[Art is pending but you do know me by now]
Purpose: The purpose of this thread is to discuss matters related to the research questions below. It is a SM Ubers thread but making the occasional backwards reference is OK. As for the results, a comprehensible, consensus-based summary of ways to operationalize choices in building so that people can take part of the results to seamlessly integrate into their own teams.
Research questions for discussion:
1. Handling offensive threats: How would a check-list for Ubers look?
- What is to be included?
- What can be bundled together (think for example in terms of typing resists lumping together several Pokémon that essentially are handled all the same)?
- How does a check list differ depending on the degree of offensive/defensive style of a team?
- Where must we stop generalizing?
[Short example answer]: "In descending order I think every team needs 2 Geomancy Xerneas checks, 1 Fire resist, 1 Ground immunity. However, offensive teams tend to get away with only having Primal Groudon as its Geomancy Xerneas check. I define the degree of offense as [through explanation on view offensiveness]... This is because Marshadow or other priority users tend to pick off a weakened Xerneas reliably. I think we cannot generalize a list further than this because there is are too many minor differences between styles"
2. Playing the hazard game: What are some notable "rules" of the game?
- What entry hazards does a team need and when?
- What teams need hazard support and in which forms does this take?
- How can one balance the tradeoff in using hazard weak Pokémon? What is an acceptable limit of stacking SR weaknesses?
- How do different styles of teams differ in playing the hazard game?
- Where must we stop generalizing?
[Short example answer]: "Every team needs Stealth Rock. When a team only uses Stealth Rock I think Defog is a must. However, in order to support Defogers, especially Arceus-formes, you generally want a cleric.
3. Synergy/strategy: What are some ways one can win a game?
- This is an open ended question that should discuss when a defensive mindset is detrimental to actually getting anything done. Is it acceptable to build a team with neither a truly offensive nor stally approach that covers everything on paper but has trouble threatening things? To what extent is passivity a thing when stall is a prominent playstyle and is based around being passive? What do we mean when we are so negatively inclined towards passivity then?
I will also point out that, posting cores and stuff is probably not the purpose of this thread. Yeah, it might seem silly but this question in specific is a more theoretical discussion.
4. Extra thoughts: Anything else you feel strongly about? Is there a need for more research questions? I'm not a fan of spending too much time on writing the perfect OP so you'll have to fill in the blanks. Hopefully you get the point of this thread and we can work together from there.
Debating in a civil manner over posts made by other people is also encouraged. That is all.