Team Preview
19min 37sec read
Picking the proper Pokemon in team preview can give you a major advantage before the game even starts. Learn about frameworks for how you can approach it.
Written by Aaron Zheng
Battling / Before The Battle
Team Preview is one of the most important parts of a Pokemon battle. It plays a far more significant role in VGC than 6v6 formats as you have to not only have to identify a good lead - you also have to decide which two Pokemon won’t come into the battle.
One of the most common questions we hear from players is, “how do I pick the right Pokemon in team preview?” There’s a lot of depth to this question, and we wish we could give you an easy answer. Our goal with this article is to help you understand our personal approaches to team preview & help you ask the right questions as you approach it.
Before we get started, it’s important to point out a couple of things:
Team preview is heavily influenced by the team you are using. This may seem like an obvious statement, but the main point is that stronger teams will allow you to have more options during team preview. Bad match-ups will lead to more difficult team preview phases, and you’ll occasionally be in situations where you don’t have any good leads. Selecting a strong team will make team preview easier for you.
There are multiple ways you can approach team preview (e.g. finding the “safest” combination of four, predicting a specific lead combination from your opponent and countering that as much as possible, etc). This guide just lays out general principles that we look towards during team preview.
Team preview is one of the most difficult parts of the game, and it’s hard for even the best players to get it right 100% of the time. Even with a poor team preview phase, you still can win battles by outplaying your opponent. However, you should always aim to select the best possible Pokemon to make battles easier.
Overall, we hope that by showing you how we fundamentally approach the topic, you can get a better understanding of how you should be thinking about team preview!
Aaron Zheng’s Thoughts:
There’s a lot to consider when approaching team preview, but ultimately, I have three main goals during the process:
Identify a strong lead match-up that can help me set the pace of the battle & accomplish my overall goals
Figure out which two Pokemon I should bring in the back
Making sure that through the four Pokemon I’ve selected, I can adequately answer every single Pokemon on my opponent’s team
In order to actually make sure I’ve accomplished these goals, I walk through a mental flowchart during the team preview phase. Please note that you don’t necessarily have to follow each step in the exact order listed!
Step 1: Understanding my opponent’s overall strategy
Before I start thinking about my own Pokemon, I find it valuable to look at my opponent’s team of six and break down the overall strategy. We wrote an article that covers that here! Generally, these are the main things I think about while looking at my opponent’s team:
What are the obvious combinations on my opponent’s team? What Pokemon synergize with each other & can enable each other to succeed?
These combinations are often particularly strong as lead options, so starting here helps me identify threatening leads immediately as you can lose games on turn 1 if you don’t cover for them
Here are some common combinations you’ll want to consider:
Ability based combos: These combinations rely on using one Pokemon’s ability to fully enable its partner. Examples include Charizard + Groudon, Kyogre + Kingdra, and Weezing + Regigigas.
Fake Out + strong attacker: These combinations rely on using a Fake Out user to disrupt opposing teams on turn 1, while putting on pressure with a Pokemon that can deal lots of damage. Examples include Incineroar + Zacian and Rillaboom + Zapdos.
Speed control + strong attacker: These combinations rely on using one Pokemon to help its partner outspeed everything. Examples include Whimsicott (Tailwind) + Kyogre, Regieleki (Electroweb) + Yveltal, and Grimmsnarl (Thunder Wave) + Dialga.
Redirection + setup: These combinations rely on using a redirection user, such as Indeedee or Amoonguss, to protect a partner Pokemon as it uses a setup move. Setup can be defined as either a stat boosting move or speed control. Examples include Amoonguss + Dusclops (to get Trick Room up) and Indeedee + Xerneas (to set up Geomancy).
Weakness Policy / Dynamax Setups: This is a bit more exclusive to Gen. 9 thanks to Dynamax, but these combinations rely on enabling Weakness Policy on a particularly strong Pokemon and sweeping with it. Examples include Mimikyu (Shadow Sneak) + Calyrex-I and Tornadus (Brutal Swing) + Solgaleo.
What is the overall speed of my opponent’s team? Do they generally use Pokemon that are slower or faster? How can they make their Pokemon move first?
Are there any individual Pokemon on my opponent’s team that can cause major problems just by itself individually? These are Pokemon that have the potential to “1v4” a game, or win the game against your entire team.
Examples include Shedinja, which can wall an entire team if you don’t bring super-effective damage to the battle, and defensively setup oriented Pokemon such as Iron Defense Ferrothorn and Bronzong.
