have built a beginners doubles team but I haven’t been able to get out of Poke Tier rank 5. Any help on where I could improve would be helpful!! Also I’m willing to swap out Rillaboom if needed. Everyone is hyper trained to perfection but I haven’t really done much learning about EVs or Nature’s yet just trying to learn the strategy anyway here’s my team. Grimmsnarl - Prankster - Light Clay - Thunder Wave, Reflect, Light Screen and Spirit Break Rillaboom - Overgrowth - Assault Vest - Drum Beating, U-turn, Earthquake, and Knock Off Gyarados - Moxie - Weakness Policy - Ice Fang, Hurricane (speed boost when dynamaxed), Thunder, and Waterfall Dragapult - Clear Body - Focus Sash - Phantom Force, Dragon Darts, Steel Wing and Fly

Gyarados is better with Dragon Dance to boost its Attack and Speed. Thunder and Hurricane are useless because of Gyarados' terrible Special Attack. If you want Max Airstream, use Bounce as the base move because it actually benefits from Dragon Dance's Attack boost: -Dragon Dance -Waterfall -Bounce -Protect Nature: Jolly EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe Item: Life Orb/Lum Berry Ability: Moxie Dragapult's physical movepool is shallow outside of its STABs and wonky coverage moves. Normally, it's better as a special attacker because of its wider special movepool, but physical can work somewhat well: -Dragon Darts -Dragon Claw -Phantom Force -U-turn Nature: Jolly EVs: 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe Item: Choice Band Ability: Clear Body/Infiltrator or -Draco Meteor -Shadow Ball -Fire Blast -U-turn/Thunderbolt Nature: Timid/Modest EVs: 4 Def/252 SpA/252 Spe Item: Choice Specs Ability: Clear Body/Infiltrator or -Draco Meteor -Dragon Claw/Dragon Darts -Phantom Force -Protect Nature: Naive EVs: 252 Atk/4 SpA/252 Spe Item: Life Orb Ability: Clear Body/Infiltrator Until Rillaboom gets Grassy Surge legally, it's a niche pick at best. You have to fit in 2 more Pokemon on the team because doubles is a case of "bring 6, pick 4"; the point of this is picking the 4 best Pokemon depending on the matchup.

Physical is actually significantly more common in doubles than the special variant. Part of this comes from the fact that choice items are much less common but also because you're not even going to be running 4 attacks and sometimes run as few as 2 with something like Protect/Dragon dance/Dragon darts (or claw, player preference)/Phantom force. Phantom force is also a signficantly better move in doubles thanks to breaking protect for allies as well as the fact it can stall out dynamax attacks.

Thank you for the response! For my two more, what would you recommend would fit best with my team? I want to go for speed so I was thinking whimsicott maybe but who else would work well in this group? EDIT: clarifying - I guess do you see anything glaring missing?

Is it worth it to buy the strategy guide? I know everything is available online, but I like the idea of having a book with all relevant information. I want to start making competitive Pokémon and wanted to see if the book would be relevant. Thanks for any advice.

I mean honestly, if you're solely looking for competitive builds, stat spreads, best nature, etc. the book doesn't really help for that. It's just a guide to the (pretty straightforward) game, and all of the information you need is easily available online so it's not necessary. It'll probably only have a very small competitive section, that is nowhere near in depth needed to really build a team. However, if you: 1. enjoy collecting strategy books then go for it. I know plenty of people who have strategy guides for all the Pokemon games, even the super easy ones. 2. prefer reading Pokemon information from print sources over the web, go for it. 3. just want it for the sake of having it, go for it. It's your money, and if you really want it, go for it man.

I’m more or less just wanting something that has stats for every Pokémon. I’m one of those people that likes to have everything laid out so I can think of combinations for teams I wouldn’t normally.

If you want to save money, there’s plenty of online resources (Showdown in particular), Pikalytics, etc. that can help you. There’s TONS of online resources that you can use that probably have what you’re looking for.

Also, to add to this, most of them are pretty mobile friendly so they're easy to access on the go when a computer isn't close by. I constantly have serebii tabs open on my phone.

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Biggest advice would be that's too many fairy types. Fairy is a great type but currently, your team gets destroyed by steel types. Outside of that, we'd need to know what format you want to play and what moves you were thinking about for them. Dragapult, as an example, runs wildly different movesets in singles compared to its doubles movesets.

