Anime Style Battling for Beginners

Introduction

Hello there, reader, I am here to talk about that obscure subforum under the Circus Maximus tag in Smogon Forums known as ASB.

Deck Knight mostly covers what it is and its advantages in his article here, but I will rehash it. ASB—short for Anime Style Battling—is a forum-based game similar to those you might find on other Pokémon forums. Unlike most other ASB's, however, our ASB is less flavor-driven and more mechanic-driven where everything is codified while maths and objectivity help define our ASB; basically, we follow ingame mechanics for the most part. This does not mean we are uncreative, though—we do enjoy the odd usage of String Shot to tie an opponent up, for example—but it means that our ASB is competitive and the aim to winning is objective in nature. Pretty fitting for a website dedicated to competitive Pokémon, right?

Our ASB also has some notable quirks over competitive Pokémon, which I will bullet point.

• Pokémon's stats are normalized based on their ingame stats: This means that the power gap between the good and bad are much closer and the damage formula means that OHKOs are virtually non-existent; you might be able to beat my Gliscor with your Weavile, but do not be surprised if my Gliscor wounds your Weavile significantly in the process.
• Pokémon are no longer bounded by four moveslots: Instead, Pokémon start with a set number of moves and progressively learn new moves over time, eventually learning every move it can learn from any generation, including events and some "error moves" from the Anime.
• Pokémon have all their abilities at once: And in the cases of "unfortunate" combinations like Inner Focus + Steadfast and Vital Spirit + Insomnia, some alterations are made to the abilities to make them better.
• ASB has many more viable Pokémon: You can use your favorites and expect them to perform well in ASB. Even Pokémon like Delibird and Volbeat have been used to success in ASB, so you have no worries on that regard.
• You can even use the Pokémon created by the Create-A-Pokémon project: Ever wanted to terrorize your opposition with a Pyroak or even a Plasmanta? You can in ASB.

As mentioned in the aforementioned article, our ASB was founded in 2011 by Deck Knight as a side project and has since developed into a full-blown, self-sustaining small community. Things have grown over time with policy systems keeping the game balanced, roleplay services to enhance user experience, and generation shifts being handled seamlessly. The game used to be fully maintained by Deck Knight until recently when he stepped down from his role, shifting his powers to me, as well as the other moderators of the forum.

What this article will do is delve into how to sign up, how a typical ASB match goes, and some of the endgame aims that ASB has to offer (in other words, the point of developing the Pokémon you train). Finally, this article will delve into some of the new toys we got in the transition from XY to ORAS, since just like everything else, ASB gets to play with the new Mega Evolutions as well. Interested? Then read on.

The Basics

Signing Up

So you are interested in joining ASB but you do not know the first thing to do. No need to worry! As long as you have a Smogon account, you are able to join ASB. The first thing you should do is read the Beginner's Guide that we have. This will explain most of the things that you need to know. The basic gist of the signup process is that you need to head to the Registration Tower subforum, post a thread titled "Profile: <Your username>", add the basic items and whatnot in the first post, the Pokémon you decide to start with in the second post, and then wait for someone to check over and approve you. While you are at it, you should also familiarize yourself with the ASB Handbook and the Data Audit Tables. These two links—while admittedly quite large—along with the Beginner's Guide are your best friends with helping you understand the game and its rules, in the case of the former, and finding out the data of every move, item, Pokémon, and so much more, in the case of the latter.

So, what Pokémon do you pick? In ASB, you can start with the first form of any Pokémon you like (excluding legendary Pokémon), including the first forms of the Pokémon that were created by the Create-A-Pokémon Project. Do note that you have only six Currency Counters (in-game currency) to choose your Pokémon from. For an exhaustive list of Pokémon costs, check the Data Audit Tables.

As mentioned in the introduction, there are so many Pokémon in ASB that are viable relative to competitive Pokémon. If you want to pick your favorites, then you are more than welcome to because even if they may not be great Pokémon, they still have the potential to go toe-to-toe with the titans of the metagame and possibly come out on top. If you want to win, however, then you are obviously going to pick Pokémon that do well in ASB. What exactly does well in ASB though? Well, just like any of Smogon's tiers, we have a Viability Rankings Thread that is designed as an incredibly useful resource to tell you which Pokémon in ASB are good (note the disclaimer).

So, you have picked the Pokémon you want to use; now, you have to sign up. To do this, like mentioned above, post a thread in our registration subforum. The first post is basically an overview of your profile with what Pokémon you have, what items you have, what battles you have been in, et cetera. Thankfully the ASB Handbook has a template near the end of it (Ctrl + F "How to format a registration"). Just copy and paste it and change it around—remembering to keep the starter items—and you are set.

