The Scenario
Greater Sci-Fi combatant
Originally posted by MooCowofJustice
Scenario, we should battle some time. I'm betting you're damn good. I'm not, but it'll be fun.
Nah, I'm not that good at competitive and I don't do it often. The team I posted up there was mostly a breeding project to see if I could do it in game. It's got a few too many weaknesses to things like priority, and I depend too much on my sweepers and dual screens to do much else. Breeding that Gallade and some Gardevoir is how I got my shiny Ralts, though.
Still, a team of Froslass, Magnezone, and Gyarados does pretty well in the PWT, though I prefer doubles. Gliscor, Rotom, Gastrodon and Metagross wreck faces in a double battle.
Originally posted by Jmoul
Also, I don't think you read the portion that said all of my pokemon have their stats MAXED OUT, meaning that it is the highest any can go.
I read it, though I'm not sure how much difference it makes since mine are IV bred and EV trained in their best stats. Your team strikes as the one you went through the game with, so their stats probably aren't actually the highest possible. If you just fed them vitamins like protein, their EV are probably spread out and aren't at their maximum, either.
That's one thing I hate about Pokemon. IV's just pointlessly declare that one Pokemon can never be as good as possible because it lost the genetic lottery. Too much realism in mah Pokemans.
Anyway, it's time for POKEMON MECHANICS WITH SCENARIO (tm). IVs, or Individual Values, are like a Pokemon's genes. Each stat has an IV that can range from 0 to 31, and that number determines how high the Pokemon's stats can get. It's pretty simple: at level 100, a Pokemon with a 31 in its Attack IV will have 31 more points in Attack than a Pokemon with 0 in Attack. IVs are determined randomly for each stat when a Pokemon is generated. Since it's random, the possibility exists to have bad IVs, so a certain Pokemon may just get the short end of the stick.
Through breeding, and the power of ARTIFICIAL SELECTION, it is possible to pass down some IVs. It's a rather time consuming process, but at least it's just an afternoon instead of millions of years. Each of my Pokemon have been painstakingly bred to have a 31 in their main stats. With EV training, each of them will have their stats at the absolute maximum.
Now EVs, or Effort Values, are pretty cool, as you have almost complete control over them. Each Pokemon can have up to 510 EV points spread across their 6 stats, though each stat can only have a maximum of 255 EVs in it. For every 4 EVs, a stat gets a 1 point boost at level 100, so it's better to only put 252 points in a single stat as its a multiple of 4. So a Gyarados with 252 EVs in Attack has an extra 63 points of Attack. With a 31 Attack IV, this Gyarados has an extra 94 points of Attack, and with an Attack increasing nature like Adamant (more on Natures later) it will hit the absolute maximum its Attack stat can be. IT. IS. A. MONSTER.
Anyway, there are essentially 2 ways to increase your Effort Values: Vitamins such as Protein, and by fighting other Pokemon. Vitamins are convenient in that they instantly increase an EV by 10 points, but they have a problem. See, Vitamins can only give up to 100 points in a single stat. When you see that "It won't have any effect" message, it means that stat has reached 100 EVs and the vitamin won't work anymore. However, since the actual maximum is 255, that means a Pokemon just given vitamins is not actually at its maximum in that stat. Now you have to train it the old fashioned way.
Like I said, there are 2 ways to increase EVs, and the other is through Pokemon battles. It's a bit different from just normal leveling up. You can think of like this: fighting strong Pokemon makes your Pokemon stronger, and fighting faster Pokemon makes your Pokemon faster. KOing defensive mons increases Defense and so on. Each Pokemon has what's called an EV Yield, which is how many EV points it gives when defeated. Let's use Gyarados again because I love Gyarados you guys. When defeated, Gyarados gives however many Experience points, but also 2 EV in Attack. So if you fight a bunch of Gyarados, whichever Pokemon you used will be gaining a lot of points in Attack. It will be super strong.
Unfortunately, since every Pokemon gives EVs when defeated, if you go through the game normally your EV will be crazy, with the points spread out everywhere. You pretty much have to train against just one species of Pokemon in order to get your EVs to an appreciable level. I usually don't bother with this in-game.
So there, mechanics rant more or less over. I was going to go over Natures, but the OP team is in Crystal and none of them have Natures yet. This post is lost enough enough anyway.
TL;DR: Pokeymans are Serious Business.