5th Generation Battling Guidelines.

Credit Goes to LemonKittie from GameFAQs for this post.

Hello and welcome to the PHCommunity Competitive Battling Board!
Before posting on this board, you should be aware of the standards for battling.

Table of Contents
i. Before Battling
I. Battle Terminology
II. List of Current Clauses
III. Rules of Standard Battling
IV. Rate My Teams
V. Team Building Guide
VI. Specialty Topics
VII. Wi-Fi Problems
VIII. Tips and Tricks
IX. Credits

i. Before Battling

There are some things you have to do before you can initiate your first battle.

1. Set up your WiFi Connection

On the main menu of your Pokémon Black or White game, click on the “Nintendo WiFi Connection” option and make sure your DS is connected to your wireless router. If not, make a new connection and test it.

2. Beat the first gym

You must go to Striaton City and defeat the Gym Leader there to obtain the Trio Badge.

3. Receive your Pal Pad

Once you obtain the Trio Badge, you must bring a Pokémon that knows Cut and exit Striaton City using the path on the right. Cut the tree down, enter the empty lot and you will receive your Pal Pad in a house in Striaton City diagonally right of the Pokémon Gym. Amanita will eventually tell you about Wi-Fi and friend codes.

4. Using the Pal Pad

The Pal Pad is a key item that holds Friend Codes and allows you to battle with others while in the Wi-Fi room. There are three options within the Pal Pad: check your friend roster, add a friend, and check your own Friend Code. To have battles on Wi-Fi, both you and the person with whom you are battling must have each other’s Friend Codes registered in your respective Pal Pads.

5. Entering the Wi-Fi Room

Go to any Pokémon Center and go upstairs. There are 3 ladies behind the counter. Talk to the lady in the middle. Select the Wi-Fi option after which she will ask you to save your game.

6. Using the Wi-Fi Room

Once connected, you will enter a room with 8 circles and a computer. To initiate a battle, go to the computer and select Battle. You may choose between singles, doubles, or triples. You also have the option to use the “Wonder Launcher” feature. To accept another battler’s invitation, find the other battler’s avatar, go up to it, and press A when the battle icon is visible. Voice chat can be turned off by pressing the X button.

I. Battle Terminology

The following are some Battling Definitions to remember while battling here:

Ban list - Rankings for Pokemon
Band/ed - The item Choice Band
BL - Borderline tier
BP - Base Power, Baton Pass, or Bullet Punch
Bulk - A term used to refer to a Pokemon’s durability. A Pokemon’s bulk is not only defined by the Pokemon’s numerical defensive stats, but also by the resistance it provides for the team.
Clause - A set of rules mutually agreed to by both parties
Clerics - Pokemon dedicated to removing status with moves such as Heal Bell and Aroma Therapy
D/C - Disconnection
Dream World (DW) - Online site allowing users to obtain Pokemon with alternate abilities
Entry Hazards - Stealth Rocks, Spikes, and/or Toxic Spikes
EVs - Effort Values
EV Spread - Distribution of EVs on a Pokemon
Flat - 3 vs. 3 battle, auto-leveled to Lvl. 50, with item clause
Fodder - A Pokemon sacrificed to safely allow another Pokemon to enter
GG - “Good Game”
GLHF - “Good Luck, Have Fun”
Hacks - Pokemon that is generated through the use of a third party device
Hax - Luck (e.g. landing critical hits, causing the opponent to flinch, etc.)
HP - Hidden Power or Health/Hit Points
IVs - Individual Values
Limbo - Pokemon not yet placed into a tier
LC - Little Cup
NFE - Not Fully Evolved
NU - Never Used tier
OHKO - One Hit Knockout
OU - Over Used tier
Passive Damage - Indirect damage inflicted to an opponent using certain variables including weather, entry hazards, and status ailments.
Phaze/Haze - The tactic of eliminating the opponent’s stat boosts via Whirlwind, Roar, Dragon Tail, Circle Throw, Clear Smog, or Haze.
Scarf/ed - The item Choice Scarf
Specs - The item Choice Specs
STAB - Same Type Attack Bonus
Support - A Pokemon’s purpose to advance advantage for own team or to disrupt opponent’s team through the use of non-direct damaging moves including, but not limited to, status-inducing moves, entry hazard moves, and/or clerical moves. These Pokemon are often characterized by a more defensive spread.
Sweep - The consecutive fainting of two or more Pokemon due to the attacks of one opposing Pokemon.
Sweeper - An offensive specialist characterized by the ability to inflict massive damage to a wide range of enemies by virtue of high attack stats, a high speed stat, a versatile coverage movepool, or a combination of the three.
Synergy - Team’s ability to become a unit whose total is greater than the sum of its parts.
Tank - A Pokemon with high defensive stats and the ability to inflict decent damage.
Taunt Bait - A Pokemon susceptible to becoming near useless if taunted. Most often a support Pokemon or wall.
TC - Topic Creator. They are the users that started a topic.
Tiers - Rankings of Pokemon
Uber - Pokemon deemed too strong for standard play
UU - UnderUsed tier
VC - Voice Chat. This option is on by default when entering the WiFi room. To turn off Voice Chat, simply press X.
Wall - A dedicated defensive specialist characterized by the ability to withstand heavy punishment by virtue of massive defensive stats and/or resistances from typing.
Wonder Launcher - Allows applicable items, such as potions, to be used during a Wi-Fi battle. Most players will turn it off.