In the second post, you post the data sheets of each of the Pokémon you chose. The Beginner's Guide has a template for you to use for each of your Pokémon so I will not delve into detail there. The Data Audit Tables spreadsheet is your best friend, as it tells you all you need to know about the data and what each nature does. It even has an accuracy boost table for natures such as Timid and Hasty if you want to use Pokémon with those natures. Do not forget to adjust the Pokémon's stats according to the nature you give it! Finally, you need to add moves, which is mentioned in the Beginner's Guide; just note that it is a bit dated and it does not cover special cases, such as genderless Pokémon, properly. Once you have done this for each Pokémon, you are then ready to post your team.

Once you have posted your profile and you are done, you are considered to be waiting for approval. The easiest way to get yourself checked quickly is to contact me or someone else who can approve you either by forum or by IRC. Eventually one of us will look over your profile. If there are any errors, we will let you know and ask you to fix them, after which you can contact us again. When there are no errors or just trivial errors, you will be approved and you are officially a member of ASB.

If after reading this and the Beginner's Guide, you are still stuck on trying to create a profile, then one thing I recommend you should do is head to our IRC channel: #capasb (There is a link in the Beginner's Guide). There you will meet plenty of users who are willing to assist you with signing up if you have any issues, making the process a lot easier. You also have the benefit of getting to know the players of the game if you do so, so there is nothing to lose by doing it!

Typical Flow of an ASB Match

So you have been approved. What do you do next? The first thing you should do, as is mentioned in the Beginner's Guide, is head straight for the Battle Tower thread in ASB's Network Center sub-forum and post a challenge (or accept a challenge that is already there). The Beginner's Guide goes through the basics of this so I will not go into detail. After that, a user will then agree to referee the match. From there, you should send a private message to that user with the Pokémon you would like to use (do provide their data). Eventually, when the referee gets both player's teams, they will then post a thread that will be dedicated to that match.

What happens now? The Beginner's Guide also covers this in detail, so I will not delve into it, but I will go through the typical flow of a match. In the first post, expect to see the battle conditions, which Pokémon each player brought, and the turn order for the first round, which is usually User A sends out, User B sends out and orders, User A orders, the referee referees the outcome. Sending out is exactly what it says on the tin; you send out the Pokémon you want to send out. Ordering involves declaring what your Pokémon is going to use for that round and what they are substituting for. Your typical set of orders will look like this:

In plain English, what this means is that the player is ordering Earthquake on the first action (A time unit that makes up an ASB round), Bulldoze on the second action, and Earthquake on the third action of that round. The player is also making a couple of substitutions, which allow the Pokémon to react to an event occurring such as a critical hit occurring or a Pokémon using a move (There are limitations on these). In this case, the substitutions say that if the opponent uses Magnet Rise, Smack Down is the action that should be used, and if the Pokémon is burned by an opponent's Will-O-Wisp, then use Refresh the first time it happens.

Sometimes, however, you might see something like "Earthquake + Bulldoze combo" written. These are combinations, which is another facet of ASB. Combinations are, in a nutshell, analogous to ingame Hyper Beam. The idea is that you combine two moves together—as long as it "makes sense"—to create a very powerful attack at the cost of spending the next action to "cooldown" and using a lot of energy. Energy you say? Well Energy is a bit similar to PP from in-game, except it is applied to the Pokémon instead, and if it hits zero, it faints. This number starts at 100 and drops with each move except through a special command called Chill, which restores energy. Simple enough, right?

After both players have ordered, the referee will referee the outcome of the round. Refereeing is a complex subject so I will not delve into it here but the refereeing typically consists of the situation at the start of a round, flavor (generally a retelling of the round), calculations that I will not cover here due to complexity, the situation at the end of the round, and the order for the next round. Players take turns ordering first and second and when a Pokémon faints either by losing all its HP or Energy, it is replaced before orders are issued. When one side is out of Pokémon, then the other player wins the match. There are other things that alter the turn order which generally involves switching, but I will not explain it here.

For smart tips on how to order smartly and be a better battler, then take a look at Stratos's Article on the matter. Though it is a bit opinionated, most of it is still relevant. When a match is finished, the referee will post rewards for the match. To claim the rewards, you post in a dedicated mega-thread for prize claiming indicating what you are claiming and if you want to spend anything and whatnot. Once in a while, someone will look over the claims not looked at and approve them. If you are approved, then you are free to add the rewards to your profile.

