ungulateman

Thanks. I tend to go around Smogon a lot, and most of the time people care more about revenge killing as opposed to switching in and taking a hit, ah well. I'll try harder in future.

:flame:
I've seen you around, and you've given some nice attempts to the Pokemon Counter Game. But you seem to be missing a few key things.

Your last counter would have worked offensively, but remember, your Counter has to be able to Switch-In to what you are countering, which means that the counter gets a full turn of set up, or an unprohibited attack off. Also, since you are switching in, you have to be able to survive to retaliate. That is why so many counters don't just straight up run Max (Special) Attack and Speed. They have to be able to survive a hit and then win.

Here are some tips that I've recently used.

First of all, try to find a type of Pokemon that will be able to switch into the basic types of your enemy (for example, if a Pokemon only has Water, Ice, and Psychic attacks as well as a set up move, you can use a Water/Dark type or Water/Psychic type Pokemon). Here is a good way to check the types of an enemy's attack. http://www.psypokes.com/dex/atktypeanalysis.php

Second of all, use a Calculator to determine your enemy's stats.
Here is a nice one. http://www.psypokes.com/dex/stats.php
Note the enemys attacks on the board, and try to see which ones do the most damage. If you can, try to find the weakest of their attacks (base power and the stat to back them up), and see if you can find an Pokemon or type that can take that attack. Also, don't try so hard to be able to switch in that you can't muster the offense to counter. My Charizard works because even with no evs, it can still burn Tangrowth to a crisp, but with the spare evs it doesn't need flowing through it's special defense and speed (I usually set it so I just barely live through a move or just barely outspeed, although you do like having a lot of speed if you can) allows it to live through 1 hit and then strike back. I don't have to worry about Energyball and Earthpower, since Charizard is resistant (and neutral to them), so I picked to try to be able to live through 1 Hidden Power Rock so I can successfully counter.

Once you have picked out the weakest section in your enemy's offense (or developed a successful strategy, you can use the Smogon Website to try to find a Pokemon with good looking base stats for the type of counter you want. Lets say that you are to counter a ...

Slowbro @ Leftovers
Modest/Own Tempo
4hp/252specialattack/252speed
Slack Off
Surf
Ice Beam
Psychic

You check it's stats, and you see that it is most vunerable to special attacks (although it's physical defense is still manegable), and that it hits hardest with special attacks itself (all of it's moves are special). You see that it's moves are Water, Ice, and Psychic typed respectively. So, what's a Pokemon that can switch into it, take a hit, and defeat it? 3 Pokemon have no problem taking those 3 TYPES (Crawdaunt, Sharpedo and Slowking). At which point, you simply just pick one that works (like:

Slowking @ Wize Glasses
Timid/Own Tempo
4hp/252specialattack/252speed
Slack Off
Hidden Power Electric
Surf
Nasty Plot)

and figure out a working spreed (like the one above). You can use different calculators to determine the damage an enemy does, and how much you get to do back (like this one: http://www.ownpurpose.com/libelldra/damage_calculator.html ).

I can't tell you how to defeat every strategy in the game, but I'm sure you can figure it out how to make working counters with this information. Good luck and good game.