II. List of current clauses:

Evasion Clause:
Moves and items that boost evasion are not allowed. Meaning the following moves and items are forbidden:
-Bright Powder
-Double Team
-Lax Incense
-Minimize

However there exist certain exceptions to this rule. The following moves and abilities are legal means of increasing Evasion:
-Acupressure
-Sand Veil
-Snow Cloak
-Use of Double Team or Minimize via the move Metronome

Sleep Clause:
Two or more Pokémon on a team cannot be asleep at the same time. Self-induce sleep via rest does not activate Sleep Clause. Any gamer would probably agree with this clause after having their entire team put to sleep by a Breloom or Smeargle via Spore. Sleep will often force a switch-out, which if not for this clause would leave you at the mercy of switching into yet another Sleep Inducing move. The Ability: Effect Spore does not break the Sleep Clause if a Pokémon on the team is asleep to begin with as this cannot be avoided. However, if another Pokémon is put to sleep AFTER Effect Spore has been activated, the Sleep Clause is Broken. The following moves will inflict Sleep upon a Pokémon:
-Rest (Self-Inducing Sleep, Lasts 2 Turns)
-Yawn (Accuracy 100% Takes effect the next turn.)
-Spore (Accuracy 100%)
-Dark Void (Accuracy 80% Darkrai and Smeargle Only)
-Sleep Powder (Accuracy 75%)
-Lovely Kiss (Accuracy 75%)
-Hypnosis (Accuracy 60%)
-GrassWhistle (Accuracy 55%)
-Sing (Accuracy 55%)

OHKO Clause:The One-Hit KO Clause. Simply put, the use of moves that result in the instantaneous fainting of a Pokémon regardless of defensive stats are forbidden. The use of a OHKO move via Metronome is legal. The following moves violate the OHKO Clause.
-Fissure
-Horn Drill
-Guillotine
-Sheer Cold

Species Clause:
Two or more of the same Pokémon may not be used on the same team. This clause refers only to Pokémon with identical Pokédex Numbers. Pokémon such as: Porygon, Porygon2 and Porygon-Z do not share the same Pokédex Number so this clause is not broken.

