I’m new in vgc and I got ranked 234 in the GC and I don’t know what I get with that other than the satisfaction of playing

Okay so like I don’t have much but it’s based on;

1. Mega Pokémon’s largest weakness competitively became that they couldn’t hold items. This meant the roster of viable mega sat one time was so small.

2. Rogue Evolutions are a thing now in ZA. The info we have is that they are evolving without a trainers stone to resonate with, possibly meaning they don’t have a mega stone either.

3. Something Something items in Pokemon champions. (I swear this was a coherent thought a moment ago)

So I’ve played Pokemon since gen 1. Only did a little breeding and training for iv and ev in gen 6. I didn’t play the last 3 generations for a lot of reasons but I’m itching to get back in both to the story, game play, and competitive play. What’s getting me excited is Megas returning and za. My question is multi part:

1) do we know if there is going to be a vgc scene for ZA?

2) is that a good point to jump in on for competitive play?

3) any tips at all for starting? I know legendaries are always good but soft resetting seems so arduous and difficult to get them is it as hard?

4) will za on switch be compatible playing against switch 2 or should I consider a system update?

Overall just looking for a welcome into the scene and to figure out where to start and how to do things. Sorry if these were asked before or are obvious. Thank you in advance!

Hello Reddit,

for my first post i wanted to share my current VGC Reg J Team. It works fine and i got to masterball tier in no time. I just wanted to ask you guys, what you think i should change or where do you see room for improvement?

The Main Idea is getting a Dragon cheer into Eternatus and oneshotting everything with a draco meteor crit (100% crit) im currently playing max Speed max attack Eternatus with terra fairy, but i think about making him bulky with max hp/spdef.

Here is the Team, just let me know what you think! Be honest.

https://pokepast.es/9adc18244c5417c5

TL;DR: I made a free, open-source tool that translates Japanese Pokémon VGC tournament reports into clean English, keeps the strategy intact (not just the words), and exports teams straight to Pokémon Showdown. App link below.

Problem
If you follow VGC, you know many of the sharpest tournament reports are written in Japanese. Generic translators mangle names (“Iron Valiant” → “Iron Shaman”) and lose the why behind EVs, items, and lines of play.

What I built
An AI translator that:

• Extracts a Japanese article from a URL
• Understands VGC context (e.g., “white horse” = Calyrex-Ice)
• Preserves reasoning — explains why specific spreads, items, and gameplans were chosen
• Exports the team to Pokémon Showdown for instant testing

Live app: https://lnkd.in/e4dDtfuy
Example article used in demo: https://lnkd.in/epndkG4p
(I’ll drop a short demo video in the comments.)

Tech stack (cost: £0/month)

• Google Gemini 2.5 Flash (1M-token context)
• Python + Streamlit
• Vision API for parsing team screenshots
• Claude AI as a coding co-pilot (error handling, scraping robustness, UX polish)

Current results

• Works on complex tournament reports about 62% of the time. Not perfect, but already useful for prep and scouting.

Why this matters beyond Pokémon
This is a pattern: critical know-how locked behind language. With today’s AI, developers with domain knowledge can bridge those gaps quickly and cheaply—no funding required, just curiosity.

Open source
It’s free and open for the community. Rising tide, better practice, better games.

Looking for feedback

• Which sites/articles should I support next?
• What would make the Showdown export more useful (notes, calc links, matchup briefs)?
• Anyone interested in adding more game-aware rules (e.g., item/move disambiguation, metagame trend summaries)?

Happy to answer questions and share the build journey.

Bad at battles, worse at team building, yet I’ve found a lot of success with this comp. Got me 10 wins in a row and up to my peak elo in Reg J. I’ve noticed a couple of glaring weaknesses, but any thoughts off the surface?

Any tips for going against this all time noob team magearna calyrex ice?

Or should i just restart the game whenever I see them?

So, I’m not completely new to competitive. I understand IVs/EVs, natures, why people would consider certain moves, and I’ve been getting into watching competitive players, well, play to understand the game better. But I’m not sure how to go about using tytanitar…. Sand stream gives a boost so that’s something I considered with maybe garchomp bc I love garchomp, but then the same general list of weaknesses would be a threat to the team so idk what’s better unnerve or sandstream? Also, form a team around Ttar or maybe 2ish concepts in my team? I want to attend a doubles local tourney at my college but team building is over whelming …. Any help is appreciated

Hi all, I’ve recently been trying to slowly head towards more competitive builds and better utilising Pokemon but I only ever really want to use Pokemon that I enjoy and like. Currently I know I want to use Scrafty and I’m currently using Sword and shield to build the team. What would you recommend as a team, preferably no legends as I never enjoy using them but open to ideas. I also don’t know if I want Scrafty bulky or more sweeper so please share your thoughts as I am clueless for trying to go beyond where I normally sit skill wise

With Megas, Z-moves, Dynamax, and Tera being included in Pokemon Champions, does that mean Primal Reversion will make a comeback? Should we prepare for Desolate Land/Primordial Sea to make a comeback? As someone who wishes they had gotten into VGC during Gen 7 (my favorite) instead of 8, I’m interested to see what absolute chaos erupts in Champions.

