Tour Guide: (IV) tnemanruoT esreveR ehT

Art and article by Zebraiken.

Introduction

Welcome to one of the Competitor's very own Tour Guides! This Guide exists to help you understand the concepts behind some of the more intriguing tournaments hosted on Smogon and brainstorm new ideas for your teams, so you can win it all. Our hope is that after you read our Guide, you will be much better prepared to win your matches.

We encourage you to join in any and all tournaments that interest you - it's always more fun with more people participating. Good luck!

Do you find yourself losing more than you're winning in tournaments? Or are you too accustomed to winning, and want to take losing for a spin? We can't all be the best of the best, but unlike any other tournament, the Reverse Tournament IV rewards your losses and highlights those players that have never been able to come out on top. In this tournament, everything is backwards - you play with your opponent's team and try your hardest to lose, because losing will put you into the next round.

Despite how simple the concept seems (you just gotta lose, right?), losing consistently in this tournament is a fine art and requires some thought. The team you build is the one your opponent will use against you, so you can't throw on moves like Final Gambit, Explosion, or Memento to ensure a quick loss. Instead, it needs to be good enough to beat whatever your opponent puts together for you to use, while simultaneously being difficult to lose with. It's a little hard to wrap your mind around, but we've covered most of the topics you should take into consideration when building a team for this tournament in the section below, so don't worry!

This tournament is teambuilding-intensive - you will not have success in this tournament unless you put hard work into the preparation before your match. It also requires re-structuring your in-battle strategies, because ironically it's a lot harder to lose than you might think. If you're up for a challenge and believe you can be the biggest loser of them all, this tournament is the one for you.

Breakdown

While it's not complicated in its concept, the Reverse Tournament requires more thought than many other kinds of tournaments. You need to prepare well and think about how you plan to approach the battle, especially because you have access to both teams that will be used in the match (the one you built for your opponent to use, and the one your opponent built for you). This section aims to cover everything you could be concerned about when preparing for this tournament.

Rules

There are several rules that govern how to play the matches, because some strategies would be way too dominant without these limitations.

"Don't use trickery to lose (win), including D/Cs, forfeiting, etc."

This rule is straightforward. Don't "cheat" to lose, play it out fair and square. If you intentionally disconnect or resort to other methods of trickery to "lose", you will be disqualified. Lose like a champ, not like a quitter.
"Only one Pokémon with a Choice item is allowed."

This rule is in place so that teams cannot overly restrict your options during battle. Using more than one Choice item would make it very difficult for whomever uses the team to play effectively, so you are limited to only one. This does not mean you can use one of each kind of Choice item; you can use one Choice Band OR one Choice Specs OR one Choice Scarf, but not any combination of the three.

Only one Pokémon may have a Choice item, and it's important to consider which Pokémon you want to hold the item. It's going to play a big role into your prediction games and your mindset during the match, so keep that in mind.
"Each Pokémon must have four moves."

If you were allowed to give a Pokémon only one move, it makes playing the match against that team significantly easier (if a Salamence only knows Outrage, you can take advantage of that very easily!).
This rule is in place so you cannot restrict movesets (and thus ease your own prediction in the battle) by just including one or two moves.
"Assault Vest is banned."

The banning of Assault Vest is a sort of combination of the above two rules: it acts as another Choice item because it restricts moves (the holder cannot use non-attacking moves) and effectively allows Pokémon to use less than four moves. This has the potential to break multiple rules, so it is banned.
"Each Pokémon can only have two STAB moves."

While the reasoning behind this rule might not be clear at first, it's set in place for the same reason we have Rule 2, 3, and 4: it restricts flexibility. Filling a Pokémon's moveslot with Outrage, Dragon Rush, Dragon Claw, and Twister has exactly the same impact as running a Pokémon with just Outrage, and it's way too easy to take advantage of.

Non-attacking moves don't count towards this limit. You can use Flamethrower, Fire Blast, and Will-O-Wisp all on the same Pokémon.
"You can only switch twice every five turns."