What to do when you have developed your team

So you have been through a few battles and you have evolved the Pokémon you started with. You then develop them by getting more moves and whatnot, then you think to yourself, "What is the point of this training?" No need to worry. Our ASB has considered this issue and as a result, several services have cropped up to give people like you an aim (or several) to achieve in ASB with the Pokémon you train.

The first of these is ASB's Gym League. Just like every other ASB we have our own Gym League. Each type has its own Gym Leader. If a type does not have one then odds are there will be qualifiers for that spot soon. The objective of the ASB Gym League is basically to challenge one of our many Gym Leaders and beat them in a battle where the Gym Leader usually has the advantage. If you win, you get the badge for that gym and gain some rewards depending on how many badges you have. If you lose then do not worry, you can try again in the future. It should be noted that unlike in-game, our Gym Leaders are no pushovers and type advantage alone will not necessarily win you the matchup. We currently do not have an Elite Four or a League Champion at the moment, however.

Another major aim we offer in ASB lies in the tournaments. Tournaments are your standard fare in ASB: beat your opponents and win the tournament. However, due to ASB's nature, tournaments are likely to last for a few months, so you better have some patience. Every now and then signups will open for a new tournament. They will either require Pokémon you have or allow you to use Pokémon you do not own. From there, the tournaments will run as normal. Because of the rarity of these, winners will usually get a major prize for winning; typically a legendary Pokémon. There may also be prizes for second and third place as well. Also winning a tournament is a major feat few people ever achieve in their ASB careers, so if you win one, consider yourself lucky, as only the best ever do so.

Finally we have two of the most enduring and popular roleplays in ASB that also serve as an aim: The ASB Raid Zone and The Legend Run. The former is basically a game within a game. Created by zarator, the objective is to team up with a friend to take on enhanced opponents and win prizes that help you get better at it. The latter is a roleplay where players take a team of Pokémon into a dungeon with the aim of capturing the legendary Pokémon that resides in the dungeon. Not all legends are available at the moment, but that is being worked on. If you are interested in either of these, visit the Raids and Legend Runs subforum in ASB to learn more about these two roleplays.

There are also several other places you can grind up your Pokémon's levels for, whether it is to play 6v6 Singles matches with your friends or to become a Gym Leader. There are many things you can do in ASB and many reasons to develop your team to achieve one of the many goals ASB has to offer!

ORAS Mega Evolutions in ASB

Now that we have gone through the basics and the things you can aim to achieve in our ASB, I would like to take this moment to introduce some of the new toys ASB got in the transition from XY to ORAS. In this section, I will cover four of the new Mega Evolutions and what they do in the ASB metagame. I am going to assume that those of you interested in joining have read up on ASB data (especially the tables) in order to get an idea of what I am talking about.

Mega Camerupt

Normal Stats: 100 HP, 4 Atk, 3 Def, 4 SpA, 3 SpD, 40 Spe
Mega Stats: 100 HP, 5 Atk, 4 Def, 6 SpA, 4 SpD, 20 Spe

Camerupt has always been a solid Pokémon in ASB. Aided with three fantastic abilities that help it take less damage and punish critical hits, great offensive STAB coverage, and a plethora of powerful offensive coverage which includes Eruption, Heat Wave, Earth Power, Solar Beam, and Flash Cannon, there is little wonder why people will generally flock to the Eruption Pokémon for their needs. With the advent of ORAS, it got even better with its brand new Mega Evolution.

Mega Camerupt is a big upgrade from Mega Camerupt and while it is slower than molasses, the all around improvement to its bulk and offensive capabilities more than makes up for it. Add that to Sheer Force and you have yourself one of the most offensively capable Pokémon in ASB, capable of denting anything it faces. Sure, that quadruple weakness to Water-types is still going to sting but do not let that discourage you from using it; Mega Camerupt is a force to be reckoned with in ASB.

Mega Salamence

Normal Stats: 100 HP, 5 Atk, 3 Def, 4 SpA, 3 SpD, 100 Spe
Mega Stats: 100 HP, 6 Atk, 5 Def, 5 SpA, 3 SpD, 120 Spe

Oh Mega Salamence. You have terrorized players of OU with your qualities for long enough that they kicked you upstairs to Ubers. You even terrorized the Doubles community enough that you got the dubious honor of being the first thing to ever be banned from Smogon Doubles. Surely your reign of terror extends to ASB as well, right? Thankfully the answer is no; you can use Mega Salamence in ASB and not have to pit it against titans such as Ho-Oh and Arceus. That is not to say that Mega Salamence is a bad Pokémon; in fact, it is incredibly good and it is the shot in the arm Salamence needed to be no longer outclassed by Dragonite, which boasts better coverage, bulk, and Multiscale over Salamence, in ASB.

