Oct 20, 2015, 10:12 AM
There are different 'basics' depending on the format you are interested in playing. The guides Shachi posted are good for the format VGC, which is a doubles format where Pokemon are scaled down to level 50 and you make a team of 6 Pokemon and pick 4 of those Pokemon to take in to battle at team preview. Alex Ogloza has some great content for learning how to play, but he also has a lot less serious content (Like Blastoisinite Milotic) and tries to get wins with that. Basically, if it's a Friday expect a less serious team. Other great content creators to watch are Aaron 'Cybertron' Zheng, Baz Anderson and Ray Rizzo (Although he's not very active). I would also recommend watching battle videos from Nationals to know what people are bringing, taking in to account whether or not it is best of one or best of three.
But none of that is relevant if you want to play in Smogon Singles, which many people play and you have likely played if you have been on Pokemon Showdown (an online battle simulator). This is a bring all 6 format, where Pokemon are separated out in to tiers based on usage. That's done to allow Pokemon which are otherwise not viable to use competitively to be used against Pokemon of a similar calibre. They also have more rules like Sleep Clause and Baton pass clause, as well as ban certain Pokemon for being unhealthy to the metagame.
Really before you learn about competitive battling you should look at battles in both formats and see which one appeals to you.
But none of that is relevant if you want to play in Smogon Singles, which many people play and you have likely played if you have been on Pokemon Showdown (an online battle simulator). This is a bring all 6 format, where Pokemon are separated out in to tiers based on usage. That's done to allow Pokemon which are otherwise not viable to use competitively to be used against Pokemon of a similar calibre. They also have more rules like Sleep Clause and Baton pass clause, as well as ban certain Pokemon for being unhealthy to the metagame.
Really before you learn about competitive battling you should look at battles in both formats and see which one appeals to you.