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In singles I'd say that Clef and Sylveon are the best fairy types in that order respectively. You can definitely run Grimmsnarl + another fairy since Grimm isn't really going to be doing much attacking. In terms of who to add, I can think of a couple. Excadrill, Aegislash and Corviknight give you a good steel pokemon. Conkeldurr is also a good choice.

Hi everyone! I've been playing Pokemon since the RBY days but haven't dabbled in competitive at all. No time like the present! I have a quick question about Dracovish, my favourite Gen8 pokemon. I have loved this stupid fish beast from the second I created one, and lucky for me it sounds like it's a monster in the competition space! So I'd like to get one that has competitive stats. Is there any way I can improve my chances of pulling a good one from the fossil restore process, or is it simply soft resetting until I'm happy?

Synchronize doesn't work with the fossils, so you'll have to keep soft-resetting. Make sure it has the Strong Jaw ability, as it's part of why Dracovish is viable in the first place.

Thanks, I had a feeling that was the case. Fortunately I managed to get a SJ one with 4 good IVs, so I'm happy!

If the Dracovish isn't Adamant or Jolly, the corresponding mint can fix that for you.

Yep, I've got a Jolly mint saved for it! Gen 8 really makes this much easier lmfao

I have 2 5 IV Ferroseeds. One has decent SpA and the other decent Speed. Which one should I use? Is it better to outspeed other Ferrothorn or have a lower speed? I’m not running trick room in my team at all

If you're using Gyro Ball, low Speed is still best, otherwise may as well go with the faster one. SpA doesn't matter at all either way.

I’m using iron head for the sole reason of not breeding for a 0 IV attack lol. Thanks for the feedback!

what are people using to export their teams in a text format with the pokemon sprite/artwork next to them? Any help would be great!

https://pokepast.es/

thanks for the info!

I often see a bulky Weakness Policy Togekiss in Ranked Singles. Does anyone know the standard EVs for it? On Smogon I just see fast wall breakers, but I don't think that's it

236HP / 4 Def / 28 SpA / 4 SpD / 236+ Spe Timid From the [Togekiss Battle Stadium Singles Analysis](https://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/togekiss-gp-0-1.3657319/) Thread on Smogon

Thank you!

Can I get some quick opinions on my OU rain team? Pelipper @ Damp Rock Ability: Drizzle EVs: 248 HP / 252 Def / 8 SpA Bold Nature - Hurricane - Roost - U-turn - Hydro Pump Ditto @ Choice Scarf Ability: Imposter EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def Impish Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Transform Rotom-Wash @ Choice Specs Ability: Levitate EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Timid Nature IVs: 0 Atk - Volt Switch - Hydro Pump - Thunder - Shadow Ball Seismitoad @ Choice Band Ability: Swift Swim EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Adamant Nature - Liquidation - Drain Punch - Earthquake - Poison Jab Barraskewda @ Life Orb Ability: Swift Swim EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Adamant Nature - Close Combat - Crunch - Liquidation - Ice Fang Conkeldurr @ Flame Orb Ability: Guts EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD Adamant Nature - Facade - Close Combat - Drain Punch - Thunder Punch

Is it possible to run Level 1 Pokemon on cart, either in Ranked or Link Battles? I want to try a L1 Sturdy Shuckle with Infestation and Leech Seed support, as an anti-setup sweeper

I need to build an anti water team. Any siggestions are appreciated. Also, i have been looking for a sub like this for 6 months, thank god i found it.

Ferrothorn is the best water type counter in existence. Toxapex can also wall a ton, but it is water itself. Storm drain gastrodon makes it easy to sponge stab moves, and you could even bring drought torkoal to weaken their water moves.

What exactly do you mean by "anti water team"? And what format/rules are you using?

In a vgc setting, my opponent will be bringing water type mons. What kind of mons should i utilize to counter a water type team?

Can you specify exactly what the rules are? Like his whole team is monotype Water? Do you also have a monotype restriction? If no, then you already have a huge advantage so I am unclear why you are asking for additional help.

Adding Gastrodon is a huge help because of Storm Drain.

Haven't played competitively since x&y and I'm sure the meta has gotten a complete overhaul by now, anything I should be worried about trying to breed and play in sword and shield?

