Do you play by Smogon?

[Kokuren7]

I play by Smogon rules, Smogon in my opinion, does a great job at developing a balanced singles metagame and despite what some people on the internet may tell you, is not a dictatorship. Smogon is a community and when a Pokemon is suspect for being banned, you can actually share your thoughts on whether it should/shouldn't be banned and can vote via laddering on the Pokemon Showdown ladder. Playing by Smogon rules like VGC is just one of multiple ways you can play Pokemon, Smogon are not elitists and don't force their rules on those who don't want to use them, but even if you don't use Smogon rules, I hope you can come to an understanding on why some people do.

Is clearly not a dictatorship idk why any one would say that since u can vote on the OU bans if u get high enough on the OU suspect test lader

 

[Kyubey]

I do play by Smogon a bit, but I dislike how it it's divided into tiers like Ubers and OU. How would one distinguish those tiers on the battlefield anyways? I use it as a moveset and EV guid though, so it isn't entirely bad.

One pikachu one-shots a Rayquaza =Uber >.<

 

[FLCL]

Tiers are actually really great, they allow weaker Pokemon that either can't deal with the Pokemon in the higher tiers or are just horribly outclassed by better Pokemon actually useable in their respective tiers like RU/NU, the only downside to tiers is you might not be able to use your favorite Pokemon because its banned to Ubers, but its probably banned for a good reason and you can always play Ubers if you want.

 

[blitzstriker7]

I totally hate Smogon, and i hate these tiers thay have com up with. I am honestly sick and tired of Ipeople saying "Oh, this is banned, and so is this, that is so OU". Honestly. Can't. Stand. It. I hate that site with a passion, and I should be able to run rampant with my Mega Blaziken as I feel. If the Pokémon company banned it, that's real. But a bunch of people? I don't like it.

 

[Kokuren7]

Lea

Tiers are actually really great, they allow weaker Pokemon that either can't deal with the Pokemon in the higher tiers or are just horribly outclassed by better Pokemon actually useable in their respective tiers like RU/NU, the only downside to tiers is you might not be able to use your favorite Pokemon because its banned to Ubers, but its probably banned for a good reason and you can always play Ubers if you want.

dont forget PU ;~;

 

[Blaze-iken]

I sometimes play by Smogon
If I play competitive with my Pokemon Y, i never use Smogon Rules, cause i may lose when i use OU and my foe use Ubers (i never think about that -_- )
If I play Pokemon Online / Showdown, thats when i play by Smogon, cause, you know, they both use Smogon Rules :v

 

[RogueNA]

smogon is actually pretty fun and it puts all these pokemon into tiers so it will be more evenly matched. You dont want all these legendaries going against a small little pikachu that you wanted to try out. So it gives a balance to the game and is enjoyable to me. although others may have a different opinion.

 

[Acemaster]

I usually don't play by Smogon rules becuase they ban lots of fun Pokemon. But sometimes they have some good rules like the evasion clause(I hate double team).

 

[Isabella]

I usually don't play by Smogon rules becuase they ban lots of fun Pokemon. But sometimes they have some good rules like the evasion clause(I hate double team).

That's why you can play ubers or Anything goes and still play your favorite pokemon.

 

[SaiSymbolic]

I generally like using Smogon for their Pokemon sets and strategies, which I do end up tweaking sometimes, but I do understand what people mean by their rules possibly getting boring quickly. I honestly don't mind people using Legendaries because, most of the time, they're pretty easy to curb stomp; I personally don't use them because I find them overrated but, if a person wants to use them, I respect their decision.

As for Smogon's tiers and bans, I'm on the fence about that. On one hand, I appreciate that some lesser Pokemon that have no chance of standing up to the higher, much more used Pokemon are allowed to have a place where they can shine but, I don't know, it feels like its kinda...pretentious? sometimes.

Like, there was an old post I was reading about Florges when it was first introduced and, instead of trying to point out its strengths, the topic eventually descended into "Why would you possibly ever use Florges when you have Sylveon/Clefable/WhateverIsApparentlyBetterThanFlorges?" and I was thinking to myself, "If I wanted to use Sylveon/Clefable/Whatever, I would've looked it up in the first place! I want to use Florges!"

