bh guide, i dont mean a huge collection of stuff, more just a small collection of the stuff ive learned from my time here since the gens almost over. this will probably be applicable to future gens as well though
note: i will not be covering anything that can be learned through simple questions,
setpedia,
casually watching tournament games, looking at
samples/
team dumps, and just playing on the ladder. at that level, experiencing the metagame yourself is more helpful than any words i could give you.
building in bh is possibly the height of creativity in all of pokemon, and being good at it is absolutely necessary to becoming good at the game. getting teams from others can get you pretty far, but at the highest level of play, you must know what teams are the best and be ready to build your own.
remember that building is composed of both tech skill and meta knowledge. tech skill is defined as being able to do more things with the team and it being more sound. if you look at low ladder, they usually use very inefficient methods to accomplish things with their pokemon, like the boosting wall sets that are inherently easy to counter and one-dimensional sweepers that somehow all lose to prank giratina. even the best pokemon player can accomplish nothing with a low ladder team against a competent team used by a competent player. meta knowledge, on the other hand, consists of taking advantage of metagame trends and overlooked pokemon that are actually very solid.
of the two, i would say tech skill is by far the more important aspect, because it is what pushes the metagame. shed shell imposter became a thing because people got good at punishing imposter by running widespread trapping. blanket checks like the former regenvest dialga (rest in peace), prank giratina, and ho-oh are beginning to lose viability as people figure out the most efficient ways to punish them. similarly, offensive mons like diancie, mmx, and mmy are still great, but people are figuring out the best and least exploitable methods of counterplay. meta knowledge is important, but without fantastic tech skill you're getting nowhere with it.
on stall:
i think stall is viable but can be hard to build; semi-stall is generally more consistent and easier to make work. the biggest and hardest to solve problem with stall is passivity. by this, i mean reducing the amount of time your opponent has to get something started. "time" doesn't necessarily mean turns, stall games will generally go for longer and this is fine. but any decent opponent will have a window to get something started at some point. hazards going up, hazards coming off, a threatening breaker finding a chance to come in. if you're giving your opponent these windows all the time (in building, not playing), it's only a matter of time before your team loses. think of this in terms of the whole team, not individual passive mons, and read
this.
another issue with stall is building with a consistent game plan in mind. this isn't ou, everything that needs recovery will have it and mons can be incredibly difficult to chip down. and some game plans can be matchup-based or inconsistent. pp stall celesteela can win, but only if none of the threatening pokemon it lets in for free are around. ph utility ogre can eventually put in work even against teams with mons like pdon and bounce gira, but it's going to take a super long time for it to do anything. mold breaker hazards can lose to defog trappers, trappers in general, and spinners, which are becoming more common.
overall stall still has some potential, which is shown in unconventional builds like card's stall team, but it's overall probably the hardest style to succeed with and its ceiling is still unknown.
all defensive pokemon can be categorized: nonpassive to passive spectrum, pivot/trapper/neither, easy vs hard to wear down, and so on. trappers are cool because they beat all non shed shell imposter while usually dealing more damage than pivots, but pivots can be incredibly dangerous with the right support (including something to hard punish imposter). passive mons are usually better at preventing the things theyre meant to wall from doing anything, but can cause you to lose initiative in the game while nonpassive mons are the opposite but are generally a bit easier to force out.
a few rough spectrums:
<passive--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------nonpassive>
fc chans aegi registeel audino hooh steela yveltal ogre gira ttar gear bounce kart pdon shed
<easily worn down----------------------------------------------------------------harder to wear down>
fc chans gyara imposter yveltal ogre imposter regenvest xern fini shed
know the implications of using a pokemon based not only on type and the things it can counter, but also these spectra.
punishing imposter is one of the most important displays of tech skill. being able to punish imposter in different ways is incredibly beneficial for allowing different ways of building. hard walling it is rarely the best solution, offensive pressure is really solid while getting hazards on it is also pretty amazing. hand them the L for daring to bring this pokemon. the best part of prepping for imposter is that it doesnt even weaken you to other things
dont lose to shed shell, it might sound fun but its really not. have at least some sort of contingency plan.