Step 2: Thinking about what four Pokemon I should select
Once I’ve gotten a good understanding of my opponent’s team composition, I start thinking about what Pokemon I want to bring into the battle.
What Pokemon do not contribute very much in the match-up for me?
In VGC, you bring 6 Pokemon but only choose 4 for a battle. Thus, it’s often easier to work backwards and eliminate Pokemon that do not contribute very much in a game.
Here are some ways you can identify these Pokemon:
Offensive Typing: The Pokemon does not contribute very much damage with its attacks as a majority of my opponent’s team can resist its main attacks
Defensive Typing: The Pokemon takes neutral or super effective damage from a majority of my opponent’s team & also can’t contribute very much offensively (e.g. Ferrothorn into a Sun team with Charizard/Groudon/Zacian/Incineroar).
No Need for Specific Output: Certain Pokemon are used on teams for one primary reason, such as speed control. You may determine that you don’t need that primary output during the battle (e.g. Whimsicott with Tailwind into an opposing Trick Room Team).
Part of a Combo: Some Pokemon are a lot stronger when they are together and a lot weaker when they are separated. There’ll often be times where you can’t bring both parts of a combination, thus resulting in you excluding both Pokemon from the battle
Speed Dynamic: The Pokemon does not match up well relative to your opponent’s speed control (e.g. Cinderace with four offensive attacks / no Protect or Max Guard into an opposing team with Trick Room)
What Pokemon do you need to bring into the match-up?
I first start with my primary attackers - are there any good reasons I need to exclude any of them from battle?
In Series 12 VGC in particular, you should first ask yourself whether or not you should drop either restricted Pokemon.
You may want to drop one of your main attackers because 1) it’s incredibly weak into your opponent’s main attackers 2) does not deal good damage to your opponent’s main attackers 3) gets KOed too easily
I then look at the main threats on my opponent’s team - do I have a way to deal good damage to all of their Pokemon, especially their main attacker?
During this, I also make sure to bring answers to the Pokemon with 1v4 potential that I mentioned earlier (e.g. Shedinja, Iron Defense Ferrothorn)
Step 3: Putting it all together & figuring out a lead
Now that I’ve thought about both my opponent’s team and mine, it’s time to decide what Pokemon I want to lead with. Leads are so important in VGC, especially in Gen. 8 where Dynamax can dictate the pace of the battle right from turn 1.
Before diving into my thought process, it’s important to stress again that the strongest teams will have reliable lead combinations. For example, when I placed 3rd at the 2013 World Championships, I used a team that could reliably lead Cresselia + Rotom-W or Cresselia + Landorus-T into almost any team in the format. A good team will make things easier for you as you select both your lead and team.
Here’s how I think about choosing a lead:
What are my opponent’s most likely leads?
Before picking my own lead, I always try to think about the strongest combinations from my opponent’s end, which we covered in Step 1.
As I identify these combinations, I think about how my potential leads can match up against each of these combos, especially on turn 1.
Note that some Pokemon are a lot stronger as a lead option rather than a secondary option (e.g. Grimmsnarl in Series 12 VGC), so take that into account.
Can I go with one of the “obvious” combinations on my team?
Generally, good teams in VGC will have strong combinations like I highlighted in Step 1. Many teams just won’t be equipped to deal with these combinations well, and if that’s the case, you can just lead it immediately.
If you can’t go with one of the obvious combinations, it’s often because your opponent has a direct counter to said combo. If that’s the case, start thinking about what other leads can beat that specific combo.
What am I trying to accomplish with this lead? How does it play into my team’s overall strategy?
Your lead should have a purpose, whether it be setting up speed control for the rest of your team, putting on offensive pressure via Dynamax early, or playing defensively to stall out your opponent’s early pressure.
Think heavily about the balance between offense and setup when you lead. If you lead your strongest Pokemon immediately and lose them, that can set you behind significantly. Conversely, if you lead two support Pokemon, you may struggle to deal damage early and fall behind quickly.
How will the Pokemon that I have in the back support my lead? Can they save me from a potentially bad lead match-up?
You won’t always get a favorable lead match-up, but that can sometimes be mitigated with the proper Pokemon in the back. Think about how the Pokemon in the back can be used to get you out of a tough position.
In these scenarios, you’ll often have one Pokemon use Protect while the other one switches out, so ideally, the Pokemon that’s switching in can unlock new options for you.
You don’t necessarily need to start the team selection process with a lead, but I find that it’s a naturally good starting point. Once you’ve found a good lead, then use what you’ve thought about in Step 2 to bring it all together.
