>want to get into competitive Pokemon >none of the Pokemon

>>33279560
Just go on showdown and play in whatever tier your favourites are viable in.
Or just say fuck it and bring Drapion to OU like I do.

>Want to get into competitive
>I suck at anything that isn't biking/running in circles
>Try to get into online competitions
>My ass returns to me on a silver platter
>Try to showdown
>Is fun, but full of everyone using the same teams, often a far cry from actual in-game usage
>Still suck at it, get bored
>Try to into battle tree
>"But my strategy's perfect AJDBEHSLFBWOZ!???"
>Suck at analyzing issues in my team
>Get bored
>Year later
>Nothing's changed

I like watching battles and I like playing them. It's just, I suck when it comes to actually making viable strategies, and constantly losing doesn't really motivate me to try harder either.
Is it me, or is the learning curve for competitive just incredibly steep?

I know that feel
>>33279595
and this too aside from the battle tree being easy to handle. I'm content with shiny hunting.

>>33279595
>Is it me, or is the learning curve for competitive just incredibly steep?
If you want to use a team comprising of anything other than Arcanine, Gyarados, Garchomp, Tapu Lele, and Kartana, then yeah, you're gonna have a hard time.

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When it comes battling, you either use the best or start going in the lower tiers.
Unless it's Battle Spot, in hich case you have to learn to be creative.
>that one Gliscor/Vaporeon/Chandelure team I had a time back

>>33279629
Of that list, I've only ever used Arcanine. I guess my wanting to be original is being a hindrance.

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>>33279635
That's how it is, unfortunately. There are now over 800 mons, but competitive teams boil down to about twelve of them, maybe not even that. It all comes down to stat distribution, movepool, and abilities.
From what I've seen, the American competitive scene is less about actual fighting and more about trying to destroy the opponent's setup before they can really start. It's part of why Intimidate is such a popular ability.

>>33279560
Gamefreak tries to balance out the shitty designs by making them very strong so that at least one group of players (competitive) likes them. Otherwise you get complete trainwrecks like Spinda which no one uses and no one likes.

>>33279629
>still promoting your dead meta
kys

>>33279560
The cool thing about tiers is that, if a Pokemon isn't viable in one of them, it will probably be in other

Just search for the tier your bro is in and main that

>>33279578
Thete is still a problem. The smogon tiers are not good at dividing pokemon.
For example I cant use Salamance and Stoutland toghether.

>>33279715
Yes you can.
You can bring lower tier mons into higher tiers.
Use CB sandrush stoutland with tyranitar or hippowndon, then a z fly salamance and fill in the rest.

>>33279629
*giggles*

The best teams are cookie cutter with one oddball. Be that an oddball set on a premier mon, or a totally irrelevant mon, it just needs to be unprepared for.

For example, I was playing OU. I saw some guy use and build around Mega Altaria. I had nothing for his bulky ddance roost heal bell return set because he built around it with Dugtrio Magnezone, Lele, and some other mons I can't think of.

>>33279560

You can be good at competitive Battles or you can have fun.

Pick one.

>>33281286
typical excuse bad players use to justify being bad

>>33281286
I've had more fun doing competitive battles than I've ever had playing through the shitty single player.