Step by Step Guide to typing a successful RMT.

[Silent Storm]

Over the the years I have witnessed some pretty poorly typed RMT threads, though the teams themselves were not bad, the way the RMT was presented defiantly played a part in their threads dying.

I quite frankly am sick of seeing poorly written RMTs on Serebii, Pokecommunity and Smogon even, its not the layout that I am sick of (well kinda) but I am also sick of the fact that they do not give us much information on why they chose their party members and as well as having a central strategy, normally I see "standard set he is my revenge killer nothing much to say" what generally should be said is "I chose X Pokemon as my revenge killer, he provides my team with scouting capabilities while checking a lot of threats to my team" at minimum.

So I decided to type up a small quick guide on how to produce a tidy informative and nicely presented RMT.

Step 1 - Be consistent with your layout.

What this means is that you use images with the same art style, type with the same font while putting important info in bold letters (IE damage calculation if you want to add them) and also keeping to the same format throughout your RMT.

Step 2 - Try to be as informative as you humanly can.

This is hard even for me as some sets are hard to talk about, to make things easier look up an analysis on Smogon, take bits from their and add them to your thread (edit some parts out so it does not look like you copied it)

Step 3 -Type up your move sets in a way that makes it easy to read.

This is the biggest problem I have, people tend to be lazy with this which results in their RMT dying before it had a chance.

Try to follow a format like this:

Pokemon @ Item

Nature:

Ability:

EVs:

Role:

- Move 1

- Move 2

- Move 3

- Move 4

Comment:

Step 4 - Have an introduction.

Tell us what your team is trying to accomplish - are you trying to use paralysis hax to win or are you playing stall? Do you want to clear all common Salamence switch ins so that he has an easier time switching? Is it sandstorm or hail? Something like this would help us know what kind of team you are running etc and it will tell us you know what you are doing when you made this team.

Final Step - Try and get a Threat List

Threat lists tell us how you handle certain threats, add colors to show us what your problem Pokemon are and stuff like that.

This is short (imo) but this is what I follow, it also helps to lurk before posting an RMT, people on smogon have asked if they can use my style as that is very important, sorry but people don't want to rate messy RMTs as they are hard and annoying to read.

Lurking also helps you become a better player, lurking on places like Smogon show what the next big thing is while it shows you ways of beating or "checking" it etc, it also helps you build successful teams (the RMT Archive on Smogon).

Resource Section

Threat list.

OU

Offensive Threats

Aerodactyl:

---

Alakazam:

---

Azelf:

---

Breloom:

---

Dragonite:

---

Dugtrio:

---

Electivire:

---

Empoloen:

---

Flygon:

---

Gengar:

---

Gyarados:

---

Heatran:

---

Hercross:

---

Infernape:

---

Jirachi:

---

Jolteon:

---

Kingdra:

---

Latias:

---

Lucario:

Machamp:

---

Magnezone:

---

Mamoswine:

---

Metagross:

---

Porygon-Z:

---

Rhyperior:

---

Salamence:

---

Scizor:

---

Starmie:

---

Togekiss:

---

Tyranitar:

---

Weavile:

---

Yanmega:

Defensive Threat List:

Blissey:

---

Bronzong:

---

Celebi:

---

Cresselia:

---

Donphan:

---

Foretress:

---

Gliscor:

---

Hippowdon:

---

Skarmory:

---

Snorlax:

---

Suicune:

---

Swampert:

---

Tentacruel:

---

Vaporeon:

---

Zapdos:

Sprites

Bulbapedia for sprites.

Legendary Pokemon for official artwork.

Arkies for fan made art work (they seem to be popular atm).

I will add more soon.

Edited August 29, 2009 by Silent Storm

[randomspot555]

I think I'll sticky this thread, but leave it open so others can get their thoughts in.

[wraith89]

I don't want to seem like a nitpicker, but...

Step 1 - Be consitant with your layout.

It is spelled consistent

Frankly, I am not really in the position to rate people's team because I myself am inexperienced with competitive battling. For now, I only tend to point out minor errors and whatnot... hopefully I won't get too annoying. However, if possible, I will rate your team in the manner you addressed as so... I'll keep practicing

[Greencat]

Great Job! I edited it a bit. ;P

[Destati]

Also, we are not Smogon. I'm sure Greencat agrees with me when I say the Mods aren't going to kick you in the butt for the tiniest mistake. They won't give infractions like Smogon does, but do try and have some common sense when creating teams.

[Silent Storm]

I added a resource section to the first post which includes a threat list, planning on adding more soon.

[Enkidu]

I actually completely disagree with the "threat list" addition to RMT's. Just checking off threats and mindlessly saying " These 2 pokemon help me "check" or play around X" doesn't help us too much.

I prefer listing ( under the role description of each Pokemon ) common switch in's to certain Pokemon and how they are dealt with or taken care of by different Pokemon in your party, or in lieu of creative move sets how changing the "standard" set helps you deal with specific switch in's more, and how that adds to team synergy in taking out specific defensive and offensive threats to accomplish your strategy.

PLEASE not " fire goes to x" as each Pokemon has 4 moves and any player worth his salt isn't going to carelessly spam a move that may give anything common a free chance to set up ( Subtran? CM suicune? ) when it poses no risk to itself.

Also SS you have a fair bit of spelling errors...

[Silent Storm]

Eh apart from the odd misspelled word (which I have just corrected) the only spelling errors my checker picks up are words like Smogon, Pokecommunity and stuff like imo (in my opinion).

[Neo]

Yeah this is a good guide. I have seen myself alot of poorly made threads and have made the mistake myself a few times.

[randomspot555]

I actually completely disagree with the "threat list" addition to RMT's. Just checking off threats and mindlessly saying " These 2 pokemon help me "check" or play around X" doesn't help us too much.

I agree. In the current competitive environment, it's a challenge to provide counters to everything (REAL counter, not revenge killing, or a check against, etc...; something that can switch in, take minimal/no damage, and eliminate the threat or force a switch). It also, as you said, doesn't help much. Blissey doesn't need to have to be on a threat list. Your counter to Blissey is any physical attack. The reverse goes for Skarmory.

Now throughout typing up one's strategy, you should mention the biggest threats of the current competitive environment. Those being Heatran, Scizor, Tyranitar, Metagross, and so on. Lots of others can just be grouped together. Vaporeon, Suicune, etc... don't all need counters, you just need something to go against bulky waters. And so on.

So if someone is obviously missing an answer to a big threat in their strategy, it should be pointed out. But I don't think someone's RMT thread should be looked down upon just because they didn't individually type up an answer to 20-50 Pokemon.

[Knell]

Very nice.

PLDH has a better sprite index for adding pictures of your teams though.

[Sabeta]

I for one like the Threat List. In general it helps organize in an easy format how your team fairs against certain pokemon that are commonly seen. One to two sentances covers how you handle each threat. My personal philosophy is to include how I handle certain Pokemon in the main body, as well as in the threat list.

Tyranitar@Fish

Evs:9001

Nature:Yomamma

Ability:Coolness

~

~

~

~

This guy blah blah, handles this by predicting the switch in to blah blah, etc. You get the point (etc.) Plus the information in the Threat List helps to solidify these things. It also helps those making RMTs see just what their up against and whether or not they can take it, because it is feasibly possible to have a team of 6 special attackers and never encounter Blissey in 100 battles. (You'd be obscenly lucky, but that's not the point. You'd think you're awesome stuff, only to find this glaring weakness.)