But, yeah, sometimes it seems as if Smogon is more concerned over what's better than on what can be more fun. That's just my view and I'm sure that Smogon people aren't really like that but it's just how they come off as sometimes

 

[rainbowsylveon]

Since I'm only starting to get into competitive battling, I don't really use Smogon's rules, but I do use it as an EV guide. It's very handy to figure out just what nature will get the best use out of both the base stats and what EVs I put into it. I don't hate Smogon; I think it's got a decent way as to how it organizes competitive battles, but as with anything, it has calmer people and then there are the elitists who are basically "you are the scum of the earth if you don't play by Smogon rules".

I don't think I'd ever use Smogon rules, since my favorite battle format is Triples, and they're Singles only, I think.

 

[Mehedi123]

Smogon is pretty cool woth organizing crtain tiers and caterozing pokemon. But sometimes they are just insufficent. LIKE WHYY WOULD THEY BAN MEGA SALAMENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! like they criticize by power. so its fone woth balancing the rules for compettive play.

 

[FLCL]

Smogon is pretty cool woth organizing crtain tiers and caterozing pokemon. But sometimes they are just insufficent. LIKE WHYY WOULD THEY BAN MEGA SALAMENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! like they criticize by power. so its fone woth balancing the rules for compettive play.

Can't tell if srs or not, Mega Salamence was the definition of broken, it made Mega Kanga look like an NU mon, Mega Salamence had a great pre mega ability in the form of Intimidate and on top of that, his defense rose to 130 post mega evolution, with its amazing bulk it couldn't even be OHKO'd by a Life Orb Ice Shard from Mamoswine or Weavile and with the SubRoost set could practically set up on anything. Mega Salamence was nothing short of cancerous to the OU metagame, it deserved to be banned.

 

[RedStoneMagician]

This is something that really needed to be addressed.. Smogon, while sometimes useful can be one of the most annoying things in the Pokémon Universe. They do a fairly decent job of putting Pokémon in what I would consider to be the correct tier, but some choices are just ridiculous. When I say this I'm mainly referring to their "Uber" class, now while this tier is mainly made up of Legends there are some Pokémon that just don't belong, such as Aegislash, Blaziken and the recently added Greninja. Normally Pokémon added into this class have a combined base stat total of at least 600, which none of these Pokémon have: Aegislash = 520, Blaziken = 530 and Greninja = 530. Sure, if they are trained correctly can to major damage to any team, but trained wrong and they are useless. I've had Greninja sweep me, but I've also faced Greninja that couldn't do any damage to me or take any damage in return. The point being if they are putting good, balanced Pokémon that people build teams around then why didn't Talonflame get thrown in with Greninja? Talonflame is the exact same way, we've all ran into Talonflame that sweep our team until the Brave Bird recoil damage finally finishes them off, but if trained wrong it's a joke. Now, after all that look at it from a different way. Google a list of the Uber tier Pokémon and just look at it for a little while... You'll see Pokémon such as Arceus, Darkrai, Mewtwo and Rayquaza and then throw in a simple Aegislash and Greninja and you have people looking twice to make sure they read that correctly. The point being that common Pokémon such as these shouldn't be thrown in simply because they are good when trained right. The World Champ's Pachirisu was an epic Pokémon, but because it was good and now people know how to use it should it be banned? I realize that everyone will have there opinion about this, but my opinion is that Smogon shouldn't ban Pokémon simply because of how viable it is competitively and the decent move pool it was given. My opinion is that they should pay more attention to the stats that make up the Pokémon before training and after.

 

[FLCL]

This is something that really needed to be addressed.. Smogon, while sometimes useful can be one of the most annoying things in the Pokémon Universe. They do a fairly decent job of putting Pokémon in what I would consider to be the correct tier, but some choices are just ridiculous. When I say this I'm mainly referring to their "Uber" class, now while this tier is mainly made up of Legends there are some Pokémon that just don't belong, such as Aegislash, Blaziken and the recently added Greninja. Normally Pokémon added into this class have a combined base stat total of at least 600, which none of these Pokémon have: Aegislash = 520, Blaziken = 530 and Greninja = 530. Sure, if they are trained correctly can to major damage to any team, but trained wrong and they are useless. I've had Greninja sweep me, but I've also faced Greninja that couldn't do any damage to me or take any damage in return. The point being if they are putting good, balanced Pokémon that people build teams around then why didn't Talonflame get thrown in with Greninja? Talonflame is the exact same way, we've all ran into Talonflame that sweep our team until the Brave Bird recoil damage finally finishes them off, but if trained wrong it's a joke. Now, after all that look at it from a different way. Google a list of the Uber tier Pokémon and just look at it for a little while... You'll see Pokémon such as Arceus, Darkrai, Mewtwo and Rayquaza and then throw in a simple Aegislash and Greninja and you have people looking twice to make sure they read that correctly. The point being that common Pokémon such as these shouldn't be thrown in simply because they are good when trained right. The World Champ's Pachirisu was an epic Pokémon, but because it was good and now people know how to use it should it be banned? I realize that everyone will have there opinion about this, but my opinion is that Smogon shouldn't ban Pokémon simply because of how viable it is competitively and the decent move pool it was given. My opinion is that they should pay more attention to the stats that make up the Pokémon before training and after.