This is the most important rule of this tournament, and it's the rule you need to take the most thought into account for when building a team for this tournament and playing your matches. Technically, the best way to lose is to never try to win - never launching an attack would be the ideal way to lose the game, because you can't win if you never knock out an opponent's Pokémon! To prevent our games from becoming dumb switchfests, this rule is implemented so you MUST attack at least three turns of five.

There are a lot of implications with this rule that we will go over later, but it's important to note that if you do not use all of your switches in the five turns, they DO NOT carry over to the next set of five. You must be thoughtful when deciding what to do each turn.

Team Building

There is some awkward wording involved when reading this section. Because the team that is being built is going to be used by the opponent, I will avoid using terms like "your team" and "your opponent's team" and instead use phrasing like "the team you are building" and "the team you will play with". Same with things like "winning" (because you really want to lose, not win), etc.

Let's go over the most important part of teambuilding first. You are not using your own team. Say it three times fast with me: "I am not using my own team. I am not using my own team. I am not using my own team." Got it? Good.

Because you are not using your own team, you are building a team that can and will win. You are building a special team that you can take advantage of in battle, a team you can exploit when playing by making a timely switch into super-effective moves or by predicting their attacks. It needs to be survivable, and it needs to use effective moves and Pokémon. Remember: everything you put on the team you are building is what your opponent will use and it's what you want to lose to. Don't put on Tackle Feebas, put on Leftovers Scald Milotic (you don't have to use that, but you get the point).

The following sections are to be treated as guidelines and hints, not ultimatums and outlines for teams. Be creative, and think about how the game will play as you construct the team your opponent will use. At the very end, I will put together a nice little bullet point list of everything you should think about when building. Please take a moment to get into reversing your usual Pokémon mindset: Boosting moves are bad, two-turn attacks are good. Winning is bad, losing is good.

Attacks

You should only use attacks that have a direct impact on the HP of Pokémon. Don't use Swords Dance. Don't use Bulk Up, Calm Mind, or similar moves. Remember, your opponent is going to try to lose with the team you're building, so if they have a move that does virtually nothing to you available to them then that's the one they are going to opt for every time. Putting do-nothing moves like these on the team you give to your opponent puts you at an inherent disadvantage.

Leech Seed, Stealth Rock, and similar moves aren't "do-nothing" moves like the above. They still apply pressure and force your opponent to think about whether or not it's good to use them. In fact, unless the team they gave you has many immunities to moves like Spikes, they might even avoid using them altogether - this is a good thing for you, because it makes your prediction easier and puts even more pressure on your opponent.

Healing moves such as Softboiled or Wish are good in some situations, but you should think thoroughly before finalizing them on the team you're building. At absolute worst, they act as do-nothing moves when the user is at full HP, but after their Pokémon have gotten weakened they can force your opponent to rely on the other moves, as they don't want to bring a nearly-KOed Pokémon back to full HP. Forcing your opponent to have less options is always a good thing.

Stay away from recoil moves. They're stronger, yes, but the recoil often nullifies Leftovers and that's no good for you.

Knock Off is a good move to put on the team you're building because it gets rid of your Leftovers and other forms of passive recovery / damaging items (like Black Sludge or Rocky Helmet, respectively). Also, two-turn attacks like Dig and Dive are very good options here, because they ease prediction. If your opponent uses Dig and you have a Magnezone, that's an easy "switch in, get KOed" scenario and you're that much closer to losing than you were before.

Pokémon

I'm not going to tell you exactly what Pokémon to use because that would ruin the fun of teambuilding. I will, however, remind you that you should generally be aiming for bulkier Pokémon with some punch behind them. Your goal is to force your opponent to deal damage to you so you lose, not to just let them spam healing moves and delay the match for an eternity. Try not to give your opponent a stall team to use, because that would make for a very long, boring matchup for you that will ultimately be hard to lose.

The Pokémon you choose matter a lot. If the team you are building has several 4x weaknesses, your opponent will likely try to take advantage of openings that way. In some cases, it can be helpful, but remember that putting a Heatran on the team you're building means that a mispredict (hitting it with an Earthquake) can be very costly.

