Wondering where to start

[DePyro]

I used to be extremely competitive during diamond and pearl and so its been awhile since I played pokemon competitively so where should I start? What pokemon are the meta? Last I remembered there was like 40 pokemon out of 493 that people would actually choose to use for competitive tournaments. So what has changed and where is a good place to delve into for information? I'm working on getting my shiny 6 31 IV ditto but it's slow going so I want to absorb some information while I wait for a response in my Trade requests.

 

[ddrox13]

Depends what you want to do with your team. If you want to play by Nintendo's rules in the Battle Spot or Tournaments, you will need to think a lot differently than if you are building a team for OU, the format most people prefer to play on. And in official stuff you will need to soft reset for 2 legendaries, but that remains beside the point.

The best place to start is inherently Smogon, as it offers competitive analyses on each pokemon that matters. Then, I STRONGLY recommend building a team on Pokemon Showdown before building it in-game. This allows you to test your team with minimal effort, and see what others are running.

Here are some links to get you started:
https://www.smogon.com/dex/xy/pokemon/ - THE starting point and teambuilding resource.
https://pokecommunity.psim.us/ - PokeCommunity's Showdown server. There will almost always be someone willing to help you test and improve your teams here.
https://www.smogon.com/dex/xy/formats/ou/ - Description of the current OU format, aka the one people use outside of official tournaments and the Battle Spot. Also has a number of useful links, like sample teams and the viability rankings.

 

[DePyro]

I already use and know showdown, more than familiar with that. No I'm looking for info on the meta pokemon for this gen or is it still the same? walls being blissey Milotic Spec sweeper being alakazam etc. Normally with most games as new ones come out theres new meta new characters that are good. Im trying to figure out whats all good now. My old team obviously is but its OP and it gets old I'd bring it to official play but then Id want more perfect stats and I'd need that 31/6 IV ditto for that (makes it easier)

 

[Sirfetch’d]

I already use and know showdown, more than familiar with that. No I'm looking for info on the meta pokemon for this gen or is it still the same? walls being blissey Milotic Spec sweeper being alakazam etc. Normally with most games as new ones come out theres new meta new characters that are good. Im trying to figure out whats all good now. My old team obviously is but its OP and it gets old I'd bring it to official play but then Id want more perfect stats and I'd need that 31/6 IV ditto for that (makes it easier)

Here is a link to help you obtain your competitive breeding Ditto: https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=356292 :)

As for what is good now? I assume you are familiarizing yourself with mega evolutions. Some common ones are Mega Sableye, Mega Scizor, Mega Charizard X&Y, Mega Metagross, Mega Lopunny, and Mega Manectric to name a few. Support Pokemon such as Ferrothorn, Clefable, Starmie, etc. are also pretty good. Other common sweepers include Seperior, Manaphy, and Keldeo. Again, these are just a handful of examples of meta Pokemon right now.

 

[PlatinumDude]

I already use and know showdown, more than familiar with that. No I'm looking for info on the meta pokemon for this gen or is it still the same? walls being blissey Milotic Spec sweeper being alakazam etc. Normally with most games as new ones come out theres new meta new characters that are good. Im trying to figure out whats all good now. My old team obviously is but its OP and it gets old I'd bring it to official play but then Id want more perfect stats and I'd need that 31/6 IV ditto for that (makes it easier)

To get things up to speed in the Gen VI metagame, Blissey has dropped out in favor of its pre-evolution, Chansey, since it benefits from the Eviolite item, an item that increases the defenses of non-fully evolved Pokemon. In Chansey's case, if it's holding the Eviolite, it becomes bulkier than Blissey.

Alakazam is still good; it's just better as its Mega Evolution.

Speaking of Mega Evolutions, they're one of the new mechanics introduced in Gen VI. Full mechanics here. Just remember that not all Mega Evolutions are viable in OU.