Pokémon Tiers:
The Tiers serve a dual purpose. The first is to promote balanced gameplay and the second is to create an environment where weaker Pokémon can be used. A Pokémon may only be used in a Tier equal to or above its situated Tier. The Tiers are as follows:
-Uber ( Pokémon that deemed too powerful for OU)
-OU (Overused) (Seperated as Standard OU and Dream World Tier)
-BL (Borderline)
-UU (Underused) (Seperated as Standard UU and Dream World Tier)
-NU (Never Used)
-Limbo (Pokemon that have yet to be placed in a Tier)
-NFE (Not Fully Evolved)

List of Pokemon Forbidden in Standard OU:
Pokemon from the Uber Tier are considered too overpowered to be used within the OU Metagame and have therefore been banned from use unless stated otherwise. The following list are all Pokémon currently placed in the Uber Tier.
(Note that this list is subject to change.)
-Arceus
-Blaziken
-Darkrai
-Deoxys
-Deoxys-A
-Dialga
-Giratina
-Giratina-O
-Groudon
-Ho-oh
-Kyogre
-Lugia
-Manaphy
-Mew
-Mewtwo
-Palkia
-Rayquaza
-Reshiram
-Shaymin-S
-Zekrom

*Misc. Ban List-
Abilities:
-Moody
-Drizzle + Swift swim on the same team

List of Non-Standard Rules:
The following rules aren't included as standard. If you wish to put a non-standard clause in place, you must declare each one to be used before battling. Please remember to abide by any of these rules if stated beforehand by your opponent.

Freeze Clause:
Two or more Pokemon on a team cannot be frozen at the same time. This clause is usually not used as it is impossible to control when a Pokemon will be frozen. It should be noted however, that any frozen Pokémon has a 20% chance to “thaw out” each turn. If a frozen Pokemon uses Flame Wheel, Sacred Fire, Scald or is hit by a fire type attack, it will immediately thaw out.

Hax Item Clause:
Not to be confused with “Hacks”, Hax Items refer to items which factor in certain luck-based mechanics of the game. However, since their presence doesn't disrupt the OU Metagame too much, some gamers will allow the use of these items. Remember that if the phrase: “No Hax Items” should come up, the following items are prohibited from use.
-BrightPowder (Effect: Raises the holder's evasion by 10%.)
-Focus Band (Effect: 10% Chance to survive an attack that would otherwise result in Fainting.)
-King's Rock (Effect: Occasionally causes targets of the Pokémon's moves to flinch.)
-Quick Claw (Effect: Gives the holder an 18.75% chance of going first.)

Item Clause:
All Pokémon on a team must hold different items. This is not a standard clause in competitive play, but it is used in Nintendo tournaments. It's rare to see a team with less than 2 of the same item (e.g. Leftovers) so this Clause doesn't usually apply if not stated beforehand.

Self-KO Clause:
If both players have only one Pokémon left, moves which KO both the user and the opponent are not allowed (e.g. Explosion, Destiny Bond, Perish Song). If recoil damage would cause a tie, Self KO Clause does not activate, and the player who last attacked is the winner.


III. Rules of Standard Battling

Here are some guidelines to follow when posting on these boards:

* Read everything in the topic and follow directions specified by the TC.

* When requesting a battle it is recommended that you make a topic. A good title is one that specifies the rules of the battle.

* Make sure that your opponent knows which tier you’re battling within; Such as: Dream World or OverUsed.

* Make sure you know your FC. When posting your FC, make sure that the one you post matches the one in your Pal Pad! It is common to copy one number wrong and have the Pal Pad error when adding. If you use a different DS to battle, be aware that your FC will change every time you switch DS’!

* When entering the WiFi room, check to see if the other battler is inside as well. As a general rule, the first battler to appear online should host the battle with VC off unless otherwise informed.

* Be courteous to others. Do not try to act rude when posting on the boards. Please be patient when requesting a battle. Use proper grammar. Say “Good Game” after completing a battle.

IV. Rate My Team (RMT)

If you're looking to get some decent advice, there are a few simple rules which you should follow to make it easier to rate the team:

1) Make sure to include all relevant information about your Pokemon. This includes Pokemon type, hold item, natures, EV's, and move set.

2) Post everything in an easy-to-read way. An example of this would be:
Pokemon @ Item
Nature || Ability
EV's
~Move 1
~Move 2
~Move 3
~Move 4
This format is nothing more than a guideline, and can be changed as long as it remains easy to read.

