BASIC Hook: two of theirs on the field — where does your attack point this turn?
You can already do KO math. The thing actually capping your win rate isn't "can I kill it" — it's they put two Pokémon out, and which one do I pour this turn's damage into. Pick the wrong one and your perfect KO math is wasted: you removed the slot that threatened you least while the slot that's actually grinding you down keeps running. This lesson turns target selection from a gut call into a chain you can re-derive every time.
BASIC Core: remove whoever leaves them the fewest options next turn
The easy-but-wrong model is "hit the lowest-HP one." The right model is one sentence:
Aim at the Pokémon that, once it's gone, shrinks their next turn the most.
Not how much it hurts right now — how much it can still do for them. Redirectors like Rage Powder and Follow Me, speed-control setters like Tailwind, room-setters like Trick Room — these support slots often don't hit hard themselves, but they let their real attacker fire freely for several turns. Delete the support slot and the attacker is suddenly naked in front of your full firepower.
Hold this priority: kill the thing protecting the threat before you kill the threat itself.
INTERMEDIATE Worked → Faded: I do one, then you do one
Worked. They lead Amoonguss + Flutter Mane. Flutter Mane is the real attacker, and your Kingambit can probably take it with one Iron Head (Steel is 2× against Fairy type). Tempting, right?
But Amoonguss clicks Rage Powder this turn. Once the redirect lands, every single-target move you fire is dragged onto the mushroom — the Iron Head you meant to KO Flutter Mane with slams into Amoonguss's fat HP instead, Flutter Mane takes nothing and Moonblasts you back next turn.
Re-derive the chain: hit the attacker → redirected → 0 value; hit Amoonguss first → redirect gone → next turn Flutter Mane stands naked in front of everything you've got. Removing Amoonguss first is the profitable line. Note that in Champions Moonblast's Special Attack drop is nerfed to a 10% chance (not the 30% your old SV guide shows), so don't factor that secondary into your survival read.
Your turn (Faded). They have Tornadus (clearly about to set Tailwind this turn) + Chien-Pao. You're faster than Chien-Pao and can take it down over two turns, but the moment Tornadus gets Tailwind up, their whole team out-speeds you and moves first. Ask the chain: what does the whole game's tempo look like if you let the speed-control slot live one more turn? The answer tells you who to pour into this turn.
INTERMEDIATE When / Decision: write it as if-then
Compress target selection into a few reads you can recite:
- If they have a live redirector (Rage Powder / Follow Me), then your single-target move removes it this turn, or you switch to a spread move it can't redirect.
- If they're setting speed control this turn (Tailwind / Trick Room) and you can reach the setter, then killing the setter usually beats killing the scariest attacker on the field.
- If you can't one-shot either, but one is solvable in two turns, then start chipping the stickier one and Protect the slot you need to keep.
- If removing any single Pokémon doesn't buy you a safer board, then stop forcing it — see the double switch below.
INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED Exceptions: where the simple rule snaps
- Redirect doesn't block spread moves. "Kill the redirector first" is a rule about single-target moves. Earthquake, Dazzling Gleam and other spread moves ignore Rage Powder / Follow Me and hit both — but spread moves take the ×0.75 cut in doubles, so recompute your KO line at the reduced damage.
- Earthquake skips immune slots and hits your own ally. If one of theirs is a Flying-type or has Levitate, your Earthquake does 0 to it — you thought you cleared the board and only cleared half. And Earthquake also hits your own partner; spread moves don't read friend-or-foe, so don't fold your own teammate.
- Intimidate rewrites "who's scarier." An on-entry Intimidate dropped their Attack a stage, so that scary-looking physical slot already hits softer and may not need to die first the way you assumed.
INTERMEDIATE/ADVANCED Mistake-Autopsy: the click beginners love, and the fix
The scene: you see their lowest-HP Pokémon and reflexively finish it — "grab a KO first." That low one was a spent sac piece they didn't care about, your single-target move got eaten by the Follow Me next to it, and this turn you got neither a meaningful KO nor any chip on the attacker that's actually grinding you down.
Why it's wrong: you're chasing "KOs on the board" instead of "their remaining ability to act." A KO that removes a Pokémon they were already happy to lose is a wasted turn.
The fix: before you lock a move, ask one question — "does this attack reduce what they can do next turn?" If yes, fire. If no, you're aimed at the wrong slot; go back to the Core priority and re-pick.
INTERMEDIATE Predict-then-Reveal: answer before you read on
Board: they have Amoonguss (full HP, clearly about to click Rage Powder) + Kingambit (chipped, one spread move from yours finishes it). This turn you hold one single-target hard attack and one Earthquake. What's the optimal way to assign both of your slots' orders?
Think it through before scrolling.
Reveal: use Earthquake to finish Kingambit — spread moves ignore Rage Powder, the chipped Kingambit can't survive it (Ground is 2× against Steel type), and you chip Amoonguss on the side; meanwhile don't waste your single-target attack into Amoonguss (it'd just be redirected anyway, and more importantly that hard hit should be saved to point at the real threat next turn). If your other slot is a Flying-type or has Levitate, the Earthquake won't fold it — that's exactly the positioning you want. The core read: when the chipped side has a spread answer, use the spread move to bypass the redirect and save your single-target firepower for next turn's real threat.
ADVANCED Now-Do-This: compute your own "pressure on two fronts" in the calc
Open the damage calculator (/calc) and run this on your actual team:
- Pick your best spread attacker and compute its damage on two common opponents (one bulky, one frail) separately, writing down each KO probability (e.g. 12/16 = killed in 12 of 16 rolls). That tells you which turns one spread move genuinely pressures two fronts and which turns it just tickles.
- Then pick your single-target attacker and compute how many hits it needs to kill the redirector you see most often (an Amoonguss-type). If it can't one-shot, you now know whether "kill the redirector first" is even realistic for your team or whether you have to route around it with spread moves.
- Finally pick a utility Pokémon on your team that should be sacked once it's spent (a speed-control setter after Tailwind is up, a Fake Out lead after it's used). Decide: when it dies, who comes in safely? Nail down that one win condition in your head — protect the win condition first; every other slot exists to bring it in clean.
Once you've run those three sets, the next time you face "two of theirs — which do I hit," you'll have numbers in hand instead of just instinct.