Pokémon: How meta are you?

[Hazy992]

I recently picked up Pokémon Black 2 and after playing it for a while and noticing how slow my Oshawott was it got me thinking; in all my years of playing Pokémon I've never played the metagame. I've been playing the games for over ten years now but not once have I even dipped my toes in the complicated world of EVs & IVs, tiers and all that head-scratching stuff.

But because my Oshawott is so slow I've been contemplating it. IVs seem more trouble than they're worth so I'm thinking of dipping my toes into some EV training as that seems fairly doable.

So what about you guys? Do you like to play the metagame or are you like me for the most part, content with catching your 'mons and getting your badges? If you do how dedicated are you to it?

Also the title wasn't meant to be a pun but...

INB4 Metapod/Metagross jokes

Seriously though, fuck IVs

 

[hazabaza1]

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that, basically.
I'll stick to catching not 'em all but a decent chunk of them whilst grinding the elite 4 for some wack exp, yo.

 

[Baldr]

Realistically you don't have to worry about EV and IV training unless your going to be entering tournaments. It seems complicated at first, but it not really much to to it, once you understand them.

 

[Andy Shandy]

I tried to understand it. I failed miserably.

And to be fair, it affected diddly-shit when it ended up coming to enjoying the game, so I don't find it that important.

 

[sextus the crazy]

Realistically you don't have to worry about EV and IV training unless your going to be entering tournaments. It seems complicated at first, but it not really much to to it, once you understand them.

pretty much this. 99% of people who play the metagame don't ev train, but instead use simulators. The only reason you would EV train is if you were going to participate in an official tournament, otherwise it's a waste of time.

 

[kailus13]

I don't think I could understand either of those hidden stats myself. The closest I'd ever get to anything meta in pokemon is the "Joey challenge".

 

[shrekfan246]

Not at all. I've never even done any of the multi-player beyond trading/battling with a friend or family member.

I generally rely on a bunch of glass cannons though. If I can't take the opponent out in one hit, I'm either in trouble or in for a long, tedious segment of back-and-forth slap-fighting that shaves off 1/10th of the opponent's HP and then they use a Full Restore when it's almost fainted and the whole thing starts over again... so I'd get crushed on any sort of competitive playing field. XD

That's a bit of an exaggeration of course, but I have never "optimized" my Pokemon or anything. The most I've ever done was breed a Pichu with Volt Tackle so I could evolve it into a Pikachu and give it a Light Ball because it's lolariffic to take down Red's Blastoise, Charizard, Lapras, and even Pikachu with my own, ten-levels-lower Pikachu. And then my Pichu turned out to be female, so the Pikachu got that silly looking heart-shape on the tip of its tail... blegh.

 

[Aris Khandr]

I understand it, I just can't be bothered to care. The most competitive thing I do in Pokemon is "how fast/hard can I beat up the Elite Four", and level 100 anything trumps those guys anyway. I can't even be bothered to do stuff like the Battle Subway, so not really concerned about EVs or IVs.

 

[LetalisK]

The most I get into any kind of meta is looking up pokemon and seeing which ones have higher average stats. Which is to say not at all.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

No, not really. I try to cover types of course, and I'll look at stats like speed etc a bit, but stats usually weigh up about the same as how much I like the Pokemon. I try to keep my favourites in the team for as much as I can, until they become a bit of a pain in the ass.

 

[sethisjimmy]

Very little meta-game for me. I've always thought it was really annoying how much of an under-the-hood RPG pokemon is. You absolutely only need to pay attention to IVs and EVs and other "invisible" stats if you're playing with real people competitively. Otherwise it's pretty much a rock paper scissors style type vs type game.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

After my first couple of playthroughs I got really guilty at how many of your Pokemon end up in stasis on my computer somewhere. I would always restrict myself to capturing as few Pokemon as possible, it also made the beginning of the game a lot more interesting, because I'd have very few Pokemon until I got to the mid game and got access to the ones I wanted.

I never really trained my Pokemon though, too much effort.

 

[The_Lost_King]

I play a little. Only a little because I need to to be able to bet my friends.

 

[Daft Time]

I've messed with EV/IVs and it was hopelessly boring for so little reward. Honestly, I don't even bother building a blanced team. Pokemon is such an easy game until you decided to go up against somebody else. The most complicated things I ever bothered with was trying to find particularly Pokemon to catch. I'm about as softcore as it gets in Pokemon.

 

[Rylee Fox]

I'm sick of the people who obsess over this kind of stuff when they play. It ruins the fun I find. I don't really bother with it myself though I do understand how it all works.

I think gamefreak should remove the system entirely or change it drastically just to mess with the people who abuse it. Make their be no real way to play with the stats other than EVs.

 

[Terminate421]

My Empoleon made for tanking hits and causing forced switches on my trick room team guarded by magic bounce Xatu and Cursepert with backup from a Dusknoir that recovers with pain split is sure to defeat anyone. Tyranitar and Honchkrow being physical and mixed sweepers respectively helps too.

 

[Terminate421]

I'm sick of the people who obsess over this kind of stuff when they play. It ruins the fun I find. I don't really bother with it myself though I do understand how it all works.

I think gamefreak should remove the system entirely or change it drastically just to mess with the people who abuse it. Make their be no real way to play with the stats other than EVs.

I feel IV's ruined the game however move sets and EVs are fine on their own. I think it has alot to do with people obsessing over 31 across the board on their pokemon's IVs.

Stupid smogon, ruining everything. I usually teach them a lesson or two about what pokemon are OU in Pokemon Showdown.

 

[SlaveNumber23]

I play the metagame on Pokemon Online, but never in the actual games, the hours of grinding doesn't seem worth it, especially in that building a good team is very often a case of trial and error. Even on Pokemon Online I don't really stick to the metagame all that much though, as I mainly use an all Ice type team, pretty much no one ever uses type themed teams competitively. The competitive metagame is a lot of fun though.

 

[Radoh]

Yeah, not a chance in hell you'll ever catch me IV/EV whatevers. I want to play a fun game where I get a team of my favorite 'mons and not do accounting.
The only meta-gaming I will ever do is checking to see if I can catch a Vulpix in the game and choose the one that allows me to do that.
Especially since I once battled someone who did EV train and I saw no discernable difference between what he was using from mine.