3) Include descriptions of your Pokemon. Describe the role they have on the team, and give some reasoning to the moveset and EV spread you’ve given them. If you're going to use something like Agility Lucario over the standard Swords Dance Lucario, please explain why. (make sure that people don’t judge creativity or element of surprise just because it isn’t standard)

4) Describe how you're going to stop large offensive and defensive threats. While you don't need to describe every answer to every threat, you should at least have some explanation on how you will answer some of the more widely used Pokemon.

5) Talk a little bit about the experiences you've had with your team, and what things you want to improve on. This can help give the raters an idea on where to start. If you know some offensive Pokemon that give you a very hard time, point that out so the raters can help you get past that. Unless you're an incredibly experienced player, testing will always help you, so make sure you test before you post a team.

6) In a Rate My Team topic, standard is always assumed. Therefore, if you're posting a doubles team, underused team, or anything besides standard, make sure to state this. It's annoying to rate a team and then find out all the help you gave is irrelevant.

If you follow these fairly basic rules, you'll get better and more detailed advice from the people of this board. It will make topics easier to read, and makes the central goal of the team much clearer.

V. Team Building Guide

Competitive teams can be difficult to build. These are just a few suggestions that can help you when building a competitive team.

1) Make sure your team has a goal in mind. Successful teams each have a general strategy/goal that all of the individual Pokemon function toward. This goal can be something like stall, offense, bulky wish passing, or even setting up a single, “Hail Mary” sweeper. Having six OU Pokemon with no central strategy doesn't make for a good team, it just gives your opponent easy wins.

Offensive:

Offensive teams are the most basic style of teams which you will encounter. An offensive team usually consists of 4-5 powerful sweepers (set up and/or non-set up) supported by other Pokemon. It takes down opponents teams by simply attacking the opponent as hard and as fast as possible. Players using this style of play will often utilize hard-hitting Pokémon and use resistances and immunities to switch into attacks as opposed to dedicated walls to take hits. An offensive team will usually have 4-5 (or even 6 in extreme cases of hyper offense) powerful sweepers (choice, setup, and kind) that can work well together, and ideally demolish anything in the game.

Examples of such Pokemon include: Dual Screeners (to allow a setup sweeper to find more turns to set-up), Taunters (to prevent the opposing team from setting up), Scouts (Baton Pass, U-Turn or Volt Change to put the offensive player in an advantageous situation), Defensive Pivots (to allow for a safe transition when changing sweepers), Entry Hazard users (to help whittle away at the opposing Pokémons' HP), and Choiced Pokemon (To eliminate key threats which would otherwise impede a sweeper's ability to sweep).

Because offensive teams will lack bulk, speed and priority are important. Not everything can be countered with a traditional sweeper, and you will occasionally need to rely on strong priority attackers (Lucario, Scizor, Mamo) or a fast Scarfer (Latias, Gengar) to get rid of things that set up against your team. It's also usually a good idea to have a late game sweeper clean up after the other five sweepers have sufficiently shattered or worn down any defensive backbone of the enemy team (Salamence, Gyarados).

Stall:

Stall is the most defensive play style you will ever encounter. Stall players typically beat their opponents with an accumulation of residual damage, inflicted by conditions such as entry hazards, weather, or status ailments, combined with direct damage inflicted by weaker attacks, and phazing.

The majority of Pokemon on a stall team will have good defenses (both physical and special) and contribute to the overall goal of indirectly wearing down the opponent's team. Tactics include, but are not limited to: using Ghosts to block Rapid Spin (a move which will eliminate entry hazards), setting up entry hazards as fast as possible, using Pseudo-Hazing (Phazing) moves, using items such as Leftovers and Evolite and using clerics to help remove status from the user and the entire team.

In general, stall teams have trouble dealing with Pokemon that can avoid residual damage such as Reuniclus, Sigilyph, and Clefable. Methods of dealing with these defensive threats include the use of Perish Song to force a switch, or the use of an offensive Pokemon to threaten the opponent with attack damage.

