Pokémon

[Jango]

http://www.pokemonblackwhite.com/en-us/news/secret-egg/

Haha, way to go Nintendo. Instead of giving out a rare pokemon at an event, you give out... an egg that, judging by the silhouettes, are going to be either two of the most common Pokemon in the game, or one that you CANNOT AVOID GETTING if you picked Smuglea... errr, I mean Snivy.

[UHMEEEEBA]

UP's told me they've done "common" prizes  before in the past. Generally in that case they either are shiny, have moves they normally can't, or unlock a side quest somewhere.

[Jango]

sad thing is all those shillouette pokemon suck so that outside of any potential rarity they might have, they have no use beyond that

[NomadicNinja]

the green haired rival in this game is a weirdo creeper

[Jango]

Entering a Pokemon tournament tomorrow, using only Pokemon from the first gen. Show these bitches you can't beat the originals.

[UHMEEEEBA]

Don't forget the level 1 Rattata.

[Jango]

Would've, but it won't work, it's a tournament standard flat battle, so all pokemon are auto-adjusted level 50.

Aron with Endeavor, Sturdy, and Shell Bell however...

[Jango]

Got put in the Psychic Gym (players who are 18+), and lost the first round (damn you, Garchomp!), but since it was double elimination, I beat everyone in the loser's bracket and won a badge anyway fun highlights:

TEAM (Nicknames):
Machamp (Snoop Dogg)
Gyarados (Ludacris)
Jolteon (DMX)
Venusaur (Tupac)
Gengar (Flava Flav)
Snorlax (Fat Joe)

- First round, my opponent sent out a Gallade and I sent out a Machamp, and she was bragging about how she had a speed advantage and would kill it, and somehow I did a DynamicPunch and One-Hit KO'ed it before it could attack. Keep in mind Gallade is SUPPOSED to excel at Speed and Machamp is one of the slower types.

- She also had a Shiny Magnezone that I killed in one hit with... Gyarados.

- She beat me with the aforementioned Garchomp.

- First elimination fight, an old dude apparently never realized that he should switch his pokemon of they are close to fainting. Leveled his whole team with a Gengar. It was a shame too, I thought he would've put up more of a fight since he got Stealth Rock and Toxic Spikes out very early on.

- Snorlax got me out of so many jams I could do a whole post about all the times he survived a hit that I thought would kill him, only for him to use Return to turn the tide around.

- My last opponent was a black dude and all my team was named after rappers. He was cool about it though, we had a good last match (which he killed me in)

Anyway picture proof of my badge

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Jesuszilla]

That badge is cool. Psychic was (and still is) my favorite type.


I'm just glad you managed to kick some ass with Gen 1 it sounds like.

[Jango]

Yeah, I think I'll do it again (they announced that due to the turnout, they're gonna host these monthly), hopefully I can get more badges. I might still majorly use Gen One Pokemon, but might start incorporating some newer ones, especially seeing some cool tricks the higher level players were using. For example, my last opponent used Tyranitar/Krookodile as a tag team, the first setting up a sandstorm while the latter used Sand Veil to raise evasion in it while resisting the per-turn damage. This strategy however was rendered useless with my Machamp's No Guard ability which makes all attacks he makes 100% accurate (the disadvantage being all attacks against him are also 100% accurate). Add that both are weak to fighting, and it's a cakewalk.

In hindsight, most of my team was sweepers, so I need to work on my defenses and trap setups a bit more (although Snorlax was awesome for mixing offensive and defensive strategies, and Machamp/Gengar are pretty good at making Substitutes to bait attacks that would normally kill them).

tl;dr wanna do it again but will probably change a few things next time.

EDIT: forgot to mention this

Psychic was (and still is) my favorite type.

