The Reserves

[Showsni]

Here's a question for you: how important are the two Pokémon you hold back in reserve? As far as I can see, having no knowledge of your opponent's team means that Pokémon number 5 and 6 are never really going to get a chance to sub in; if your first four Pokémon are your best team, why would you change them around?

But maybe that's not strictly true; you do know one thing about your opponent's team - that they've managed to progress to whatever round of the tournament it is. Is it possible that a savvy player could have one team of four designed for the early rounds, when you're more likely to be playing someone with a less competitive team, and then switch it up so that in later rounds you use a different team of four, designed to counter any teams you believe will have made it this late?

Of course, this relies quite a lot on metagame prediction; if you believe that Trick Room will make a good showing and be more likely to progress, you could have a specific anti Trick Roomer that you sub into your team in the later rounds when you predict you're more likely to be facing Trick Room (as an example).

Any other thoughts? Or are the back two doomed to obscurity?

 

[ΩDonut]

Sounds like you covered the major reasons.

Another is discovering that one of your main members isn't performing as well as you hoped. Usually that sort of thing is ironed out during team testing, but you might come across something in the tournament that you realize is a major threat your main four can't handle.

 

[SupremeDirt]

From what I understand, it would mostly be the early/late round change. Early, you'd want a safe strategy, a simple Rain Dance team, perhaps. Once you're safely into late game, you can then use whatever gimmicky strategy you want, with much less fear of the one or two things that can shut it down.

For example, lately I've been testing a OHKO team, which in its current incarnation utilises Abomasnow and Machamp. I have 2 leads, which I'm currently working on testing to improve, which shut down the crap that can screw this over. There are a few major things that can screw this team over, which would likely be less common in later rounds.

Sturdy is a problem. However, the most viable things that get it are such things as Steelix and Skarmory, which likely won't make much of a showing this year. However, in early rounds, they could give me issues. Hell, what if I encounter a Shuckle? Having a safe team with, say, a Kyogre saves me from these potential disasters in the early rounds. Given, I could probably just brute force my way past these, but the tournament is single elimination.

~ Supreme Dirt

 

[Zystral]

I see one use for the reserves - item shuffling.
Sometimes, I won't use them at all, sometimes they become the core instead.
Generally, since there's an obvious reason to not use them, they do become dead weights, although you never know, you might want to just use Gengar over Metagross.

It's generally a 'living-the-moment" thing if you do use a reserve, otherwise, they're there to fill up the team sheet and add an extra item in case.

 

[Brigg_of_Eden]

I think Zystral kind of hit it on the head.

I used to play Magic: The Gathering TCG competitively. For those of you who have before as well, you'd know of the "Sideboard"--15 cards that you can change between games during your match based on what you're facing. It helps take out cards that are dead weight against your opponent while adding cards that would give you a better chance of victory.

I wish they could conduct VGC Single-elimination with best of 3 in a match. That way, the reserves would be like the "Sideboard"--people could switch up their teams between rounds if they needed to adapt a better strategy against the opponent.

 

[Oberon]

IMO, it would seem like you would only switch them in if you know who you're playing against (if they've told you what they're playing or you know them). Of course, you've said most of everything else too.

I'm keeping my reserves as back ups to create anti-strategies late tournament, because I know it gets harder as you progress. Also, so no one predicts what I'll be doing.

 

[Showsni]

I think Zystral kind of hit it on the head.

I used to play Magic: The Gathering TCG competitively. For those of you who have before as well, you'd know of the "Sideboard"--15 cards that you can change between games during your match based on what you're facing. It helps take out cards that are dead weight against your opponent while adding cards that would give you a better chance of victory.

I wish they could conduct VGC Single-elimination with best of 3 in a match. That way, the reserves would be like the "Sideboard"--people could switch up their teams between rounds if they needed to adapt a better strategy against the opponent.

Imagine if Baton Pass worked like a Wish to grab something from your Sideboard...

 

[Oberon]

I think Zystral kind of hit it on the head.

I used to play Magic: The Gathering TCG competitively. For those of you who have before as well, you'd know of the "Sideboard"--15 cards that you can change between games during your match based on what you're facing. It helps take out cards that are dead weight against your opponent while adding cards that would give you a better chance of victory.

I wish they could conduct VGC Single-elimination with best of 3 in a match. That way, the reserves would be like the "Sideboard"--people could switch up their teams between rounds if they needed to adapt a better strategy against the opponent.

Of course, in MtG tournaments, it is 15 minutes per round of 2 out of 3. In Pokemon, that isn't nearly enough. Single elimination creates time for the huge tournament of hundreds of participants to complete their rounds. However, I do agree on your logic. Side boarding (reserving-in, let's call it) is a very good idea. I wish they'd do it as well.. but it's just so unlikely given the time frame and participant amount.

Imagine if Baton Pass worked like a Wish to grab something from your Sideboard...

Except then you'd have 5 (potentially 6) Pokemon participating in battle now. Of course if it was a permanent replacement of the baton-passer, it'd be four still, just 5 total were in. Pokemon style Side-Boarding go!

 

[Brigg_of_Eden]

Imagine if Baton Pass worked like a Wish to grab something from your Sideboard...

If that were possible and allowed, half of my team would be packing Baton Pass!

I guess the reserves are up to a judgement call by the player before the start of the match. It boils down to who you'd be confident using to get you through the match.

