Resource VGC: Ask a Simple Question, Get a Simple Answer

It works. Moves are only blocked if they are targeted at an enemy--moves like Tailwind, Sunny Day, or Stealth Rock work because they aren't targeted, Follow Me will work because it's self-targeted, and targeting an ally with Helping Hand (or Water Shuriken in Palossand strats) will also work.
Thanks, I thought it would have been blocked as well.
 
Which Mons are atm played mostly in rain teams besides Golduck and Pelipper? Just played Goodstuff right now lel
 
Which Mons are atm played mostly in rain teams besides Golduck and Pelipper? Just played Goodstuff right now lel
https://3ds-sp.pokemon-gl.com/battle/#step

Going to that link and going to Championship Battle, Pokémon Ranking, and finding Pelipper will tell you which Pokémon are used with it and, thus, the most common Pokémon on Rain teams.

I've personally seen a lot of Thunder Tapu Koko and Kartana. Trick Room Porygon2 is also often used as a slow mode and to check opposing Trick Room.
 
What makes Guzzlord so much worse than all of the other Ultra Beasts?
Despite its high HP stat, it's defences are low enough to make it only moderately bulky. The prevalence of fairy-types in the metagame only makes this worse. However, its main flaw is its relatively poor offence, with only 101 base Attack, an even worse Special Attack and a STAB combo that has little useful coverage. Its low base speed doesn't help either, while it can use Trick Room, there are stronger Trick Room attackers like Snorlax, Gigalith, and even Torkoal.

The other UB's have much better stat distribution, typing, movepools, or all of the above.
 
Is Adamant Gigalith worthwhile using or is Brave the better nature?

Reason I ask is that I was doing a breeding project and managed to coincdentally hatch a Adamant shiny Roggenrola that I wouldn't mind using.
 
I'm new to Sun/Moon but am a long-time Pokemon veteran. I used to play competitively (and fairly) back when it was MLG-Gamebattles affiliated and spent tons of time here while doing so. Back then however, cloning Pokemon wasn't frowned upon, hacking Pokemon was, and there was a trading forum on Smogon - it seems a lot has changed since then. I'm now trying to get caught back up after a close college friend of mine, has been trying to get me back into it because of all of my experience playing before. So here are my multiple questions:

1) If I receive something from the GTS or Wondertrade, how do I know if it's a legit Pokemon?

2) Am I technically allowed to use a 'hacked' Pokemon as a breeding parent and how would the VGC know if it's not allowed? Asking because of the amount of time it saves for the same result for Pokemon I receive either through Wondertrade or have received from previously cloned Pokemon in games a long time ago. Also, will a player be disqualified beforehand?

3) How can I test my Pokemon to see if it's legitimate?

4) Will it even allow me to trade/use illegitimate Pokemon online within the game itself? I heard rumors that they don't even pass inspection to be usable or tradeable online.

5) When attending an event in person, what steps are taken for registering and checking in?
 

Pyritie

TAMAGO
is an Artist
1) If I receive something from the GTS or Wondertrade, how do I know if it's a legit Pokemon?
The short answer is you don't. The best you can do is look to see if it has anything illegal, like knowing moves it can never learn, but otherwise you can't be sure. A well-hacked pokemon is indistinguishable, byte-for-byte, from a legit one.

2) Am I technically allowed to use a 'hacked' Pokemon as a breeding parent and how would the VGC know if it's not allowed? Asking because of the amount of time it saves for the same result for Pokemon I receive either through Wondertrade or have received from previously cloned Pokemon in games a long time ago. Also, will a player be disqualified beforehand?
If you breed a hacked parent the children will always be legit unless the child inherits an illegal ball or has an ability that hasn't been officially released yet (like intimidate litten). Check this page to see what's catchable in which balls.

Also don't try to trade these mons in the wifi section of the forum. While VGC players are much more lenient about these things, the wifi section is completely anal about legality and will ban you even if the parents were suspicious.

3) How can I test my Pokemon to see if it's legitimate?
Legitimate? You can't. But if you want to see if they're legal, you can just try using them on battle spot. The games are pretty good at filtering out stuff that's straight up unobtainable, but you'll have to watch out for the ball type again because the games don't check for that.

