OU Help me improve my metagame takes please

[bdt2002]

I understand this might be one of the most weird and unnecessary things I’ve ever made a thread for, so just go ahead and do whatever you want with this if I’m not allowed to make threads like this without permission. That being said… I’ve been playing Past Gens OU for a long time and after enjoying a lot of GSC as of late (hence why I’m posting this here and not elsewhere), I think I’m ready to finally swallow my pride, admit I suck at this game, and acknowledge that many of my takes I’ve had over the years simply aren’t good, or even all that smart. For context, I’ve posted some pretty wild takes on how good certain Pokémon really are over recent memory, and me saying that Zapdos wasn’t Top 3 was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. (My Starmie take on Gen 3 was even more atrocious, but this is GSC we’re here for so let’s stay focused.)

Me admitting I need to get good isn’t nearly enough of a reason to write an entire thread OP, though, so what is? I figure the answer speaks for itself. I want to learn more. I want to practice again. I’ve never had the time to participate in hardcore tournaments or anything, but I’d still like to try and be the best player I can be, and maybe even become someone worth talking about. This wouldn’t just be for GSC either, although for the purposes of this thread Gen 2 probably does have my favorite battle mechanics in the series. Plus, it also helps that I just like a lot of Johto Pokémon naturally, so there’s that.

So… uh, I guess that’s everything. Again, feel free to do whatever you want with this thread. I just want to actually be good at the games I enjoy, and I’m willing to follow whatever rules are in place to get to that point.

 

[Vileman]

Having different takes than the rest is not bad per se. Hell, i think i have a very different value out of some mons than other top players (shotouts god dog jolteon)... but you should have the experience and reasoning for said take if you are to bring said take up for discussion.
Imo the best way to realize if you're just talking nonsense or if you think you're right, is to just try out what you're saying. As a recent example, I was very high, theorymon wise, that heracross + raikou was some fire as those 2 + normal resist = wall Everything. In reality though, the more i used it, the more i realized those 2 just dont manage to make progress vs the very much common snorlax + zapdos core which is in like 70% of teams nowadays, and the team structures they end up making aren't really the best to pilot compared to other alternatives.

So what im getting at is: play! Play a lot! Try out different mons and styles to see their strengths and weaknesses, as in practice you can see how these ideas end up working.

Sadly ladder is... decent if you're optimisting about it. So my personal suggestion for anyone getting into gsc is to play tournaments. The more tournaments you play, the more you end up facing good people and see how to imporive, what mons theyre using, and try to understand why they do.

Also, the gsc discord exists so feel free to join up the discussion over there (if its any active, i am not in there myself right now...)

So yeah, personally my route of learning gsc was talk to whatever top player i could find, watch spl replays, and play tournaments. Samples work fine for beginners, and if you want to try your hand at building, gsc is not too complex to build in so GL

 

[RealJester]

Hey, I don’t have much more to add outside of what’s already been said, but feel free to reach out to me on discord (my tag is arealjester) if you have any questions about gsc, be it specific replay analysis or more general discussion about the metagame. Always eager to interact with people with a passion for the game