Most common items in VGC Pokemon: A Guide!

This article will introduce some of the common items being used in VGC season this year (2015), along with what they do I will also be putting on what importance they have in this format and why are they highly valued.

Items on Offensive variants:

Choice items:

There are three choice items till to gen six, all of these are used on many occasions, these three items are choice scarf, choice specs and choice band, whereas choice scarf elevates the speed stat of a pokemon from 1.0> 1.5 or in other words say it increases the speed by 50%. Choice specs elevates the special attack stat of a pokemon from 1.0> 1.5 or in other words say it increases the special attack by 50%. Choice band turns in the favor of the attack stat and elevates the attack stat of a Pokémon from 1.0> 1.5 or in other words say it increases the attack by 50%. However the effect of these items is not as simple, as the name suggests if you have one of these items on your pokemons you can only attack with the first move you choose, in some cases it can be costly. Pokemons that are kept these items are usually having moves like u-turn and volt-switch that allow them to slip ut of the battle and not be forced into a choice move in the unfavourable conditions, these pokemons are not usually then taught defensive or status moves (if you count out talonflame and smeargle) but usually offensive moves to land as much damage and pressure on opponents as possible. A 50% increase works in this way, etc my pokemon is having any choice item on it and then has any of the resepective stat 100, the 50% increase on it would be 100/2= 50, then 100+ 50+ 150, and that simply makes a huge impact on the actual stat total.

                                

Mega stones:

Mega stones had a huge impact on the competitive scene, and even nowadays every team holds a mega stone, and potentially a threatening mega pokemon. There are many kinds of megastones who do evolve different mega pokemons in the game, like manectite mega-evolves manectric, mawilite mega evolves mawile. Usually the names are quite similar to the pokemons they mega evolve. And if you still do ask why, they have a positive and negative effect on the base stats of a pokemon, and make them sort of super saiyen. you can even carry more than one mega stones on your team but can only mega evolve one pokemon at a time. Mega stones without a doubt are the no 1 items used in any competitive format including VGC.

                                            

Assault vest:

Assault vest has the same effect as that of choice items mentioned at the beginning, but thankfully won’t force you into a choice, but it has somewhat of a different effect assault vest makes your special defense stat from 1.0> 1.5 or say increases it by 50% but assault vest forces you to use only attacking moves. Therefore it really won’t be used a lot on support pokemon who use such status moves, but would be used on the term of Pokémons known as tanks, the ones who do land good damage as well are capable of absorbing a lot of attacks, the most common pokemons to have this item are goodra and ludiculo who both make a great use of it.

                                            

Weakness policy:

Weakness policy had a great impact on the competitive scene. Weakness policy was built for tanks too, even further it excels both attack and special attack by directly making them from 1.0>2.0 which is absolutely destructive. Weakness policy also does serve single offensive variants either physical or special. Weakness policy works under the condition of getting hit by a super effective move from the opposing side and does this for a lot of Pokémons. The best ones to use from this purpose are like tyranitar having both great physical and special attack also used as a mixed attack having 7 weaknesses and being popular in natural bulk. All these conditions make tyranitar an ideal one for the item, apart from this aegislash having great defenses in its shield form and being very slow too does withstand at least one super effective hit activating its weakness policy. Weakness policy is an item ideal to be used by slower the better Pokémons like t-tar and aegislash mentioned above, not inside trick room though.

                                            

Lum Berry:

Lum berry is another item to be used by offensive variants. Oh yes it heals you back from burn, paralyses, freeze, sleep and confusion for once before it discards itself. Lum berry is the most common berry item used out of many. It can protect fast physical variants from paralysis and burn too and even sometimes the freaking swagger is a pebble in the way. Similarly in the unfortunate situations of facing spore or the least happening freeze (yet deathly). Lum berry is as always a popular item on things like scizor and garchomp. Though there are some support pokemons that are very rarely given this item to survive against status inducing moves.

                                            

Life orb:

Life orb is another item complementing the strength of your poekmons, seen on things like bisharp and blaziken commonly, it helps them out equally good with a small cost. Life orb allows the pokemon to hit with 30% more damage than usual with both attack variants so you don’t have to worry on which side you attack. Life orb cuts 1/8 HP after the pokemon uses an attaxk (non-applicable to status category moves. Life orb is a great item on the pokemons you don’t wanna loose the ability to freely use a range of attacks other than beig locked into one, and it also helps out greatly on mixed attackers like blaziken, infernape and even that tyranitar if you ever opt to.

                                          

Items on Support variants:

Focus sash:

Focus sash is another item used on many support pokemons. Even though it is less likely to the situation that most of them are low in defenses. Focus sash basically guarantees that you survive one attack before going down, a mirror effect to sturdy ability, which gives you the opportunity to make a single move that can shift momentum. Focus sash is mostly 100% guaranteed on pokemons like gengar and raichu as it helps them greatly. Like lum berry focus sash is also given to many offensive variants like terrakion and bisharp being the most common ones.

                                         

Safety goggles:

One reason only: spore and rage powder.yup these moves are the most highly valued, so is the item safety goggles. The usage of pokemons like amoonguss, breloom and mega venusaur make it a necessity on some of the team you may build. This is also a great ites on support pokemons as they can play this item as a counter/defense against these pokemons along with their usual supportive importance in the format. If you have an amoongus, breloom or mega venu watch out for the move cuz you really are gonna get wrecked by this one. Safety goggles also prevents from chip damage due to sandstorm and hail but that quite isn’t how it would be used. Safety goggles is a popular item on pokemons like zapdos mainly.

                                           

Rocky helmet:

Rocky helmet is also a very very annoying item on many pokemons. It has many traits to handle, in my opinion main one being contact attacks. It means it will be stopping popular moves like fake out dragon claw and everything else you can ever think of. Rocky helmet also has a popular combination with pokemons like cresselia, zapdos and the rare togekiss with moves like moonlight, roost etc. rocky helmet is the most common item and has a combination of two damage counters back onto physical attackers with iron barbs and rocky helmet with ferrothorn, secondary options are with rough skin and rocky helmet garchomps.

                                           

Recovery items:

Leftovers/ sitrus berry:

Leftovers and sitrus berry are both the most common items on support/semi-support pokemons like cresselia, rotom, gothitelle and even more ones. Sitrus berry and leftovers both help in recovery but in different ways and styles. First off leftovers that recovers 1/16 of the users total HP at the end of every turn but doesn’t discards itself. On the other hand sitrus berry recovers 30% of the users HP after it hits the yellow bar. It has many uses like the ones including making 2HKO’es into 3HKO’es and further OHKO’es into 2HKO’es, sitrus berry also is a great strategy against mega kangaskhan’s parental bond and also double target hits. Leftovers is mostly used on the pokemons who use leftovers (non-support usually) who make small recoveries after losing the heatcl in the attempt to make a substitute, it also helps against chips damage from sandstorm and hail.

                                        

Conclusion:

 so guys this was quite a short than usual post, hope it helped some beginners who have trouble finding the right items for their pokemons. Bye for now!