You won’t always have an obvious group of four Pokemon to bring - in fact, that’s rarely the case. Knowing that, I instead try my best to give myself enough options to win a battle (and conversely, focus on not losing the game immediately off a bad lead).
That’s it for my general approach for team preview! Before I finish things though, I want to highlight a couple of areas that I haven’t talked about yet.
Post Game Analysis
It’s always great to reflect after a battle and think about whether or not you made the best team preview decisions. I focus more on whether or not my logic was sound in the team preview process rather than purely analyzing the results of the game. Some questions I ask myself include:
Did I anticipate my opponent’s lead combination?
If so, did I bring a lead that can adequately deal with it? What was my absolute best lead against their lead, and should I have brought it here? Is that absolute best lead significantly weaker against other lead combinations they have?
If not, why did I not expect that combination?
Could one of the Pokemon I left out contribute more to the battle?
Did any of my Pokemon not do very much during the battle? If so, what was the reasoning? (Sometimes, you may have just not played towards the proper conditions for that Pokemon to succeed. Other times, you may have brought something to counter a specific Pokemon that your opponent didn’t bring)
Did my opponent bring a Pokemon that I did not anticipate, and subsequently struggled against?
How do I think my opponent would adjust if we were playing again and I went with the exact same lead combination + back two Pokemon?
That last point in particular brings me to my next topic, which is…
Adjusting for Best of 3s
Up until now, this guide has centered more around team preview for a best-of-1 battle. Most major tournaments are actually best-of-3, so it’s important to talk about how team preview changes in a best of 3. Let’s highlight a couple of key areas:
For Game 1: In a best-of-3, you have a lot more room to take risks, meaning you can experiment with certain lead combinations & Pokemon that may not be as consistent in best-of-1. It’s totally fine to just follow the best-of-1 guide and apply it to game 1, but do note that some players like to play more aggressively with their leads to try and get into their opponent’s heads early on. Game 1 is also important as both players gain valuable knowledge of their opponent’s team and playstyle.
After each game: After each game, you’ll have much more knowledge of each other’s teams and playstyles. You’ll want to think about the following areas as you look towards picking your team for games 2 & 3:
Overall Results of the Previous Game: Did I win or lose? How did the battle go overall?
If I won, was it a comfortable win (e.g. didn’t need to make too many predictions, rely on any good luck)? If it wasn’t, why was that the case and was my strategy actually reliable / do I have a more consistent option?
If I lost, why led to the loss? Was I caught off guard by any surprises? Did my opponent just execute their strategy better than me, and if so, can I mix things up to prevent them from executing their strategy?
Leads: How did the lead match-up from the previous game play out? Can I lead the same thing again?
If my lead match-up was GOOD, how can my opponent change their lead to counter me? (Sometimes, the answer is that they simply can’t, meaning you can reliably lead the same thing in subsequent games) If they have a strong lead vs. what I just brought, do I have an answer against that?
If my lead match-up was BAD, how can I change my lead to better match up against their specific duo? Do I think my opponent will expect me to change my lead & try out something else?
Pokemon Selection: You want to think about the role that each of your Pokemon served in the previous battle & whether or not you need to bring new Pokemon into the next game.
Were there any Pokemon on my opponent’s team that I struggled with in particular? If so, could I have brought a Pokemon that I didn’t bring in the previous battle? What happens if my opponent doesn’t bring that specific Pokemon in the next game & I’ve given up a slot to counter it?
Did I give up an important Pokemon too early on in the battle? How can I conserve said Pokemon better?
Were there any Pokemon that did not do very much for me? Is it because I used it poorly, or is it just not as good into the match-up as I thought? Who would be a better replacement?
Information Management: Now that I’ve seen my opponent’s team, can I use any of the information I gathered to give me a significant advantage?
Think especially about the moves you’ve seen - if they’ve revealed their entire moveset, you can now play against that Pokemon with much more confidence
Example: If you’re using a Palkia team and your opponent’s Zacian has revealed that it is using Behemoth Blade / Sacred Sword / Quick Attack / Protect, you now know it does not have Play Rough, meaning that it does not apply nearly as much offensive pressure into Palkia.
At the end of the day, team preview in best-of-3 is one of the most difficult parts of the game. No one is able to call things right 100% of the time. The goal here is to offer a framework so that you can see how players think about making adjustments as each game happens.
That’s it for my thoughts! Here’s how Aaron Traylor generally thinks about the team preview process.
Aaron T. Process
I think the goal during team preview is to arrive at a plan that you can execute during the battle. This plan can be as simple, complicated, rigid, or flexible as you want, but you need to be able to carry it out once the battle starts.