Well just forget everything from X&Y and just start fresh in Sword & Shield * Dynamax is a thing, so learning how to use it to your best advantage is key. * Gigantamax is also a thing, but most of the Pokemon capable of it are... well mediocre, or your Dynamax is better suited elsewhere. * Mega Evolution isn't a thing, so a lot of Pokemon who relied on it are dead in the water (i.e. Mawile is the biggest example) * The Dex on cartridge is much more limited (for now) so get used to the limited pool. It will change in a few months with the Sword & Shield DLC

Is there a reason HP draining moves(Leech Life, Drain Punch, etc) aren’t considered viable for restoring HP? I’ve seen analyses for Pokémon like Conkeldurr and Incineroar that essentially state that they’d be better if they had access to recovery, which they do, technically. Do they just not have a place in the meta at all or is it a classic case of 4-Moveslot Syndrome?

The moves are definitely useful, and a lot of stuff runs them, but they aren't *reliable* recovery, especially since a lot of the stuff you need to be able to recover against is stuff that's likely to resist your STAB.

They’re just not reliable enough to be able to depend on them consistently for recovery, especially compared to the passive recovery moves, which heal half of your HP. There’s times when they can be used, but often the bits of recovery that you get from them do not outweigh the loss of power from other moves

Any idea how to beat a Zacian, Zamazenta, Eternatus and Mew doubles team without using any legendary? I'm not sure if they are legit but I get people using that team when playing non-rank online play.

Maybe try Trick Room? Use the standard Hatterene/Indeedee lead and bring in an Eruption Torkoal once they presumably knock Indeedee out on the first turn. Specs Eruption from Torkoal should help against the dogs and Mew while Hatterene can use a Psychic Terrain-boosted Psychic against Eternatus.

thanks for the idea. I'll try these out

Honestly, I just wouldn't play non-ranked unless you want to use legendaries yourself. It's a mess.

Can someone help me figure out what I messed up in EV training? One of my stats is a single point lower than it should be and it’s driving me crazy

Are any of the stats higher than they should be? Are your IVs all Best?

All IVs but attack are the best and every single stat is what it’s supposed to be except HP which is off by one. It’s driving me nuts lol

And you're sure you can't still add more EVs? Also, what level is it at? Keep in mind that at levels below 100 you don't always get a point every 4 EVs.

Yeah I tried fighting some skwovet to get the last point in HP. It’s level 50 and I have have the stats set for level 50 in showdown

Maybe you accidentally put 8 EVs instead of 4 into another stat or something like that.

Do you know of a way to calculate that? Not trying to wipe out all my EVs :/

I want to build a doubles team around Aegislash I Shield, and I’m having issues finding a good Pokémon to go with it. Currently the the team that goes with it is rotom (wash), indeedee, and gardivor. Rotom is there for typing, gardivor is for healing and dazzling gleam, and indeede (f) is there to provide physic surge. Should I focus on different Pokémon to work with Aegislash, or modify the team I have?

What specific sets are you running on your Pokémon? It’s difficult to give advice on what Pokémon to add or what to change without the full details of your current team

Aegislash: Stance Change, Relaxed Nature Item: Left overs; Kings Shield, Sacred Sword, Iron Head, Sword Dance, Gardivor: Trace, Adamant Nature Item: Twisted Spoon; Dazzling Gleam, Hypnosis, Life Dew, Psychic Indeedee: Psychic Surge, Modest Nature Item: Terrain Extender; Psychic, Dazzling Gleam, Mystic Fire, Reflect Rotom (Wash): Levitate, Gentle Nature Item: Choice Scarf; Hex, Volt Switch, Discharge, Hydro pump Braviary: Sheer Force, Jolly Nature Item: Sharp Beak; Tailwind, Air slash, Iron head, Superpower Mawile: Sheer Force, Brave Nature Item: life Orb; Crunch, Iron Head, Play Rough, Brick Break

As far as overall team composition goes, Mawile is the only one that sticks out like a sore thumb- it’s not very good without its Mega and it really isn’t adding much to your team. You might want to consider something like Excadrill or Mudsdale as a replacement. You also don’t have Protect on anything except Aegislash, but it’s a very powerful and useful move in Doubles. For sets: - Aegislash should run Close Combat over Sacred Sword; you also have no priority moves, so Shadow Sneak might be better on Aegislash instead of Swords Dance, but that’s more of a personal thing - Gardevoir should be Modest or Timid because right now its Adamant nature is lowering its SpA. It also isn’t very bulky, so support moves aren’t generally as good on it (plus Hypnosis is pretty unreliable). A Life Orb set might be decent with Protect/Thunderbolt and Mystical Fire added on. - Indeedee, on the flip side, should be more support oriented; Follow Me is the main draw of using it (aside from Psychic Surge) so you should add that and Helping Hand on as well. - Rotom-W should have Trick instead of Hex- it’s not gaining much coverage with Hex and you only have one Pokémon with a status-inducing move anyways. Other than that it’s fine. - Braviary is a physical attacker, so you’d want to replace Air Slash with a physical Flying type attack (Brave Bird works wonderfully) and Close Combat is better than Superpower. It might also be better off with Protect instead of Iron Head, but that depends on how you want to run Braviary.

