Pokemon Showdown!

[Nebbles]

They're very gimmicky, though. Non-gimmicky lower tier pokemon would be destroyed in OU if not handled well.

[blueflower999]

True, but I've swept entire teams with them before if I get a little lucky.

Although I suppose luck isn't always on my side.

[Yugi]

because the Tiers list Smogon popularized was made specifically so that players can use their favorite Pokémon without getting steamrolled by every ten-year-old who disregards that advice and just packs their team with Game Breakers.

[blueflower999]

If they're truly game breaking, they should be put in Ubers or banned entirely.

[Echo]

tiers dun exist

jk

But why would you put NU/UU pokemon on an OU team? From a competitive standpoint, you generally don't mix tiers....

Like, if you want to use NU/UU pokemon, why not make a team of them? In non competitive it doesn't matter, but if you're seriously battling pokemon, you can't ignore stuff like that.

The thing is, tiers in Pokemon are based on usage. Low tier Pokemon aren't necessarily bad, they just don't serve roles that fit for as many teams as other Pokemon. That doesn't mean that they can't serve their own niches though.

Like, Wobbuffet isn't Uber, but with supportive skills like Shadow Tag and Encore, he makes for a great setup Pokemon in the Ubers tier for the likes of Blaziken or Arceus. I'm not very familiar with OU this gen, but I don't think Azumarill is an OU Pokemon, yet his access to Huge Power + Aqua Jet lets him become a threat to some common OU Pokemon like Volcarona or Terrakion.

Or maybe look at Double Battles. Say you want an Electric-type that serves as a Light Screener, and you narrow down your choices to Raikou and Luxray. They can both serve the role well, with similar movepools for the job, with Light Screen and Snarl being the most notable moves. Raikou is more common to see thanks to its better overall stats, but Luxray is unique in that he also has Intimidate. By using Luxray's Screen + Snarl to block Special Attacks, and by having other Intimidate users on your team to stack Attack drops (and abusing Volt Switch on Luxray to swap to them repeatedly), you have a solid defensive core for both Physical and Special Attacks. In contrast, Raikou only protects on the Special side, so Luxray has a niche over Raikou, despite their similarities for the role.

So basically, low tier and uncommon Pokemon can have their uses in high-level play if they're used to serve unique niches. So when starting a team, using your favourites is viable in a team-based game like Pokemon, as long as you ask yourself "What can this Pokemon do, that others can't?" And then when it comes to deciding on the rest of your team, you shouldn't restrict yourself to just Pokemon in the same tier, but instead identify what specific role you need to strengthen your team, then narrow your search from there.

But I haven't played competitively since Gen 3, so my team-building philosophies might be outdated. >_>

[Yugi]

i have a bad team

[blueflower999]

Anyone up for a Random/OU/Hackmons battle?

[BlackDragonSlayer]

Anyone up for a Random/OU/Hackmons battle?

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/randombattle-38258494

Kwahahahaha... oh...

[blueflower999]

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/oucurrent-38260649

Me beating Yugi. I guess I'm not all that terrible after all. 

[FireArrow]

I fail to see what you mean by this.

I'm sorry - to me is looked like Waddle was implying the Yugi was making an idiotic mistake by putting non OU pokemon on his team. Echo's post sums up my thoughts (though he says it much better than I ever could.)

----------------------

Edit:

Cinccino too stronk: http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/randombattle-38388357

[Echo]

lol at that rating drop
http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/doublesvgc2013-38284232

[Waddle Bro]

I'm sorry - to me is looked like Waddle was implying the Yugi was making an idiotic mistake by putting non OU pokemon on his team. Echo's post sums up my thoughts (though he says it much better than I ever could.)

It wasn't an idiotic mistake, I was just interested since you see those in an OU team very rarely.

[FireArrow]

It wasn't an idiotic mistake, I was just interested since you see those in an OU team very rarely.

Ugh, sorry, reading it over, it was a lot less rude then I originally thought (For some reason I thought you were laughing at him.) Misunderstandings suck - and I'm REALLY sorry. That being said, we did get a good discussion out of it. 

[blueflower999]

I'm actually really enjoying Hackmons and I'm doing quite well at it. I'm actually fairly close to getting into the top 100 for the site. ^_^

Does anyone here play Hackmons that would like to battle me? I assure you it's a ton of fun if you've never tried it.

[K-NiGhT]

http://pokemonshowdown.com/replay/randombattle-38809420

clutch considering he destroyed me the first two times

dat spiritomb