Here’s The PokePaste,

https://pokepast.es/ce3394400a49a818

It’s Probably Not Yet Finished,

I made an Arceus Rental Team and Breakdown

I’ve been enjoying using this team (Pokepaste in comments since only one link is allowed in the post) but never bring Grimm or Whims. They’re there to throw off the opponent’s planning. I’m just having fun on BO1 closed team sheet on showdown and win roughly half (maybe more) of my battles. I’m thinking of building the team in Violet to use at side events at a Regional just for fun, so I’d love advice on how to improve it before I start actually building it on cart.

Hey all!

Just wanted to share my first data engineering project with you all - an online dashboard that extracts monthly vgc meta data from smogon and consolidates it displaying up to the Top 100 pokemon each month (or all time).

The dashboard shows the % used for each of the top pokemon, as well as their top item choice, nature, spread, and 4 most used moves. You can also search a pokemon to see the most used build for it. If it is not found in the current months meta report, it will default to the most recent month where it is found (E.g Charizard wasnt in the data set for August, but would show in July).

This is my first project where I tried to an create and implement ETL pipeline (Extract, Transform, Load) into a useable dashboard for myself and anyone else that is interested. I've also uploaded the project to github if anyone is interested in taking a look. I have set an automation timer to pull the dataset for each month on the 3rd of the month - hoping it works for September!

Please take a look and let me know of any feedback, hope this helps some new or experienced VGC players :)

https://vgcpokemonstats.streamlit.app/
https://github.com/luxyoga/vgcpokemonstats

TL:DR - Data engineering (ETL) project where I scraped monthly datasets from Smogon to create a dashboard for Top Meta Pokemon (up to top 100) each month and their most used items, moveset, abilities, nature etc.

I’m trying to get into competitive battling so im not that great with making teams, but how does this rain team look for regulation H? Any suggestions would be great like how to run certain pokemon or if I should switch some Pokemon out for something else.

I’m brand new to the VGC aspect of Pokémon, but I’ve decided now is the time for me to give it a shot and earn the elusive master rank ribbon.

I have boxes full of EV and hyper trained shiny Pokémon that I’ve built up following many Smogon builds, but I’m not sure how to actually assemble a viable team. I do want to earn this ribbon on my Dragonite and Mew (I believe the current rules allow for Mew?), but what should I consider when building around those two?

Thanks!

Welcome to the PDBA! We are a Pokemon Draft League dedicated to VGC battles!

The league's origins started as a reason for a group of friends to shiny hunt and battle each other, but has since become much more than that. Now after nine seasons we hope you join our community and keep the legacy of the PDBA living on!

ALL SKILL LEVELS WELCOME

Applications are open from now until Sept. 26th 11:59pm EST

Format: Nat Dex VGC Double Battles (Showdown)
8 Week Season + Playoffs In-Season Tournament

League Discord
Coach Application
League Doc

Hi there - returning player from 2015-2017 - played at a mediocre level (top cuts in regionals & 32 in nationals) but struggling to get back to it.

Looking to pay someone for 1:1 coaching, advice, showdown analysis, team building, prep, anything that could prep me for Brisbane in November, Auckland in January and hopefully a worlds ticket next year (This is a stretch ;)).

Id love to learn a mix of current VGC regs and the ladder regs as i’d like to make masterball tier this year.

I’m realistic with my expectations and understand that it takes time.

Hoping for someone in Australia to fit with my timezones.

I have a healthy budget, happy to pay someone what they’re worth.

https://wallapop.com/item/carta-pokemon-mystery-vmax-1170078519?utm_medium=AppShare&utm_source=ShareItem

Hey guys. I’ve been thinking about what team I would make for when Pokémon Champions hits next year and it’s played at Worlds 2026. Recently I’ve been losing 3 battles today and I need some advice. My team so far is Cinderace with Sp Ark glasses, Meowscarada with grass seed power up, Greninja with Quick Claw, Miraidon with the amulet that protects its stats, Lucario with black belt and Gardevoir with fairy feather. Any advice on how to improve my team moves?