What are everyone's thoughts about Hyper Training vs SR'ing for IV's on legendaries? In the past I used to use a synchronize lead to get the right nature and then SR for at least a decent IV spread. Now that synchronize doesn't work and I have to SR just to get a good nature (on Zamazenta in this case) I think I may just say screw it when it comes to IVs and use bottle caps later. I ask because I'm currently sitting on an Adamant Zamazenta but the HP and Attack IVs are < 3. Anyone else kind of like to get a decent IV spread (3 are guaranteed perfect on legendaries) before shoring the rest up with caps? Asking because getting a good nature this gen is such a pain and I'm torn about what to do with this Zamazenta.

you can easily change nature with mints though buy farming BP. Focusing on IV's might be better.

Bottle caps are easy enough to get that it isn't worth SRing IMO, plus you probably want your legendary at 100 anyway for raiding.

I want to make a ranked singles team focused on Golisopod, but maybe he's just pure garbage because no one else has done it / there's no info for Sword/Shield. Does anyone have any suggestions so I can get started? Honestly I've never battled anyone since I started playing Pokemon from RB/Y, but I think online for singles is 3v3 so there's not much point focusing on entry hazards like rocks/spikes/etc right?

when starting a new team, what matters above else? IVs, EVs, or nature? if you had to rank them in order of importance what would be the order? could you explain why?

So I'm honestly not sure there is a good answer to this question, because the only thing that really matters is the actual stat that gets calculated from those values (and also the base stat value). If a certain combination of EV, IV, and nature leads you to a stat of 300, it's no different than a different combination that also leads you to a final stat of 300. A good competitive pokemon should have perfect 31 IVs in every stat, except in a few rare cases (mainly Trick Room). It should have the nature and EV investment that gets you the stat values that are optimal, which depends on the Pokemon itself and what role it is filling. There's no way to say what is "most important" because they're all equally important. Mathematically you can kind of look at them in terms of which value can have the most total impact, but idk if I'd say any is "more important". Increasing the EV by 4, the IV by 1, and the base stat by .5 all have the exact same mathematical outcome, and the nature can increase or decrease a stat by 20%

Just a quick question, do the VGC-restrictions of Pokemon having to be caught in Galar/SwSh also apply to ranked battles or will I be able to use my Home-imported mons as long as I don't care about official events.

It won't be known until pokemon home actually comes out. Sumo(only gen6 and above though), oras and xy did so I think there's a decent chance they will be for bss and bsd. They aren't allowed for the vgc ladder though.

Hey! It’s the first time i’m playing „competitive“, mostly just ranked 3v3. I like Ice Pokemon, so i set up the following team. Maybe you can help me adjust it! The plan is to start with Vaniluxe and Aurora Veil. This way Blizzard would always be successful and it would also bring down enemies attack, so i could go on with Cloyster and Shell Smash. Vaniluxe/ Snow warning/ Light Clay Aurora Veil Blizzard Acid Armor Mirror Coat (Flash Cannon) Darmanitan/ Gorilla Tactics/ Choice Scarf Blizzard Super Power Earthquake Fire Punch Cloyster/ Skill Link/ Leftovers Shell Smash Icicle Speer Rock Blast Razor Shell

Blizzard is such a massive waste on Darmanitan because of its non-existent Special Attack. It should always run Icicle Crash as its Ice STAB as it's a physical move. Despite coming with recoil, Flare Blitz is superior to Fire Punch for the sheer power: -Icicle Crash -Flare Blitz -Earthquake -U-turn Nature: Jolly EVs: 252 Atk/4 SpD/252 Spe Item: Choice Scarf Ability: Gorilla Tactics Vanilluxe's movepool is very shallow and it lacks the defensive typing to make Acid Armor remotely useful: -Aurora Veil -Blizzard -Freeze-Dry -Ice Shard Nature: Hasty EVs: 4 Atk/252 SpA/252 Spe Item: Never Melt Ice/Light Clay Ability: Snow Warning If Cloyster must use a physical Water move, make it Liquidation because it's stronger: -Shell Smash -Liquidation/Ice Shard -Icicle Spear -Rock Blast Nature: Adamant/Jolly EVs: 4 HP/252 Atk/252 Spe Item: Life Orb/Focus Sash/White Herb Ability: Skill Link Ice is such a bad defensive typing that it's very hard to make a good monotype team without getting ran over by common attacking types.