When talking about how good certain Pokemon are, BST (Base Stat Total) is usually irrelevant, as its not a good indicator of how "broken" a Pokemon is, just look at Azumarill, it only has a BST of 420 yet was S ranked on the OU Viability Rankings for the majority of the XY metagame. When it comes to the Pokemon you listed banned to Ubers, Aegislash was the only one that was debatable, Blaziken had no counters in OU and was overcentralizing because you had to run checks on every team, Greninja was also overcentralizing but in a different manner, as it made an entire playstyle (Balance) unviable due to its threatening movepool. Talonflame isn't broken whatsoever, it has a 4x weakness to Stealth Rocks and actually has counters like Landorus T, Rotom Wash and Heatran and lastly bringing up the fact that a Pokemon isn't as good without proper EVs/IVs is just silly, because of course people are going to make their Pokemon the best they can possibly be competitively, there's no reason to do otherwise.

 

[Hikki]

I play by Smogon when I play competitively. Their rules make sense. Their clauses (Sleep Clause, OneHitKO Clause, Etc)
All have some kind of meaning and making sense. (Except OnehitKO clause because it's accuracy is already at 30% why ban it???) It means sense that legendaires are banned except in Ubers because their stats are WAY higher than any normal Pokemon. With legendaries and Dark Void, the games just aren't fair/fun anymore. Plus it doesn't take a whole bunch of skill just to capture a legendary and use it/train it.

 

[cuberandgamer]

I play by smogon. The bans are (usually) reasonable. Lots of people don't like smogon because they ban pokemon that make the game extremely easy to win. The format isn't for everyone.

 

[cuberandgamer]

I totally hate Smogon, and i hate these tiers thay have com up with. I am honestly sick and tired of Ipeople saying "Oh, this is banned, and so is this, that is so OU". Honestly. Can't. Stand. It. I hate that site with a passion, and I should be able to run rampant with my Mega Blaziken as I feel. If the Pokémon company banned it, that's real. But a bunch of people? I don't like it.

You don't seem to understand why blaziken is banned. Smogon won't unban something because its a starter or a fan favorite. A pokemon is banned if its too powerful. Mega blaziken was simply way too powerful. Not that many pokemon can check it, so the few pokemon that do check it were on every team just to deal with mega blaziken. This made the game really repetitive and the goal of winning an OU game was to sweep with blaziken. The only thing that matters in a pokemon's ban is how it effects the metagame as a whole.

But if you want to use blaziken, that is fine . Just don't use him in OU

 

[3823]

I play by smogon. Most of the the clauses/rules are reasonable and make the game fair. What I found recently though is that they have been banning a lot of megas. >.< I kind of disagree with the banning of a few like Mawile and Heracross.
About Mega Blaziken, It was OP. It didn't belong in OU. It's speed boost boosted it's already high speed and It could sweep almost everything with a high jump kick. He's in ubers now, where he belongs

 

[blitzstriker7]

You don't seem to understand why blaziken is banned. Smogon won't unban something because its a starter or a fan favorite. A pokemon is banned if its too powerful. Mega blaziken was simply way too powerful. Not that many pokemon can check it, so the few pokemon that do check it were on every team just to deal with mega blaziken. This made the game really repetitive and the goal of winning an OU game was to sweep with blaziken. The only thing that matters in a pokemon's ban is how it effects the metagame as a whole.

But if you want to use blaziken, that is fine . Just don't use him in OU

I don't really gaf. I play VGC anyways, so Blaziken is a total monster, one shotting most things it comes up against. Talonflame and Status aren't really issues thanks to Quick Guard Bisharp, but I can see why people think he's "unfair"