build teams that can be played flexibly. teams where you have 0 room to make plays generally turn out pretty horribly. even stall in some situations.
i know i said that tech skill and meta knowledge were the two factors involved in building, but really there's something else i've been leaving out. the above two skills are meant to supplement your own creativity. tech skill is nothing without ideas. this is why the improvement processes of two different players have so many differences, and there are a lot of ways to get good at the game. the reason i didn't mention this before is because creativity is a skill innate to all people, and i have yet to draw conclusions on becoming "more creative". so don't worry about that for now.
building skill and playing skill really go hand in hand. being good at building means you'll have teams that have the potential for better playing, while being good at playing means you'll have a better sense of how games play out, which will help your building.
don't get carried by building. you need to learn the fundamentals of risk/reward and similar concepts. there are a lot of guides out there that apply to competitive mons in general that can work here,
pdc's on youtube is my personal favorite.
i think a lot of people underestimate the complexity of the plays you can make. look at a competitive game of super smash bros. instead of just mindlessly charging at each other, the players are dancing around, mixing up their approaches and responses in any way they can. similarly in pokemon, switching is an incredibly powerful tool. punish your opponent for playing predictably. make multiple doubles in a row when they're expecting the punish, putting them in an even worse spot. seize control of the hazard game.
a cool way to practice the above is by using shed teams, because they're typically really good at rewarding this type of play. skillful maneuvering is part of what makes shed teams so incredibly powerful.
similarly, playing against opposing shed teams (preferably without ur own shed bc shed vs shed SUCKS) is cool for teaching how to restrict opposing momentum. this can be through out-maneuvering, seizing the advantage state, and running with it. taking advantage of midgrounds is something i don't see a lot of people doing. get them stuck into 1 possible option. stack up the risks for them.
if your team is good, when you lose games there's usually a play you could have made better. playing is not "optimized", regardless of what the people who don't play bh have led you to believe.
something i comment on often is the subjectivity of bh. it's really crazy how there are so many people doing completely different things in the builder. just as an example, look at the posts of loser and stresh above me. these teams have absolutely nothing in common except a few pokemon here and there.
i dont think anyone has noted what an INCREDIBLE RESOURCE these are. if you can understand how and why these teams function, you'll be able to build types of teams you could never hope to create before. not trying to understand these teams is just a blatant limitation of your tech skill.
there are a ton of teams out there. most of em are incredibly stupid, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to squeeze out every little thing you can from them. not saying use every team ever made, but if there's something you don't understand or something that works better than you thought it would, gain a better understanding of it. yes, this includes stupid stuff like imprisonform. take the teams above for a spin. ask another person to build around an idea you had and see how it differs from your stuff. subjectivity is such a fantastic tool for improving and expanding your understanding of the game.
the exact same thing applies to playing. hba im sorry i have to put you guys (including myself) on blast here. calling tour games "bad" without actually looking at them in-depth is passing up an opportunity to learn. yea, they didnt do anything sick. who cares? look at the way they played the early game, the mid game, the late game. stop clicking the "skip turn" button, in fact put it on really slow or pause. what were their priorities? how did they accomplish the things they wanted to and prevent the opponent from doing the opposite? did they use the team the way it was "intended" to be played, or not? use the team on ladder and bop some ppl that offer little to no resistance. now go back to the game.
you might say "this person played bad". how did they play bad? what specifically did they fail with? if this was you, why? if a person looks like theyre playing bad but its working out, they arent playing bad. look harder. get better.
your goal should never be a certain skill level. no matter where you end up, if you don't improve after that,
you won't be satisfied. your goal should be constant improvement, not necessarily a linear line, but always going up a bit from one day to the next even if you don't play for that day.
this game would not be beautiful if it were not also disgusting. even then, the biggest problem (bigger than hax) is people just not knowing how to get good and having to grind it out thru too many games themselves. hopefully this will help at least a bit
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