Balanced:

Balanced teams consist of bulky sweepers and tanks (occasionally a frailer sweeper or two), that have good synergy. They don't need to rely on revenging nearly as much as an offensive team, and they can't counter as much as a defensive team. Rather, they’re somewhere in the middle. Balanced teams, like all teams, nearly always have stealth rock. They also take advantage of status effects such as Thunder Wave and Will-o-Wisp rather than the stall teams use of Toxic for more passive damage, and offensive teams rare use of anything at all save the occasional fast sleep.

Examples: Using bulky offensive Pokemon to set up to provide momentum to the team. Using support such as Ferrothorn to spread Thunder Wave.

2) Always check your weaknesses chart. Having 4/6's of your team weak to Fire, Electricity, or other common attack types is a bad idea. A general rule is to have no more than two Pokemon weak to one type of attack. Another general rule that can help is to always have at least as many resists as you do weaknesses.I like to follow that second rule, and it's served me fairly well. A good tool to use is the Marriland Team Builder:

http://Pokemon.marriland.com/black_white/team_builder

3) Make sure your team has a way to counter, or at least check, the current threats that you're going to be seeing. Smogon/Pokemon Online post their usage stats every month. Checking those to see which Pokemon are being used is always helpful. Make sure your team can handle all of the Pokemon that are commonly used. Otherwise you likely won't have a successful team. If you have time, you should go through the entire OU list of Pokemon and make sure your team does have an answer to all of them.

4) A lead is an incredibly important part of your team, and the only Pokemon that is guaranteed to be used every game. Make sure that the lead you have starts out by helping your general team strategy, or make it an anti-lead to try and slow down other teams. Always check the top 10 leads being used to make sure the lead you're going to use isn't beaten by the majority of them.

5) Make sure your team works well together. Just because two Pokemon can be used on the same type of team doesn't mean they belong on the same team. For example, if you're building a stall team you don't need both Chansey and specially-defensive Porygon2. Even though they're both pretty solid Pokemon, they serve nearly the same role.

6) It is ill advised to rely upon gimmicks and Pokemon that are outclassed. If you rely on gimmicks your team isn’t likely to win any games past the first one you have with an opponent. If you use Pokemon that are outclassed, then you're not being competitive. Using Pokemon that are outclassed means that you're knowingly going into the battle at a disadvantage, and purposely not making the team as good as it could possibly be. Use the best Pokemon that you have available to you if you're in a competitive setting, not favourites.


VI. Specialty Topics

There are special topics on the battle boards that are a formal association of people with similar interests who offer services to battlers. These topics are often denoted as clubs, guilds, stations, or shops and exist as part of the battle board community. You may join as a member of these topics if those topics allow. Check the topics for membership information.

Do not attempt to make a new club, guild, station, or shop unless there is need for it. Do not create a guild for the sole purpose of chatting. It should contribute to the Battle Boards by informing, helping, or keeping on-topic with battling.

Sometimes, there will be instances where two users experience difficulty connecting in the WiFi room. Here are some examples:

1. User failed to respond...

This is a common issue with WiFi Battling. If it occurs, try the following:

>Host the Battle with VC Off.
>If that fails, let the other person host the battle with VC Off.

If each one fails, both players should log off of WiFi and then log back in! This solves many of the problems. Another step is to re-add each other’s FCs. This solves many errors with Error Code 91010. Otherwise, you can either repeat the above steps or try trading with someone else. Although uncommon, there WILL be connections that won’t ever work so be sure to try the above steps before stopping.

2. When user A registers user B’s FC and connects to the WiFi room and user B says he/she is on WiFi, user A does not see user B in the WiFi room.

There are a few possibilities that lead to this:

One possibility is that a glitch may have occurred, most commonly known as the user delay glitch. If a user enters the WiFi room before the other user registers the former’s FC, log off and re-add the FC. This will solve most problems.

