How Do I Give A Good EV Spread In Competitive Pokemon

Question

Normally, this is the process that goes through my mind when trying to come up with an EV spread:

If I want a sweeper: 252 speed, 252 in the correct attack stat, and 4 in one of the defenses.

If I want a bulky sweeper: 252 in the correct attack stat, 252 in HP, and 4 in one of the defenses.

If I want a defensive wall: 252 in HP, 252 in one of the defenses, and 4 in the other defense.

You get the idea. I basically just put 252 in two stats, leaving one for putting 4. However, as I'm reading Smogon analysis and watching a few videos, I found that people tend to put stats like 108 or some other random stat. I literally just opened up Smogon strategy pokedex, and just clicked on a random Pokemon that happened to be Alcremie, and it puts 228 in it's defense stat. I saw this kind of distribution a lot. I want to know two things: where do they get these numbers? And how can I train myself to get these numbers? I'm battling in gen 7.

Answer 1

EVs spread can be changed in order to optimize your pokemon against his main counters and/or other opponents. I begin explanations with basics :

• 4 EVs increase of 1 point the aimed stat, also you can give a max of 252 EVs since gen 6 (it was a max of 255 EVs before, but I recommend you to read more about it on that Bulbapedia page as it would be too long to explain and off topic) to a same stat and 510 EVs at total (so 2 EVs as a margin)
• Usually, we tend to maximize 2 stats in order to be faster and attack more harder (in most sweeper cases)

But there are few pokemons which we can adapt these EVs spread, in order to be able to survive against few opponents particular attack, so this pokemon could :
- survive and win his fight against his counter
and/or
- become a better check against other usual opponent which he can't survive at 2 attack from him if you would have maximize 2 stats

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Let's take an example : here is the Smogon guide usage of Venusaur in OU.
As you can see, Venusaur EVs spread are really weird, with 252 HP,172 Def,68 SpD and 16 Speed, but if you keep reading, you can understand why EVs are like that :

The EV spread listed allows Venusaur to survive two Dark Pulses from Choice Specs Greninja after Stealth Rock while outspeeding maximum Speed Mega Mawile. The rest is dumped into Defense to make Mega Venusaur a worthwhile Mega Mawile, Kartana, and Tapu Bulu check.

Just don't forget that you can always choose different ways to use your pokemon, as Smogon is a really good databank for beginners, because it can surprise your opponent if you spread differently your pokemon (in both senses of the term). And there isn't a unique moveset suitable for every pokemon, so it's the same for EVs spread.