So listen up, kids. I'm going to write a simple one, two, three steps on how you can start your PokeGame in the competitive scene, or atleast in Shoddy and other battle simulations since I'm a lazy bastard. I'm mainly writing this because it's just not fun at all if you're going against someone who doesn't know shit. Do as I say, and just like Mike, you'll go from an oblivious scrub to a decent player.
Sy still has a difficult time going to our level. So unless you're stupid, you should have no problem.
Level 1: Scrub
So you're new to the whole competitive Pokemon scene, and you literally know nothing about it. First things first, go beat a Pokemon game or two. After you do that, you have an idea on almost every Pokemon, and you started knowing who you like and who you don't.
At a scrub level, people only wanna use favourites. You're still a scrub, so I'm guessing I won't push you. So, let me pick my team.
Now a scrub would look at this team and call it the greatest team EVAAR! But in actuality, that team suck Chimchar balls because it has 4 major weaknesses to three commonly used Attack Types, while offering no support or good resistance to itself. A team of 6 good Pikachus can destroy it, really.
Now you'll be in denial for a while. Might take a week to three years, depends on how many matches you usually have and how many loses you call enough. After two days of crying over it, destroying all your Pokemon games, surviving your suicide attempt and perhaps a big therapy bill, you're ready to get down to business.
Level 2: Newbie
Here's where you really get down to work. First, you need everything about EVs, IVs, Natures and Hidden Power. Luckily, I offered you links here since they can explain it better than me and it saves me some time.
Second, you need to learn your PokeTerms so when the big boys are talking, you don't feel left out. Of course, I posted the terms a while back here. Read up.
Since you're still a newbie, you might still need help building your team. You can go the standard 3 Sweepers 3 Walls thing or you can go with Rey's Awesome Team Philosophy. What is Rey's Awesome Team Philosophy? Allow me to show you step by step..
This is the only time allow using a so called "favourite" Pokemon to start out. Pick ONE Pokemon you want to build the team around. Example, I choose Garchomp.
Now Garchomp is a decent Pokemon in terms of resistance, but he has a major weakness to Ice, which Ice Beam is a VERY common attack. So lets try and cover it using something that resist Ice like.. Magnezone and Suicune.
Now both the Ice AND Dragon weaknesses that Garchomp has are covered, and both Suicune and Magnezone cover each other's Grass, Electric and Fire weaknesses. However, now you're weak to Ground and Fighting, another very common types of attacks. So lets try and cover those with a Special Sweeper.
Mesprite pretty much covered that, as well as adding few good supports to a team. But oh ma damn, Now you're weak to Dark and Bug.. Meh, no worries, this bastard adds few resistance to it.
Now all you need is something that really supports your main Pokemon. Who better to support the Sand Crawler than the Sand Streamer?
And there ya go. Now you have a pretty solid team after you figure out what good these Pokemons can do and how to use them. You're still in the Newbie phase, to 252 EVs for two slots a Pokemon and the right Nature would do it for now. Now on this phase, you're playing randomly, seeing what you're doing wrong and what's done right. After a while, you'll start learning, so you're ready to move on the next level.
Level 3: Advanced
Here's where you put your learning skills to play. You notice things need changing and you start paying attention to the metagame. There you get involved into the more advanced shit, trying to counter the metagame, start experimenting and it's where you should really be visiting places like the Smogon boards. Your team will basically start going from that to more technical shit like Status Abuse like this.
That's when you know you're on your way to the next level..
Level 4: Pro
When you're on this level, you start getting bored and go to other formats like UU or Uber. Yep, you'll pretty much restart to Level 1 or 2. <3
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Yerrr.. I didn't put much thought into this.. I might edit it later for more detail.