Another possibility is that user B did not register user A’s FC into his/her pal pad. If both users do not register each other in their pal pad, they may not see each other in the WiFi room.

Another possibility is that user A or B may have a NEW FC assigned to him/her. This happens when the DS game is used to log on to WiFi with a different Nintendo DS. User A and B should make sure that the FC in the Pal Pad matches the FC given in the topic. Update the other battler if this is the case.

In rare cases, both users may add each other’s FCs and either one or both do not see each other in the WiFi room despite correct FCs. To be safe, both user should delete the other’s FC from the Pal Pad and re-add.

If all else fails, contact your Wireless Router's maker and ask them for step-by-step instructions on how to set up a DMZ connection. DMZ stands for Demilitarized Zone and it essentially allows a system to connect to the Internet without disabling the entire system's security.


VIII. Tips and Tricks

Informational Links:

Serebii (Pokémon Information):
http://www.serebii.net/index2.shtml

Smogon (Competitive and RNG Information):
http://www.smogon.com/

Pokémon Nature Information:
http://www.serebii.net/games/natures.shtml

EV Information:
http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=925601&topic=38648412

IV Information:
http://www.serebii.net/games/ivs.shtml

IV & Hidden Power Calculator:
http://www.serebii.net/games/iv-calcdp.shtml

Another Hidden Power Calculator:
http://www.metalkid.info/Pokemon/Calculators/HiddenPower.aspx

IX. Credits (Users From GameFAQs):

We would like to thank:
amigo767 - For contributing to the Team Building section and proofreading.
CJayC - For posting the original underage ban sticky for Pokémon Diamond/Pearl trade board.
cppippy - For suggesting to add the Wonder Launcher feature.
DetroitDJ (M) - For additional clarification on posting off-site links.
entie700 - For solutions to WiFi errors and the DMZ advice.
Error1355 (M) - For clarifying the posting of the GameSpot link to the Battle Boards.
FEYN05 - For elaborating the Pal Pad section and proofreading.
nightgeist_dc17 - For giving permission to use portions of the Trading Board’s sticky.
jinxblog - For proofreading, suggestions, and fixing grammatical errors.
jrockthegreat89 - For proofreading and finalizing thoughts.
LemonKittie - For organizing and gathering information.
MeleeMaster1 - For providing the 4th gen sticky topic.
mrirrelevant - For adding important definitions.
PharasKn - For proofreading and finalizing thoughts.
pingPON2 - For proofreading and modifying words.
qwerty272727 - For suggestions.
ryuksapple - For suggesting the Dream World tidbit.
themoonreturns - For giving important suggestions.
Ty_3212000 - For proofreading and finalizing thoughts.

We hope you have a safe and enjoyable time battling on these boards!

You might want to edit part of this to fit the forums more (you can still give credit to the original poster, while mentioning that you edited it some as well).

For instance, these are some of the things that I found out-of-place:

"Hello and welcome to the Pokémon Black and White Version Battle Boards!
Before posting on this board, you should be aware of the standards for battling."

This section of the forums is meant for competitive battling in general, not just Black/White.

"Yes, users who admit they're under 13 get banned.

No, creating topics to bait people into saying they're under 13 (regardless of whether or not they're under 13) is not of any benefit to anyone, and if you do it, you're going to be the one who gets moderated."

These forums in general are meant for any age group.


Everything else seems to be fine, however.

wait on the no pokemon list there is a Blaziken whats wrong with Blaziken and Jamal is it ok to be 13?

danieltoday wrote:wait on the no pokemon list there is a Blaziken whats wrong with Blaziken and Jamal is it ok to be 13?

Blazikien is banned because he raped/killed a small family, and has been put in jail, thus preventing him from battling. gets Speed Boost thanks to Dream World.

Note: The strike is for comedy, if you hate cruel jokes, don't read it. :p

na I love jokes

danieltoday wrote:Jamal is it ok to be 13?

PokemonMasterJamal3 wrote:These forums in general are meant for any age group.

I would believe so.