VGC 2015 Rules Announced!

Hello Hat Lovers!

The rules for VGC 2015 have finally been announced. These rules will be put into place January 1st 2015. Here the rules regarding team construction:

  • VGC 2015 will be played on Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire versions. Players cannot use two Pokemon with the same Pokedex number. Players cannot have two of the same item on their team.
  • The following Pokemon are banned: Mewtwo, Mew, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Celebi, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi, Deoxys, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus, Manaphy, Phione, Victini, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Keldeo, Meloetta, Genesect, Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde, Diancie. Hoopa and Donut-Steam-Monster will be banned once Game Freak officially reveals them.
  • Soul Dew is banned.
  • Pokemon must have a blue pentagon on their status screen. This blue pentagon will indicate that the Pokemon was obtained in generation 6.

This is the same format I was expecting, and I’m glad we finally got it confirmed. Now we know exactly what we’re dealing with next year and people can stop making ridiculous claims about the format being Hoenn-Dex only or Primal Legendaries being legal. These rules are the same as the battle spot doubles ladder on ORAS, which means we will have an in-game ladder to play on throughout the whole year.

As you may have noticed, we’ve started Brigette’s PC 2015. This will contain sets for VGC 2015 Pokemon and we’ll be adding sets that we’ve used as well as those from tournament reports on Nugget Bridge.

Cheers,

~Umbreon out

VGC 2014 Retrospective

Hello Hat Lovers!

With ORAS coming out this week we’ll be saying goodbye to the VGC 2014 format as we knew it. Move tutors from ORAS will available for use in the current format, meaning we’ll have a slightly modified metagame for the rest of the year. On that note We’d like to take a look back on the 2014 format and reflect upon the last year.

History as Players:

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Complicated EV Spreads: Bulking Up!

Hey there Hat Lovers,

Today will be a follow-up to my “On developing Speed tiers throughout a metagame” article. This time around, I’ll be looking at examples of Pokemon that don’t set the speed bar first, and instead are interested in surviving important attacks. Specifically, I’ll talk about how players recognize what attacks are important, how that relates to the purpose of a Pokemon, and common themes amongst Pokemon that invest in bulk over maximizing their attack stat. My goal is to help players cue in on what they’ll need to prepare for in a developing metagame, and how they can go about doing that!

Table of contents

  1. What’s the real threat?
  2. What does your Pokemon do (and how can you help it fill that role)?
  3. What kinds of Pokemon use complicated spreads?
  4. In Conclusion

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Two Spooky: Victoria Premiere Challenge Double Report

Hello Hat Lovers!

I attended two Premiere Challenges in Victoria last weekend. Being in Victoria, these Premiere Challenges wouldn’t have as many players as the Vancouver PCs. On top of this I’m friends with everyone that was going so I knew everyone in Victoria and everyone that was making the trip from Vancouver. Because of this I had a good idea of what I was going to face.

Since I won the last Premiere Challenge in Vancouver and posted my team I was a little worried that someone would try and counter-team me. I hadn’t been playing much in the weeks between the events so I decided to stick with what I was confident in and change one of my Pokemon to deal with the local metagame.

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