Was mine too. Gen II introduced Steel (which has 0.5x resistance to Psychic) and Dark (which Psychic cannot hit at all, AND is weak to), which also are both weak to Fighting. That and all he weird nerfs and additions Psychics got over the generation (ie: Zen Headbutt, which draws from the Attack stat. Uhhhh...) It's really sad reading Double's Pokemon Yellow review where he jokes about leveling whole teams with Alakazam, and now if you go on pro boards like Smogon, he's unofficially the "running joke" of Gen IV and V. Almost nobody ran Psychic at the tournament, save for my first opponent who put on a surprisingly good show with an Espeon (although she lost the second round).

Having said that, on the other end of the spectrum, Fighting has been getting shitloads of buffs and new Pokemon, so most teams have at least one fighter, and since Psychic is the only real threat to it, there are a few reasons to consider one for the team. Right now Reuniclus and Musharna are the most popular ones, but Alakazam is getting a small comeback since it's TM movepool got bigger.

[UHMEEEEBA]

If you win eight separate brackets do you get to fight the Elite Four?

[Jango]

Unfortunately no. It's restricted to your gym (age bracket), otherwise the final round would have disgruntled 20-somethings fighting 8-year olds, and if my kid bro (he's 9 and also entered) gave any indication, they are nowhere near as prepared (ie: not switching out, not diversifying the movepool, etc etc).

If you win in your gym, you get the prize (which in our case was a $50 gift card to Gamestop).

[UHMEEEEBA]

I figured, it was just too obvious of a joke to pass up.

[Jango]

Yeah, heh.

Oh yeah forgot to mention that all the refs were dressed to reference what gym they were (ie: the fire gym ref wore clothes with flames on them, the Dark gym ref had a tuxedo, etc). The Psychic gym one was the best: he dressed up like a Shintoist priest, and wore wooden sandels anr everything.

[Jango]

So I'm retooling my team for the next tournament and I'm trying to be more lenient with my members. Venusaur was a liability, so he gets axed. So I decided to put Skarmory in his spot, as it only has two weaknesses due to its dual Steel/Flying typing (only fire and electricity) and a buttload of resistances and immunities. Additionally, it has the ability Sturdy which acts as protection against OHKO's. I lucked out and found a shiny (!!!) Skarmory on GTS that was being offered for a mere Reuniclus (you can easily find their evolutionary family in White). Perfect, right?

Well the stats were pretty shitty (from experience, most legit shinies are) and the ability was not as good (Keen-Eye which prevents accuracy from lowering. Uhhhh) so I ended up having to chain breed it to get a stronger one. Not shiny but am I here to win or look pretty?

So Skarmory's main role is to be a Physical Wall and a Support Spiker (basically it takes hits while it sets entry traps) according to most competitive boards. Competitively, the universal recommended strategy is to have Spikes, Drill Peck, Roost, and Substitute. To illustrate, Substitute provides an extra net of safety while you set up Spikes, Roost heals yourself to repeat the process, and Drill Peck is safety so you don't get trapped if the opponent uses Taunt (keeps you from switching and forces you to use attacks only).

Drill Peck and Roost were both egg moves in Gen IV so I instinctively looked for a Pokemon with both. I had a Fearow with both, so boom, into the daycare it goes. The baby comes out with almost impossibly good Individual Values and a Complementary nature! Just one problem: Roost didn't transfer.

I check Bulbapedia and it turns out that Roost stopped being an Egg Move and is now a Dream World exclusive move. Aside from the computer access, what's the problem here?

All Skarmory's in the Dream World have their standard ability replaced with Weak Armor, which lowers Defense on every physical attack and increase speed to compensate. This would sound alright if it weren't for two things:

1) Skarmory's best stat is physical walling.
2) Skarmory's second worst stat (next to special attack) is Speed.

This means Skarmory gets weaker and the Speed boosts won't do jack shit. And no, breeding Dream World Pokemon will not let them carry their moves, only abilities (and only of they're female). Of course all the Gen V competition movelists praise Roost and Sturdy as assets for this set. So basically most boards are supporting an impossible moveset as of this generation. Granted if I don't switch it out, I can put Roar or Whirlwind in that slot, which will be good for annoyance, but is inferior to infinite substitutes.

Longstory short: Nintendo gave the bird (or in this case, the Skarmory) to the Pokemon simulators.