It’s important during team preview to know as much about your own team as possible, because when you go to make a game plan, you’ll know a lot more about how the Pokemon were designed to work together.
My main goal is to come up with a narrative: to imagine the events of the battle that might occur, to figure out what the important elements are on each team, and to think about how I can reach game states where I can win cleanly. Here is a rough sketch of how I think through the battle:
First, I think about the pressure relationships between the Pokemon on each team.
What Pokemon of mine are most challenging for them to deal with? How can I position them to give my opponent as much trouble as possible?
What Pokemon are most challenging to deal with for me on their team? How will they position in battle to be most challenging for me?
I then think about how that pressure will be applied throughout the game, starting with the lead Pokemon.
What leads can I pick? I base this off of the pressure that each Pokemon applies. Can I apply pressure and act proactively in a way such that it’s challenging for my opponent to respond?
What leads could my opponent pick? Similarly, this is based on the pressure. I imagine my opponent asking themselves the same questions that I’m asking myself, but from their point of view. Are they particularly afraid of anything on my team, or capable of using a threatening Pokemon in their lead to make the early stages of battle as hard for me as possible?
Are any of those leads really problematic for me or my chosen lead? Why? Can I make any changes? Do I have one lead that is strong against most of the candidate leads that they could make?
It’s then time to think about the later parts of the game. It’s hard to imagine what endgames might look like in Pokemon for the most part, but if you’re able to think about them broadly, you can define some goals for yourself in battle.
If you remove one of their Pokemon, does that remove pressure on one of yours? For example, if you remove their Fire-type Pokemon, does that mean that your Ferrothorn can win the battle on its own later in the game? Think about how you can remove that Fire-type early in the battle, then.
What Pokemon can you absolutely not afford to lose? If you lose a Pokemon, what Pokemon on their team are freed from its pressure? If your Kyogre goes down early, then can they use their Incineroar as much as they please to sow havoc on your team? Make note of that during team preview.
The more games you play and reason through this thought process, the easier it will become. I suggest writing your thought process down during team preview of your practice games, and then reviewing it after the game is over. What did you want to happen? Why did you select the Pokemon that you did during team preview? What ended up happening? Why? What could you do better next time from the team preview stage?
Here are some more things to consider during team preview:
Ask yourself if your team has a built-in clear goal. For example, you might have two Pokemon that can be led together to achieve some combination or synergy. Examples include Politoed/Kingdra, Urshifu-Rapid-Strike/Gigantamax Coalossal, and Regigigas/Weezing. This is a potential game plan: try to execute the strategy.
If you identify a built-in clear goal, then ask yourself: what tools does your opponent have to defend against you? A built-in clear goal is not only clear to you but often to your opponent– they probably know what your Pokemon are going to do. I ask myself: what tools does my opponent have to stop my strategy, and do I have to adjust or ditch my game plan to deal with it?
You can also ask yourself if your opponent’s team has a built-in clear goal. Do they have a lead combination that you know will exert a lot of pressure if they lead it? What would happen if they lead it? What tools do you have to deal with that combination?
Do you open yourself up to anything else on their team by planning for one built-in clear goal that you can see? Many teams have more than one mode and will force you to choose to prepare for one of them.
Can you rule out any Pokemon on each side?
What Pokemon do you not want to bring into their team? Maybe you have a Rillaboom on your team, but no Pokemon on their team is weak to its Grassy Glide, and they have several Pokemon that threaten to knock it out or weaken it. Reducing options on your own side can make it easier to assemble your game plan for the match.
What Pokemon do you think they don’t want to bring versus you? If you can eliminate some of their potential options, you can get a better idea of what Pokemon they will actually bring. Be careful, though: opponents don’t always act how you think they will.
Lastly:
Do you and your opponent have most if not all of the same Pokemon? Mirror matches can be frightening– after all, your opponent has the same tools that you do. My first step during team preview in a mirror match is to identify what the differences actually are between the teams. If you and your opponent have 5 Pokemon of the same species, how does the 1 unique Pokemon on each side affect the match? Did you add a move or item that changes how a Pokemon functions? If so, how can you use that to your advantage?
Overall Conclusion
Team preview is an incredibly important aspect of the game, but it’s just one part of the equation. As we’ve stressed throughout the article, a good team preview phase can give you an early advantage, but you still have to play well during the battle to get the win. Conversely, you can maneuver out of a bad team preview phase, but it means you’ll generally have to work harder (e.g. make more predictions/risky plays).
You should still do your best to improve your team preview skills, and we hope that this article can help you better understand how competitive players approach it!