Abilities play a distinct role in this tournament, because the aim is to take as much damage as you possibly can. Iron Barbs and Rough Skin stick out immediately, as they deal damage just by taking moves, even if they're resisted. Status-inflicting abilities such as Effect Spore and Flame Body are also definitely worth using.

One important thing to consider is whether or not to use a diverse team. Should you build a team with very distinct weaknesses and immunities, or should you build a team with very similar weaknesses and resistances? Both have implications on how the game will turn out, but ultimately the way you structure the team you're building is up to you. Make sure you have your bases covered, and you'll do wonderfully.

Make sure the team you're building has means to hit Shedinja. If you get caught with a Shedinja that has high PP moves, you might auto-lose thanks to an inability to get it KOed while you try to burn through its PP.

EV with bulk and power in mind. Speed is important as always, but you want to make it harder for your opponent to lose (bulk) and easier for you to lose (power).

TL;DR

Don't use do-nothing moves (Swords Dance, Calm Mind, etc.). This puts you at a bad disadvantage from the outset, and you don't want that.
Moves like Leech Seed, Stealth Rock, etc. are okay because they still apply pressure.
Make sure you think about the outcome if you use healing moves, but they're generally okay too.
Status moves are fine, but avoid Thunder Wave. Paralysis is easily the worst status condition you could have inflicted on you in-battle, because 1) it prevents other status and 2) it doesn't deal damage. Full paras are nice, but truthfully it often would be better to take burn or poison damage.
Stay away from recoil moves. Knock Off and two-turn attacks like Dig are good choices because they make it easier for you to lose.
Aim to use bulkier Pokémon with some punch behind them. You're trying to lose, not force your opponent to waste your time by spamming healing moves.
Make sure you consider the weaknesses and resistances of the Pokémon on the team you're making. A misprediction can be incredibly gamechanging, especially for Pokémon with 4x weaknesses.
Take abilities into account when choosing the Pokémon you want to build with. Abilities that deal damage or cause status effects are fantastic.
Make sure that the team you build has a means of KOing Shedinja. You don't want to build a team that can't touch it, then find yourself trying to figure out how to get your opponent to KO it so you can lose.

Battling

I'm not going to go over every situation that might come up with you in this section, but I'll give you some general pointers:

Aim to deal little damage and take as much as you can. Hit a Heatran with your Fire-type moves, and use Earthquake on predicted Landorus switch-ins. If you've got a Heatran out and they have Vaporeon out and you predict the Ice Beam, switch out to Garchomp. Everything is backwards from your usual Pokémon mentality, so get comfortable with that thought process from the get-go.
Remember, you both only have two switches per every five turns. If your opponent has burned their two switches early, your decisions get much easier. Use your switches intelligently, and remember that you don't have to use up your switches in five turns (and that the unused ones don't carry over to the next five turns).
You know both teams that are going to be used, so you can actually do a bit of pre-game preparation that you can't do in most other tournaments. Look over the team you are using and the team you gave your opponent to lose, and determine which of your Pokémon are going to be the hardest to get KOed. Take advantage of this by racking up as much residual damage as you can on them—the faster you get them KOed, the easier losing the rest of the game will be for you.
Along the same lines, you have both of the teams, so you don't need to try to guess what moves they have. You know what your "safe" switch-in against the Earth Power / Fire Blast / Flamethrower Heatran that you gave them will be (a Steel-type!). Preparing mentally before your match is just as important as the actual playing and teambuilding, so get as well-prepared as you like. You can even run calcs before the match, if you don't want to do them during the match.
If you're having trouble wrapping your mind around the concept of actively trying to lose, I'd recommend asking a friend who is also participating in this tournament for a practice match if they're up for it. It's a good warm-up for your real match, and it always helps if you take a practice jog before running the big race.

Conclusion

Reading through all that, it seems a little harder to lose than you thought, huh? If you're still feeling uneasy about concepts discussed in this article, that's okay—this tournament isn't quite for everyone, but it's worth a shot if you're up for it.

After all, this is really the only tournament where being a consistent loser equates to winning. It's like it was made just for Eo!