4) Will it even allow me to trade/use illegitimate Pokemon online within the game itself? I heard rumors that they don't even pass inspection to be usable or tradeable online.
As long as they pass the battle spot check they can be traded.

5) When attending an event in person, what steps are taken for registering and checking in?
At smaller events they just try using your team on battle spot. At larger ones they use a special battle box locking program. But as far as we know, the latter checks for the same things as the former.
 
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Is Adamant Gigalith worthwhile using or is Brave the better nature?

Reason I ask is that I was doing a breeding project and managed to coincdentally hatch a Adamant shiny Roggenrola that I wouldn't mind using.
Brave is generally better on a Trick Room team, although Adamant and 31 speed IV's can outspeed some trick room mons outside of trick room (min speed snorlax, vikavolt, drampa, mudsdale).
 
The short answer is you don't. The best you can do is look to see if it has anything illegal, like knowing moves it can never learn, but otherwise you can't be sure. A well-hacked pokemon is indistinguishable, byte-for-byte, from a legit one.

If you breed a hacked parent the children will always be legit unless the child inherits an illegal ball or has an ability that hasn't been officially released yet (like intimidate litten). Check this page to see what's catchable in which balls.

Also don't try to trade these mons in the wifi section of the forum. While VGC players are much more lenient about these things, the wifi section is completely anal about legality and will ban you even if the parents were suspicious.

Legitimate? You can't. But if you want to see if they're legal, you can just try using them on battle spot. The games are pretty good at filtering out stuff that's straight up unobtainable, but you'll have to watch out for the ball type again because the games don't check for that.

As long as they pass the battle spot check they can be traded.


At smaller events they just try using your team on battle spot. At larger ones they use a special battle box locking program. But as far as we know, the latter checks for the same things as the former.
Also had one other question that I managed to forget to ask, but in the past, for trading purposes we had cloning services for Pokemon that was obtained and trained legitimately. Is that still a thing and if we've obtained a legit clone of that Pokemon, is it still legal for VGC?
 
Also had one other question that I managed to forget to ask, but in the past, for trading purposes we had cloning services for Pokemon that was obtained and trained legitimately. Is that still a thing and if we've obtained a legit clone of that Pokemon, is it still legal for VGC?
Depends on what you mean by legal. The rules document technically bans any use of external hardware or software to obtain, modify, clone, etc etc etc. Clones of legitimate mons are illegal, genned mons are illegal, mons that you caught and then modified the nature are illegal, Pokémon holding an item that you injected are illegal, etc. But if your question is "will I get in trouble for using it", then no. If it passes the electronic hack check and the manual check detailed in the rules document (basically if it's possible to obtain that Pokémon legitimately), then you're completely good. Doesn't matter if it's legit, bred from an injected mon, cloned, or just directly genned. If it passes the checks, you can use it.
 
Hi, I'm just getting into competitive pokemon for the first time, and I am doing everything I can to prepare myself to make any and all pokemon needed for any possible teams. With that in mind, I have one copy of each gens pokemon games. Which should I have progress in and how much for team building in this years format? Example, I know Tailwind Drifloon is a very good mon, and Tailwind is only obtainable in ORAS through move tutor. I will beat them all eventually, but would like to get a team made sooner rather than later, so which ones would I need to progress in? And would you suggest having Moon as well? (I'm on Sun currently)
 
Hi, I'm just getting into competitive pokemon for the first time, and I am doing everything I can to prepare myself to make any and all pokemon needed for any possible teams. With that in mind, I have one copy of each gens pokemon games. Which should I have progress in and how much for team building in this years format? Example, I know Tailwind Drifloon is a very good mon, and Tailwind is only obtainable in ORAS through move tutor. I will beat them all eventually, but would like to get a team made sooner rather than later, so which ones would I need to progress in? And would you suggest having Moon as well? (I'm on Sun currently)
You are only allowed to use Pokemon caught or bred in Alola for VGC17, so that's the only one that you really need to work in. You could realistically do all your breeding in Sun and just trade for any transfer-only parents you need for egg moves or any Moon-exclusive species you want to use. If you want to catch everything yourself then you'll want to have both Sun and Moon and your gen 6 games completed, but really its not hard to find people with spare breedjects.
 