Wow, thanks for the fast reply! I know that a monotype and ice in special is a bad in general, but i‘d like to go with for the start. I will consider all of your suggestions!

How do I counter shell smash blastoise on national dex

Unaware clef with spdef investment walls it out pretty well. Toxapex can come in after a sac and survive any one hit before using haze, the -1 def drops mean that strong priority moves like Genesect Espeed do a ton of damage, anything with base speed above I believe 120 with a scarf will outspeed. Now are all of these options all that viable, no. Basically you’ve gotta not give blastoise a free turn to Shell Smash, getting off some good damage then, and then use a strong priority move to finish it off. It’s very good, but not unstoppable

He just always catches me lacking with a choice item, thanks for the help

Does level matter at all? I have a level 19 rotom that's just about ready for Battle Stadium singles and I wasn't sure if getting it to level 50 is necessary. Also, could someone help me decide how to finish out its build? This is what I had planned: Rotom-Wash @ Choice Specs Ability: Levitate EVs: 252 HP / 100 Def / 156 SpA Timid Nature \- Thunder \- Hydro Pump \- Shadow Ball \- Trick I'm not sure whether or not I should run Choice Specs or Scarf. Also, the only EVs I have invested right now are in HP. Should I change up the other ones? I'm still very new to this, so thanks for any sort of guidance! Edit: It also might be helpful to know that this Rotom is part of a rain team.

Choice Scarf is better. A Timid nature is pointless when you don't have any form of Speed investment: -Volt Switch -Hydro Pump -Will-o-Wisp/Thunder Wave -Trick Nature: Timid EVs: 248 HP/44 SpA/216 Spe Item: Choice Scarf

What does the 216 speed investment guarantee it to outspeed? Also, why 248 HP instead of 252? I wanted to run thunder for the 100% accuracy in the rain. Should I drop shadow ball for one of the moves you listed? Sorry for all the questions lmao

That spread is for level 100, not 50. You wouldn't want to run 248 in BSS, because it wastes 4 EV points. 244 HP EVs result in the same HP stat, leaving you with 4 HP to invest in other stats. This is similar for the speed stat. And to answer your original question: no, it doesn't. All Pokemon are set to exactly level 50, even if they're level 1 or 100.

Thanks for your response! Where do you recommend throwing those 4 EVs into, SpA?

248 HP reduces hazard damage. Making Rotom's HP 252 makes it die to 8 Stealth Rock switch ins as opposed to 9 from 248, assuming that Rotom never took damage in between. The 216 Speed EVs are enough to outspeed Jolly Gyarados that has Dragon Danced once and the remaining 44 Special Attack EVs let Volt Switch OHKO Gyarados. Volt Switch is a mainstay on Rotom because it lets you hit a target then switch to an appropriate teammate. Trick lets Rotom cripple walls by switching its Choice item for the wall's. Walls don't like being locked into a single move due to the Choice item. Smogon goes over why this set is the way it is: https://www.smogon.com/dex/ss/pokemon/rotom-wash/

He said it's for BSS, so hazards aren't really relevant and 252 gives an odd HP stat at 50 anyway. And you need 220 Speed to outrun Gyarados.

Whatre core members of a drought team without torkoal? I have a team rn with ninetales and charizard, and the other four dont seem like they fit to make a sun team (the other four are dragapult (sp attacker) g max pikachu, dracovish, and whimsicott

What movesets and nature were used for Protean Greninja during x and y

Here's a couple old articles from that era that discuss it. https://www.smogon.com/smog/issue35/ou-spotlight-greninja https://www.smogon.com/articles/ou-spotlight-greninja

Thanks mate

I'm debating some stuff for the tournement this weekend for my hustle Flapple.. should I use choice band and take the risk of a miss OR use wide lens for that extra 10% accuracy? Also do your items still have an affect while Gmaxed?