Mega Salamence grants Salamence improved offenses, physical bulk, a better Speed tier, and of course, Aerilate, which makes moves like Return and Hyper Voice far stronger than usual. This turns Salamence into a destructive force that not only outspeeds the majority of the metagame, but one that can heavily damage its opponents with its powerful attacks which include the aforementioned Return and Hyper Voice, Earthquake, Dragon Claw, Heat Wave, and Iron Tail. On the other hand, it is far more manageable in ASB where its special bulk is average at best, allowing specially-based Ice- and Fairy-types in particular to run rings around Mega Salamence. All this makes Mega Salamence a Pokémon that, while it is very manageable, can inject fear into the opponent and is something that should never be underestimated in ASB.

Mega Beedrill

Normal Stats: 100 HP, 3 Atk, 2 Def, 2 SpA, 3 SpD, 75 Spe
Mega Stats: 100 HP, 6 Atk, 2 Def, 1 SpA, 3 SpD, 145 Spe

Beedrill's main claim to fame revolves around the use of combinations and Sniper-boosted critical hits. zarator covered most of what Beedrill does in his article here, and most of it is still relevant. Alongside strong moves like Poison Jab, X-Scissor, and Drill Run, Beedrill also has access to Gen I moves which means it learns critical moves such as Bide—which is way more viable given the damage formula—and Reflect. However, it suffered from having a lousy Attack stat, which meant that anything with good physical bulk walled it as well as its utter hate for burns. It is also quite frail by ASB standards. The introduction of Rare Candy as a held item helped patch this problem by giving it a major attack boost, but the problem still existed.

However, with the advent of ORAS, there is no reason to slap a Rare Candy on it anymore. The ability to Mega Evolve into Mega Beedrill fixes its low Attack stat problem and adds Adaptability to make its STAB hurt even more. Its Speed also went through the roof, and it gets the maximum Accuracy boost from a Speed-boosting nature. Combine this with the traits Beedrill already has to begin with and you have a deadly weapon on your hands. Beedrill's issues are still present in Mega Beedrill, however, though the Attack boost helps in that regard. All in all, despite its flaws, you can bee sure that Beedrill will put a sting in your opponent's tail alright!

Mega Sableye

Normal Stats: 90 HP, 3 Atk, 3 Def, 3 SpA, 3 SpD, 50 Spe
Mega Stats: 90 HP, 3 Atk, 5 Def, 3 SpA, 4 SpD, 20 Spe

Sableye has always been a top tier Pokémon in ASB. It possesses a massive movepool riddled with many support moves that benefit from Prankster such as Taunt, Imprison, Torment, and Pain Split, the ability to bypass Pokémon using Dig and retaliate with Metal Burst reliably by simply going last in an action through its Stall ability, and many of the traits it has with its typing, which include a trapping immunity and a critical immunity to Bide and CounterCoat. Add to that the Everstone item, which boosts its Attack and Defense by two ranks, and it is easy to see why so many users hate facing Sableye in ASB. Surely the new Mega Evolution it got in ORAS makes it far more troublesome, right? Not exactly.

Because of Sableye becoming powerful offensively with Everstone, Mega Sableye has difficulties in terms of having to face competition with its base form. However, that is not to say Mega Sableye is bad or outclassed; it does have its advantages. These range from a critical Knock Off immunity to better special bulk to Magic Bounce, which makes it virtually immune to moves like Taunt and Encore as well as preventing things like Fidgit from setting up entry hazards on it; something Sableye would love to have. So despite many people generally going for Everstone on Sableye, Mega Sableye is still a viable choice in ASB and is just as scary to deal with as its base form.

Get out there!

So, all in all, we covered the process of joining ASB, what happens in a typical ASB match, some of the new Mega Evolutions we got in ASB, and some of the things you can aim to achieve in this game. If after reading this, you are interested in joining ASB, I suggest you create a Smogon account if you have not done so already and check out our ASB Forum which can be found here. While you are at it, you should also come on IRC and join #capasb on the SynIRC network. I recommend you do because it will make your ASB experience so much better and you will also get to know the regulars and have a nice chat as well. Do not be intimidated; our community welcomes anyone who joins, so you might as well come and join ASB today! What are you waiting for? Come and participate right now!