Teambuilding / Concrete Building Blocks

Although both players input their moves at the same time during a battle, Pokémon move in an order determined by their Speed stat. This makes the Speed stat one of the most fundamental elements of a Pokémon battle. Moves that alter Speed stats or otherwise change the order in which the Pokémon move in during a turn are referred to as “Speed control”. In this article, we’ll break down the most common elements of Speed control so that you can make informed choices for your own team.

Why is controlling the Speed stat important?

Attacking before your opponent gives you an enormous advantage. If you’re able to knock out your opponent’s Pokémon before they attack, their move for the turn never goes through. In other words, one of the best defensive moves you can make is knocking out one of your opponent's Pokémon - the best defense is a strong offense (hope this metaphor translates-- I don’t watch sportsball).

Furthermore, in Generation 8, Speed mechanics were changed. In generations 1-7, Speed order is calculated at the beginning of the turn-- however, in Pokémon Sword and Shield, Speed changes are calculated immediately during a turn, which players call dynamic Speed. Speed control is now even more important than in previous generations-- your Pokémon can work together to deliver an attack before your opponents can even respond. 

There’s another benefit to attacking first, and that has to do with passive effects. Many moves in Pokémon have a secondary effect that may activate when an attack lands. By attacking first, some secondary effects won’t activate, such as Rock Slide flinching, and even ones that do activate such as paralysis, burn, and freeze are less devastating since your Pokémon has already launched its attack for the turn.

When I was a wee VGC player, I had a friend named EnFuego, who told me “You can’t get unlucky if your opponent never gets to make any moves”. This is an oversimplification of course, but there’s a lot of truth in the statement. A Pokémon that has been knocked out can’t freeze you, paralyze you, crit you, etc. 

At first glance, competitive Pokémon appears to have a lot of luck involved.  However, the way you play and the way you build your team will significantly influence how lucky or unlucky you get. And one of the best ways to build a “lucky” team is to ensure you’re always attacking first. This is where Speed control comes in. There’s a number of methods of Speed control, but nearly every successful team makes use of some form of it. As a personal rule, I like to have at least two types of Speed control on all of my teams.

Types of Speed Control

Tailwind

Tailwind’s effect is simple: after setting Tailwind up, your team’s side of the field has their Speed doubled for four turns (the first turn is the turn you set it up, so 3 effective turns for the setter). Tailwind is a relatively straightforward form of Speed control - set Tailwind up, Pokémon go vroom. Tailwind is typically best used by Pokémon that are very fast or can use the move with some form of priority, such as Whimsicott and Talonflame. Tailwind setters normally are fast and frail, with decent offense or good supporting moves. Teams that function primarily around Tailwind use offensive Pokémon that exert a lot of pressure to make the most of their turns. Tailwind teams by nature struggle pretty heavily against Trick Room teams.

It's important to note that Prankster (or otherwise very fast) Tailwind became even better after Generation 8 was released– if a Pokémon uses Tailwind first in the turn, it instantly doubles its partner's speed for that turn, which means it will usually move immediately after the Tailwind happens. First-turn Tailwind combos can be devastating for opponents to deal with.

Trick Room

Trick Room is probably the most iconic and successful form of Speed control across VGC history. It’s also probably the strongest form of Speed control when used properly. Trick Rooms effect is simple: reverse the Speed order of the Pokémon for 5 turns. The slowest Pokémon will move first, the fastest Pokémon will move last. Trick Room is a form of Speed control that you can commit to at various levels - you can build a full Trick Room team or just have it as a mode or option on your team. Typically, Trick Room teams need a bit of setup to get the move out– this most often takes the form of Fake Out or Follow Me/Rage Powder. Trick Room teams of all shapes and sizes will normally run a super bulky Trick Room setter and an offensive Trick Room sweeper. Because Trick Room reverses the Speed order, it’s almost always a good counter to your opponent’s Speed control. You can learn more about Trick Room in this article.

Trick Room always moves last in the turn due to its -7 priority, so you won't be able to pull off any first-turn Speed shenanigans with Trick Room in Generation 8, unlike with Tailwind.

Speed Drops

A less committal way of controlling opposing Pokémon’s Speed is to make use of moves that drop their Speed stat. This most often takes the form of support moves such as Icy Wind, Electroweb, and occasionally Bulldoze. These moves are less committal of a strategy in the sense that they can easily be added to many Pokémon, but their effect is also less strong as well– all stat drops reset upon switching. Furthermore, the drops can also be nullified by your opponent raising their Speed. That being said, this type of Speed control can be invaluable. Speed-dropping moves are especially powerful when your opponent is incapable or unwilling to switch their Pokémon out, normally in the late game. Speed-dropping moves are relatively low commitment to add onto a team (just one moveslot), so the reward vs investment is often very high. They’re typically used in Generation 8 by a very fast Pokémon to offer immediate benefit to the partner, such as Regieleki, or by extremely bulky Pokémon that are difficult to remove and can stick around continuously lowering Speed if they choose, such as Milotic or Cresselia.