You are only allowed to use Pokemon caught or bred in Alola for VGC17, so that's the only one that you really need to work in. You could realistically do all your breeding in Sun and just trade for any transfer-only parents you need for egg moves or any Moon-exclusive species you want to use. If you want to catch everything yourself then you'll want to have both Sun and Moon and your gen 6 games completed, but really its not hard to find people with spare breedjects.
Ahhh, coolio. Are the trade forums here good about having non hacked mons? I'm like super paranoid about that and would rather grind for HA Dratini for a week than risk a hacked mon, which is why I was gunning for the breed them all myself route.
 

Mattapod

bad clarinet music
is a Community Contributor Alumnus
Ahhh, coolio. Are the trade forums here good about having non hacked mons? I'm like super paranoid about that and would rather grind for HA Dratini for a week than risk a hacked mon, which is why I was gunning for the breed them all myself route.
yup, over in the wifi sub forum we do not allow hacks at all. even legit mons bred from hacked parents are illegal. theres trade threads to browse, and a simple request thread for one off requests and trades. dont make a new thread unless its a trade thread!

we are all pretty nice and generous over there too. welcome to smogon!
 
yup, over in the wifi sub forum we do not allow hacks at all. even legit mons bred from hacked parents are illegal. theres trade threads to browse, and a simple request thread for one off requests and trades. dont make a new thread unless its a trade thread!

we are all pretty nice and generous over there too. welcome to smogon!
Thanks a ton! That eases my concerns quite a bit!
 
So this is probably wrong question on the wrong thread but when I searched the question it would only pull up this thread.

So on to the question......

If I breed a gen. 6 Pokémon with a gen. 7 Ditto will the baby be a gen.7??
 
Is Mimikyu just considered a better Trick Room setter than Oranguru right now? If not, when would you use Oranguru over Mimikyu?
I prefer Porygon2 over both but Oranguru is great for spamming spread moves, like Torkoal Eruption or Xurkitree Discharge, courtesy of Telepathy and Instruct.
 
So this is probably wrong question on the wrong thread but when I searched the question it would only pull up this thread.

So on to the question......

If I breed a gen. 6 Pokémon with a gen. 7 Ditto will the baby be a gen.7??
Yes, as long as the Pokémon is captured or hatched in a Gen7 game it will be a Gen7 Pokémon, so even if you breed two Gen6 Pokémon in a Gen7 game it will hatch with the Clover, making it Gen7.
 
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Theorymon

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So I'm pretty out of the loop with VGC metagame developments so I wanted to ask: what are some good users of Tailwind to consider?

Obviously I know about Pelipper and Whimsicott, and recently I've learned about Driftblim becoming a major user of it due to Unbudren + Psychic or Misty Seed. Driftblim sounds neat to me, but I'm not 100% sure I can fit it on the team I have (not sure if I should reveal it because I'm just barely hanging on in that Smogon VGC tournament atm lol).

I just want to know what some other viable choices are for a certain team I'm currently building!
 
So I'm pretty out of the loop with VGC metagame developments so I wanted to ask: what are some good users of Tailwind to consider?

Obviously I know about Pelipper and Whimsicott, and recently I've learned about Driftblim becoming a major user of it due to Unbudren + Psychic or Misty Seed. Driftblim sounds neat to me, but I'm not 100% sure I can fit it on the team I have (not sure if I should reveal it because I'm just barely hanging on in that Smogon VGC tournament atm lol).

I just want to know what some other viable choices are for a certain team I'm currently building!
So, more common than Blim/Fini right now is Blim/Lele, which is actually pretty awesome if you ask me, but as for other Tailwind users, Braviary, Aerodactyl and Mandibuzz are all niche picks as well.
 
So I'm about to grab Kartana in Sun, Jolly nature for me, but was wondering if there are any other natures to consider? I know I can catch a few in game so I wanna have open options, but if jolly is the only real viable one I'll just pick up extras for trades
 
So I'm about to grab Kartana in Sun, Jolly nature for me, but was wondering if there are any other natures to consider? I know I can catch a few in game so I wanna have open options, but if jolly is the only real viable one I'll just pick up extras for trades
I would consider getting one Adamant as well, seeing as that is often times used on Choice Scarf sets, but aside from that and Jolly, that's it for viable natures on Kartana.
 

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