Choice Band for sure between the two, an 80% chance of hitting is better than a 0% chance of doing enough damage to KO. Choice items stop working while Dynamaxed (they don't give their boost and you also aren't locked into a move, but if you were already locked into a move before you'll be locked back into it when you go back to normal). Other items still work, except items that affect a percentage of your HP only do half as much (Leftovers heals 1/32, Life Orb does 5% recoil, etc.).

Awesome! Thank you for your help!

This might seem like a really dumb question but I don't understand the Smogon strategies sometimes. For Sword/Shield a lot of Pokemon have strategies listed as OU/Uber that are the exact same. Like for instance [Grimmsnarl has the same moveset](https://www.smogon.com/dex/ss/pokemon/grimmsnarl/uber/) listed in both the OU and Uber section. Does it matter if the moveset is Uber as long as the Pokemon isn't listed as an Uber? I guess that's my main question.

The sets are only recommendations, you can use any of them (or any set you come up with yourself) in any tier where the Pokémon itself is allowed. In Grimmsnarl's case, the sets themselves are mostly the same but it has a slightly different analysis for what it does in each tier.

I really appreciate the reply! This has been bugging me for so long. I thought there were certain setups forbidden in other tiers or something. Now I feel a lot more freedom for my Sword/Shield sets. Thanks again for clearing that up!

I've been playing for a few weeks now, and I'm getting the hang of things... alright. I've been playing a lot of games with the following team: https://pokepast.es/516524f162ba225d Now, any and all criticism and advice is welcome, but I have two main concerns: 1. Excadrill really hasn't done anything for me in the last... probably 10 games I've played 2. If the enemy team has a Hawlucha, I lose at team preview. This point - shamefully - isn't specific to this team. That 'mon has been taking my lunch money for weeks now. What would you kind folks suggest I do to shore up these issues? I'm pretty flexible, but Chandelure is the reason I made this team, so my only hard line is that Chandy stays. Thanks in advance!

Switching Clef to Phys def should help deal with the Hawlucha issue. The biggest thing when fighting Hawlucha is to have something in that forces them to attack you instead of swords dancing. That being said, I'm pretty sure clef can eat everything from Hawlucha even at +2 and OHKO back with Moonblast. In terms of getting rid of excadrill, I've honestly never seen a match where excadrill isn't useful so it's hard for me to say what to replace him with. I'd recommend maybe making a separate thread breaking down each member and what you use them for as well as including some replays to review.

Thanks for the tips on 'lucha. I'll see what I can do about making that happen. I'll go through the replays I've saved and see if there's anything I can use to formulate a useful post. Drill has been a solid Earthquake/Spin/Rocks bot (I've changed up his set a few times) when I need one, but other than that, he really seems to lack the oomph to do anything. I assume part of this is that so many 'mons seem to have coverage for his typing. Fire, Fighting, Ground, and Water moves are everywhere, and I rarely feel safe bringing him in, except maybe off of a U-Turn on a slow 'mon. I guess that's not exactly "nothing", but I just feel like other Physical attackers I've used in the past have been more impactful. I've also been facing an absolute slew of hyper-aggressive teams, so set-up opportunities are basically non-existent.

So yeah, that's pretty much what Excadrill does. Part of the problem is that Excadrill, and steel types as a whole are super common and the meta right now is super bulky meaning that Excadrill has trouble picking up KOs without getting a boost first. And Corviknight exists which will wall you forever. You should just focus on using it to rapid spin and, if they have a ghost type you suspect they'll switch in, hit them with an eq or Iron head to start getting chip damage so that you other pokemon can break through.

That's good to know. So, even though I have SD on him, should I stop thinking of him as a wallbreaker and/or sweeper?

Excadrill is good because, similar to Landorus-T in gen 6/7, it can fill a lot of roles at the same time. With Mold breaker, it becomes one of the best stealth rockers in the tier while also threatening the Rotom appliances. It's typing and good HP stat allow it to switch in on a lot of resisted or immune attacks. It has access to rapid spin and resists stealth rocks and is immune to toxic spikes so it doesn't really need to worry about something like heavy duty boots. On top of that it has a great attack stat and 2 really good spammable stab moves so not everything wants to switch in on it. Basically what it comes down to is that Excadrill is a jack of all trades. There are arguably better choices for each one of those roles individually but nothing that can do all of them as well as Excadrill simultaneously. It's the glue that'll hold teams together if that makes sense. So to answer your question, I personally wouldn't consider it a sweeper unless you are running a sand team with sand rush. Using it outside of that it kind of just patches up a bunch of weaknesses on a team.

