Standard Rules for Wi-Fi Battles
Hello, everyone. This is my first article about the Pokemon Video Game and I hope that others will join me in writing about the game to really bring a lot more to the site and the Pokemon community.
This article is going to be about Wi-Fi Battling for beginners and the rules that have been laid down by the community and how you can adhere to them. These rules aren’t necessarily official rules created by Gamefreak or Nintendo, but rules made by the players themselves to change the way Wi-Fi battles run.
Note that these rules are for beginners and any comments on the lines of “n00b!” or “Arceus Pwnz0rs trololol!” are just dumb.
Rule #1: No Ubers
One of the main peeves of playing online is connecting to someone, only to see they have a team of say “Arceus, Garchomp, Darkrai..” yada yada yada.. These kind of Pokemon have ridiculous stats that put them way above others in terms of power. Ubers tend to be Legendaries, but this isn’t always the case. Some Pokemon like Excadrill is considered an Uber due to its incredible power and speed (in a sandstorm, Excadrill’s speed is doubled and can outspeed even the likes of Deoxys Speed Forme!). The community often change which Pokemon are considered Ubers and the list can be found here:
http://www.smogon.com/bw/tiers/uber
Rule #2: Sleep Restriction
This restriction only allows you to put one of the opponent’s Pokemon asleep at one time. This rule was introduced so that people couldn’t just abuse sleep through moves like Spore with a ridiculous 100% accuracy. This doesn’t include situations in which your opponent puts one of his own Pokemon to sleep by using Rest or something similar. Due to the fact that YOU didn’t put the Pokemon to sleep, you can still put one of their other Pokemon to sleep at the same time.
Rule #3: One Hit Knock-Out Moves
Moves like Sheer Cold or Guillotine have a measly 30% accuracy but if they hit, then the opposing Pokemon is automatically knocked out. Now this puts too much of an element of luck into the game, something of which the community doesn’t really enjoy. Also if paired with Lock-On, these moves just seem ridiculous. All OHKO moves have been banned from Wi-Fi battles for these reasons.
Rule #4: Double Species Restriction
In a team, you are only allowed 1 of a certain Pokemon. However, you are allowed 2 different Pokemon from the same evolution line. For example, I could have a team with a Huntail and a Gorebyss because they are not the same Pokemon.
Rule #5: Evasion Moves
Moves like Double Team have been banned from play because, again, they add the factor of luck to battles. Imagine if, after using Double Team, the opponent misses. This allows you to use Double Team for a second time, which further increases the chance that they will miss, most likely allowing you to set up +6 stages of evasiveness, making your Pokemon nearly impossible to hit.
Rule #6: “Hax” Item Restriction
“Hax” Items are items that effect the probability (luck again! We hate luck.. >.<) that your Pokemon will do something. For example, Scope Lens increases the chance of critical hits by one stage. Items like these are banned due to how much they can turn a battle around with no skill required. Imagine you and your opponent both have only 1 Pokemon left, and they both have 1 HP. You have an Arcanine, they have a Ferrothorn holding a Quick Claw. If the Quick Claw activates, Ferrothorn will attack first, out-speeding Arcanine! How frustrating would that be?
Those are all of the rules that most people that compete in Wi-Fi battles will follow, and if you do not abide by them, you are in danger of getting disconnected on.
I hope you found this article helpful if you are starting to get into the world of competitive Wi-Fi battling. Good Luck! (/hypocrisy) ;D