A Beginner’s Guide to Stress-free EV Spreads
EDIT 4/29/2022: This article was written in November of 2019, I think. Since there, I’ve published VGCguide alongside my best friends, which contains this content + much more. This article has been updated and rewritten here, but I’ll leave the original up.
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Hey there– it’s me, Aaron! I’m pretty busy between running r/VGC, playing VGC 2020 for myself, and attending grad school, but I wanted to write a quick article for beginners. You can see some of my articles from old formats here, here, and here.
Introduction
EV spreads are the most customizable part of a Pokémon in competitive play, and the games themselves give no guidance in the most effective ways to stat up your Pokémon. As a recap: you get 510 EVs to spread between your Pokémon’s 6 stats, and the most a stat can have is 252 EVs. The first 4 EVs in a stat gives you a stat point (if your Pokémon’s IV is odd — thanks for the correction u/ELB95), and at level 50, the level VGC is played at, every 8 EVs beyond that gives another. For example, putting 8 or 248 EVs in a stat means you are wasting 4 EVs, but 4, 12, 244, and 252 EVs avoid waste. (I learned this 5 years into my competitive Pokémon career). A common EV “spread” is 252/252/4 (pick some stats; see the guide later). Some people choose to break up the stats more to achieve specific goals. For example:
Sylveon @ Wiki Berry
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA
Modest Nature
This Sylveon maximizes its HP and Special Attack.
Sylveon @ Wiki Berry
EVs: 36 HP / 252 Def / 212 SpA / 4 SpD / 4 Spe
Modest Nature
This Sylveon achieves a specific goal using a damage calc:
252 Atk Excadrill Iron Head vs. 252 HP / 4 Def Sylveon: 198-234 (98 - 115.8%) -- 81.3% chance to OHKO
252 Atk Excadrill Iron Head vs. 36 HP / 252 Def Sylveon: 146–174 (83.4–99.4%) — guaranteed 2HKO
Maybe you know that EV spreads are important, and you know that damage calculations are important, but you don’t know how to begin making them. You see YouTubers with huge walls of damage calculations about their teams and you feel like there’s a gulf between their intuitions about the game and yours before you even start battling.
Here is my plea:
Don’t worry about your EV spreads.
Especially don’t worry about your EV spreads if you are new to competitive play. Even at the highest levels of competition, many people win games while having very basic EV spreads. Gavin Michaels, Paul Chua, and myself (as well as many others) have all won Regionals using mostly 252/252/4 spreads.
Why do people make EV spreads for their Pokémon that aren’t 252/252/4?
- They want to reach a certain Speed point that outspeeds another Pokémon or combos with their team well.
- They want to knock a specific Pokémon out with a specific attack and be bulky otherwise.
- They want to survive a specific attack from a specific Pokémon and be offensive otherwise.
However, what are some reasons to focus on elements of playing other than making complex EV spreads?
- Knowing which moves to damage calc for is a result of playing, not a precursor to playing. Battle experience is not only useful for learning and growing, it‘s how players learn which EVs their team needs.
- An engineered EV spread is only good when it is relevant. If you invest a bunch of EVs to survive an attack from a Pokémon that you never actually play against, those stat points aren’t actually as optimal as intended. Your EV spread could do five niche things well, but some of those situations won’t come up.
- EV spreads and damage calculations are further only as good as you can remember them in battle. You don’t want to be surprised by being knocked out (or sometimes by surviving an attack!)
- If you survive an attack with a sliver of health, know that many factors (Sand, Fake Out, switching in, weak spread moves) mess those damage calcs up quickly. Being able to flexibly switch your Pokémon in to cover for each others’ weaknesses is usually more useful than surviving one specific attack from full health.
- Worrying about EV spreads can be an excuse not to practice. Go battle.
Quick EVing Guide
- The stat you want to spend most of your time thinking about is the Speed stat. Move order dictates the game more than any other factor. Use the speed tiers and vgcstats to think about EVs for Speed — which popular Pokémon can you outspeed that you think you would want to? My rule of thumb is that the first 40ish Pokémon on vgcstats are worth taking into consideration while EVing.
- The Pokémon’s nature boost is multiplicative, so it is efficient to use a nature that boosts the highest effective stat as that gives you the most points. Choose the nature that minimizes the attacking stat you aren’t using– or if it’s a Trick Room team, consider a nature that minimizes the Speed stat.
Other than that, think about the job your Pokémon is doing. Why did you put it on your team? Dump points in the two stats you think you’ll be using the most in your battles. Below are my tips for doing that:
- Is your Pokémon holding Focus Sash, or is otherwise fast and frail (base speed around 96+, base HP and defenses around 60–70 or less)? You probably want to maximize its Speed and either Attack or Special Attack, whichever is relevant. Consider a nature that boosts Speed and drops the irrelevant attacking stat.
- Is your Pokémon midspeed (base 60–95)? Midspeed Pokémon are the most challenging to make EV spreads for .This is a great time to check out the speed tiers and vgcstats. Take a guess with Speed — it will be obvious over the course of some games whether it’s at a good number, and you can always adjust later. As a good rule of thumb, if there’s a popular species of Pokémon around your Pokémon’s Speed that can KO it, and your Pokémon can KO back, you probably want to outspeed it when possible. If you can’t decide, either 252 Speed or 252 HP is probably a good call. With your leftover EVs, think about your Pokémon’s role on the team. If its job is to take out specific Pokémon with a super effective hit (for example, Arcanine attacking Ferrothorn), feel free to put the points in defensive stats however you see fit. If you want to be dealing more damage in general, put points in its attacking stat.
- Is your Pokémon going to be used in Trick Room? You probably want to max its HP and its attacking stat. If HP is much higher than a defensive stat (e.g. Snorlax or Rhyperior), put the points in that defensive stat. Keep Speed as low as possible, and think about what Pokémon you’re outspeeding and underspeeding.
- Is your Pokémon defensively oriented (e.g. its only job is to set Tailwind or Trick Room or to set Light Screen)? Go straight to HP and the defenses. Pick a defensive stat to put EVs in based on your assessment using vgcstats of whether the Pokémon damaging it most frequently will be physical or special attacking, and put EVs into Defense or Special Defense accordingly. Split evenly or evenly-ish if you can’t decide. Be careful with these Pokémon — if you have too many, you may not have enough offensive power to win games.
- Is your Pokémon holding Eviolite? Maximize its HP to get the most out of the defensive boost. Then split evenly between the defenses, make a metagame judgment, or dump EVs into the lower stat (which is more effective in the damage formula).
Making your own complex spreads
After some practice battles, you may have problems with a particular opposing Pokémon’s attacks, or your Pokémon survive an attack sometimes but not others. This is a great time to load up the damage calculator and to consider making a spread. If you’re worried about what EVs that Pokémon might be running, use the principles above to decide quickly. Can you make any of your Pokémon survive its attacks by changing a few EVs? What will that change for you offensively when you lose EVs in your attacking stats?
Taking spreads
You can take a complex EV spread from a YouTuber, a team report you see online, or an r/VGC post. Be careful, because the EV spread may be outdated as the VGC metagame moves quickly, it may fundamentally change the goals of the Pokémon and how it operates, or the author may not have listed every relevant calculation. Remember: a complex EV spread that you don’t understand or remember is no better than a simple EV spread.
In conclusion
Winning battles in Pokémon is rarely the result of having a smart EV spread that leaves you at 1 HP, survives a crucial attack, causes you to take 1 less damage, or surprises your opponent. Instead, battles are usually won thanks to teambuilding intelligently or battling well using the skills developed from experience. Trust me: your EV spreads are good enough as-is — go get out there and practice!