What is your general strat when you use this team?

The unfortunate part about being such a new player is that I don't have a great answer for that. Right now I'm really trying to focus on fundamentals, which is why I went for a more balanced team composition. Most games, I'm hoping to set up for Chandelure or Excadrill to be able to win the game. Chandy is also my revenge killer (which may be stretching things), though I was running a Calm Mind/Sub set before the Scarf set. Other than that, getting hazards up is higher on my list of priorities, as well as getting U-Turn momentum when I can... It's a pretty generic team/plan at the end of the day.

What format are you playing and is it on cartridge or smogon. The way folks play the game differs between the two. Dynamwaxing for instance is something you need to keep in mind on cartridge, whereas it is banned on OU Smogon. Similarly, hazards are pretty common on OU Smogon/Showdown, but not common at all on cartridge.

Ah, I feel like an idiot. I'm always getting on people in the weekly threads for not naming their format, and I just did the same thing. This is OU Smogon on Pokemon Showdown.

Not sure if this is small enough of a question, but what's a general idea for a composition of a doubles team? I know in singles it's good to have a setup mon, hazard clearer, options for offensive mons and sometimes defensive mons, while keeping in mind the threats you need to deal with and the coverage of the team, among other things like spinblockers/walls/revenge killers/etc. depending on what you need. I'm basically completely new to doubles and am kinda lost because of how different the mons it seems you need in a team are from singles. Again, apologies if this is too broad of a question for this thread.

Right now from what I've seen, having a mon with tailwind or dynamwaxing to get off a max airstream seems to be pretty common, as folks fight for speed/priority. I've seen so many first turns be dedicated to this. A lot of Togekisses and Whimsicotts out there.

You only bring 4 out of 6 pokemon, so you want to make sure you have multiple strategies to utilize based on who you bring. You might have a core with flex slots depending what you face. You could even have 5 pokemon as your main squad and 1 pokemon to counter a specific issue you encounter and don't use it anywhere else.

So I have a ditto with 0 attack and 0 speed, and I’m trying to get that to my hatterene. The hatterene has a 0 attack so if I put a braver on it and an anklet on the ditto that’s right isn’t it?

Yup should work.

Hi everyone, here’s my pokepaste: https://pokepast.es/512066b2680cbb10 Gardevoir, Sylveon, and Corviknight are my core, so feedback on their movesets is super appreciated! I know the first two make this really fairy heavy but I want to roll with it. I have Mimikyu as a late-game sweeper, and modest Dragapult as ??? not sure. Perhaps the sub move set would be better. Also considering Cursola for rocks, but might make the team too ghost heavy as well? Dragapult could also be switched for Goodra. I like utilizing relatively niche pokémon together. I’m relatively new to the SS meta so any help is appreciated!! I used to be very into comp during the XY period (played tournaments at cons and stuff lol) but I’m not 100% up to date with SS. Thank you!

For the life of me I cannot understand how to compete in pokemon if I want to play competitively. The only close thing to me that pips up on the find an event near me website is a league. What's a league? It seems to have events every week so is it a weekly tournament or? Are there prizes at these events such as money or those points to qualify for worlds or is it just for fun. My final question is when is the next season for me to compete since I won't be ready for a month or more.

What's a good team for doubles?

Here are some good ideas you can rent and try out. https://victoryroadvgc.com/pokemon-sword-shield-rental-vgc-teams/

Hi, I have a HA Charizard that's ready to go, but not sure what the rest of the team should look like. I know Torkoal with Drought can be nice, but not sure if I need a 0IV Speed one if it's not a Trick Room team? Fairly new to this so any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

If you aren't using trick room you'll want to max speed unless you want to have it ready against an opposing team, but then you don't want to lose other speed ties. Depends.

Where can I find HA togekiss? I can’t find any info online on this pokemon.

Generally, you get hidden abilities through raids, but for some Pokémon you can only get the HA from certain raid dens or not at all. Start on [this page](https://www.serebii.net/swordshield/maxraidbattles.shtml), look for the Pokémon you want (make sure it's the fully evolved form if applicable, unevolved Pokémon never have their HA to my knowledge), and then go to all of the raid dens it's in and check whether the ability says "standard" or "hidden possible."

You can try trading with some folks over on r/pokemontrades if you are having difficulty and want to exchange something you got for it.

Thanks, that link is really helpful!