And for the record: The fact I used to play MTG Competitively ties into the reason I'm a more casual player now. I have a viciously terrible attitude and am a very sore loser when I take games too seriously and get too competitive. But if I can relax and try to have fun with it, I make the game more enjoyable for my opponents, too.

 

[Aqueos]

In the last few rounds it is best of three, so they do have a use.

 

[BadIntent]

In the last few rounds it is best of three, so they do have a use.

The Regional Championships is a Single Elimination event. Each match will consist of a single game and will result in the winner advancing to the next round and the loser being removed from the tournament.

I would think the last two Pokemon would be like "techs" in the Pokemon TCG except that you can decide whether you want to use it before the battle begins. If your first few opponents ran Rain and it gave you problems, you could tech in a Ludicolo or something. Also if you personally know your opponent, you can try to counter team.

 

[Aqueos]

If you get past the first rounds. Very high up on the ladder it is best of three. So eventually they will be usefull. By very high I mean like in kona.

 

[Little Green Yoda]

If you get past the first rounds. Very high up on the ladder it is best of three. So eventually they will be usefull. By very high I mean like in kona.

Where exactly are you getting this best of three info? Unless you're saying it's best of three in nationals lol.

 

[archangel_94]

OK,OK,so let me get this straight:
I bring 6 Pokemon.
I can only use 4 of them.
I send out only 2?
Is that right?

 

[Zystral]

Not exactly. It's doubles, so you send out two at a time out of four, the four comes from your 6.
Nobody is saying you have to fill up your teamsheet lol.
As people have said, it is just nice to have extra items and such in the wings just in case people are catching on.
I am seriously considering having a DDMence as a sub just in case so if it goes bad I can just pull it out and start razing everything.

Generally though, your reserves should synergise with everything else very well, especially considering doubles, so having a full VGC team is obviously difficult. Largely, the problem is that there are several different strategies, and you don't know what to prepare for, and considering it's one-round single eliminations, it is 100% luck that you've chosen the right 4 out of 6 to face the foe with.

 

[callforjudgement]

OK,OK,so let me get this straight:
I bring 6 Pokemon.
I can only use 4 of them.
I send out only 2?
Is that right?

You bring from 4 to 6 Pokémon. You can only use 4 of them in any given match; and as far as I know there's no reason to not just use the same 4 every time. And because it's doubles, only 2 of them will be out at once, although you can replace fainted ones with the rest of your 4, or switch to other Pokémon in your 4 (even though switching is relatively rare in doubles, at least compared to singles).

 

[mattj]

I know the value of your two reserves first hand. For last years Nats, I only had time to breed/SR 4 pokes (didn't know how to RNG back then). When I made it to the top 16 where your reserves come in handy... i didn't have any x_x

 

[R4M3N]

I see one use for the reserves - item shuffling.

When you fill out a team sheet, the pokemon and the items are listed separately. You don't have to specify who holds what, and you could bring four pokemon and six items.

 

[R4M3N]

For example, lately I've been testing a OHKO team

I've been testing these too! I really thought this strat would be overlooked. It can be tough to set up, and Smogon doesn't even show Role Play on 'Snow's moveset... I had to verify it in game. I've tried an iteration with Bastiodon too. SIXONESIX wrecked it three times in a row, BUT I witnessed that you can hit a Shadow forcing Giratina with No Guard. ;)

How's your set up working? I try to have it set up in one or two turns, but it can get super gimped if you're not careful...

 

[archangel_94]

Oh damn,all this time I thought that it would be one-on-one battles...

There goes my strategy down the drain...

 

[NjSoccer]

I haven't gone to a VGC yet... so tell me if i'm wrong
Don't they post the current battles on some TV monitors around the place? if so, your following opponents (in the later games) might be looking at your main strategy and use their reserves to counter that.... so maybe your reserves can be used for in the later games so that people dont keep an eye on your exact strategy

 

[J-Leo-L]

I haven't gone to a VGC yet... so tell me if i'm wrong
Don't they post the current battles on some TV monitors around the place? if so, your following opponents (in the later games) might be looking at your main strategy and use their reserves to counter that.... so maybe your reserves can be used for in the later games so that people dont keep an eye on your exact strategy

You are correct, they did project battles on video screens for all to see. However, there wasn't much time for players to do anything between battles during the elimination rounds. It was like, "Oh, you won? Walk over here to the next zone. Fight this guy/girl." There was literaly no break.

The players who lost were booted almost immediately, stopping them from sharing information with the winners.

Also, matchups were more-or-less random. If you were to somehow witness a match on screen, and take detailed notes (while simultaneously trying to win your own match), there would be no guarantee that you would fight your subject in the next round.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about people scouting your team at regionals. Too many battles are going on at a time for your opponents to know which are of significance.

 

[Oberon]

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about people scouting your team at regionals. Too many battles are going on at a time for your opponents to know which are of significance.

Especially with 700+ participants, no time to strategize. You can really only battle.

I haven't been to a VGC before but if what you say is correct, then yeah there'll be little breaks.

 

[13Random37]

Well, it seriously makes a difference, if you are playing noobs or pros. A anti-metagame team could completely fail against a random noob... So I think I'll build two teams. One against good, and one against not so good players :p
(To find out, if your opponent is good or not is another question, though :s)

 

[Oberon]

Well, it seriously makes a difference, if you are playing noobs or pros. A anti-metagame team could completely fail against a random noob... So I think I'll build two teams. One against good, and one against not so good players :p
(To find out, if your opponent is good or not is another question, though :s)

Just say "You're a smogoner?" and you'll get your answer right away. lol