I feel this is gonna be a long post
I didn't really like this tier when we started it, I didn't understand it. I felt like everything in it was just annoying: pokemon, how battles went, teambuilding etc. I still played it a lot without really realising it (thanks marco) and now I like it.
It's a very luck reliant format compared to the other RBY tiers (at least those that I've played). Sometimes in 1U you can afford to take some risks like throwing that Blizzard with your paralysed Starmie against the opposite Alakazam before Twaving it because you know the odds that you will die because of that risk are very low. In 4U you can't recover from hax as easily apart if you hax yourself. A lot of situations are decided by speed ties, crits, drops, fps etc. Of course those situations occur in 1U but it doesn't always decide on the income of the game, it kinda just orients a situation towards another. Here I feel it is really decisive even early game.
It's what I like about it, not that it's luck-reliant, but the fact that it's intense. Every decision, every situation, is very crucial and close. Mindgames are decisive, and I think one of the keys of winning in 4U is winning the Nidoking mindgames vs Twave + Psychic users (mainly Porygon and Slowpoke). Honestly, I can't think of the last time I clearly dominate a game without early game luck. It's tough to purely outplay your opponent.
As for diversity well yeah, it's less diverse than 1U. Imo you just don't drop S3, whereas you can drop some members of the big 4. And even for the filler spots you don't have that many consistent options. S through B rank are just plain better than the rest. What to do about it ? Well imo nothing, that's just the way the tier is. You can see it as a negative side or an appeal, up to preference. Basically I think the tier is interesting so I play it. What actually strikes me the most is the difference in the viability rankings between 3U and 4U. I think we agree 3U is a diverse format. Well 4U S through B ranks have 10 mons, and 3U B ranks have 10 mons. There's a shitload of pokemon in 4U D rank and not that much above, it's the opposite in 3U. So yeah, you've got few consistent options. Every pokemon below B rank you will rarely use in a serious tournament game (I don't consider 4U frontier to be one). It's just not consistent enough in a fast paced metagame, and what you gain using them doesn't make up for what you lose.
As for teambuilding, this is what I usually do in serious teams:
- Moth lead / Tangela / Nidoking / Porygon / Blastoise / Slowpoke, Abra, Staryu
- Anti Moth lead (Rapidash, Abra) / Moth / Nidoking / Porygon / Blastoise / Slowpoke, Abra, Scyther, Staryu
I think if you lead Moth, it's close to mandatory to have Tangela as a back up Sleeper, the reason being if you encounter another Moth Lead. If you don't have back up sleep, losing the Moth ditto will put you in some serious trouble (because obviously you can't really afford to switch to smth else to take sleep), if you have Tangela, you're more or else fine. So basically when I don't run Tangela, I anti Lead moth.
In the first formula I prefer a Water in the last slot because the team is already weak to fires. In the second one I evoid pairing Scyther with Abra lead for the same reason. This is just how I play so obviously it's not necessarily better than another way it's just how I feel comfortable. I don't drop Blastoise because I think it's great but it's clearly possible to play without it. And I don't really like omastar, non lead fires and stuff so I don't play them. I'll never play C/D rank in tournament, Nidoqueen might be the only exception.