Speed Boosts

On the opposite end of the spectrum are Pokémon that can boost their Speed. Boosting Speed is typically considered more useful than dropping your opponent’s Speed stat, because if you knock out a Pokémon with its Speed dropped, your opponent switches in a Pokémon without a drop, but if you take a KO with your own Speed-boosted Pokémon, you still have your boost. This is a similar reason to why Tailwind is strong. The main weakness of Speed boosts is they are often hard to come by. In a Dynamax format, Max Airstream offers great Speed control, but apart from that, the moves that raise Speed typically have a limited distribution. If you can find a good Pokémon that can consistently raise its Speed (often with a setup move such as Dragon Dance or Quiver Dance), there’s a good chance it can do quite well.

There are other ways to increase your Speed that don’t rely on setup moves, although they typically come with strings attached. One of the most common ways is to use the Choice Scarf item, which allows you to increase your Speed by 1.5x at the cost of not being able to switch moves after you enter the field. Another method of raising your Speed involves the Weather abilities such as Swift Swim, Sand Rush, Chlorophyll, and Slush Rush. These abilities are quite powerful, but they require their respective weather to be up and thus are susceptible to counterplay.

Priority Moves

One way you can bypass the different conditions that affect Speed is by using moves with increased priority. Priority moves are special in that they bypass other forms of Speed control, including everything we’ve talked about thus far. Priority moves typically trade boosted priority for lower base power, meaning they overall deal less damage. However, some Pokémon can muster up powerful priority attacks, and even weak priority moves can be invaluable in picking off opposing low HP Pokémon or comboing with a partner's stronger attack. Priority moves often won’t be a primary form of Speed control, but can be extremely strong as a supplementary form of Speed control.

Natural Speed

Pokémon that are naturally fast are invaluable when considering Speed control. While they don’t technically affect the conditions on the field that allow you to manipulate Speed, what they do is give you the advantage when there is NO Speed control present, such as on the first turn. Field effects such as Tailwind and Trick Room have a turn limit, and there’s a lot of value in being the fastest Pokémon on the field when those effects run out. Additionally, having naturally faster Pokémon than your opponent forces your opponent to invest resources into setting up their Speed control, which takes time and has counterplay. A team with all middling/slow Pokémon is going to have a much harder time and get far less “lucky” than a team with a better spread of Speeds. It’s worth noting that teams composed of only super speedy Pokémon typically struggle due to their poor natural bulk, so this method of Speed control isn’t something you can rely on solely.

Other Methods of Speed Control

Other methods of Speed control are significantly less common than those mentioned previously:

• The move Thunder Wave applies the Paralysis status, which cuts the opponent's Speed stat by half. It’s only 90% accurate, however, and won’t work on Electric or Ground types. 

• The move Quash is a move that forces the target to move last within its priority bracket. Quash isn’t a bad move at all, but its distribution is limited - it’s only viable on a Pokémon that is attacking first, such as Sableye with its Prankster ability. 

• Using the move Trick while holding the Lagging Tail item gives your opponent a bad item that forces them to always move last in their priority bracket, like a permanent Quash, and steals their item. Prankster Pokémon such as Whimsicott, Grimmsnarl, and Sableye will still move first using Trick when holding a Lagging Tail. This combination is considered a bit gimmicky and doesn’t see much play in non-Dynamax formats. 

• The move Speed Swap is a fun move that swaps the Speed of the target and the user, but hasn’t seen nearly any success in VGC.

These moves can be good situationally but aren’t consistent enough that I’d recommend them in a general case.

Wrapping up

Which form of Speed control should you want on your team? Well, it depends on your team and your preferences. Furthermore, different types of Speed control are stronger in different formats. In formats with many fast and frail Pokémon, Trick Room is even stronger than normal. In a format with many bulky Pokémon with good defensive tools, Tailwind-centric teams may struggle more. Ensuring you have good Speed control on your team will go a long way in giving you more tools to win and to handle negative variance. As you play more and get more experience, you may learn that you prefer certain types of Speed control over others. Don’t forget these strategies aren’t mutually exclusive! You can always mix and match to build the strongest team.