Espeon

Update: I soft-reset for a Timid Genesect, traded it to White 1, EV trained and Pokerus'd it, then traded back for some fodder Staryu that I caught. I have Timid max SAtk / max Spe Genesect and Keldeo on White 2, and I've been doing some more trading from White 1. I thought that soft-resetting for half-decent musketeers wouldn't be that hard, but it's a lot worse than I thought, especially since I'm trying to catch all of them in Pokeballs or Premier Balls. My gameplan is to catch as many Pokemon as possible to drive up the Critical Capture rate to an acceptable amount before I even try again, but that might take a while, even with trading from White 1. I'm thinking I could trade over a few 'mons for the post-game, and maybe use Genesect and Keldeo, catching as much as possible along the way and using fully-evolved things as trading fodder. That would mostly be a passive effort, though. Post-game team could possibly be: Genesect @ arbitrary item, maybe Amulet Coin Timid, Download, 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe - Bug Buzz - Ice Beam - Thunderbolt - Flamethrower Keldeo @ arbitrary item Timid, Justified, 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe - Surf - Secret Sword - Icy Wind - nothing of note (why don't you learn Dive or Waterfall, dude, that's not cool) Victini @ arbitrary item Adamant, Victory Star, 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe -V-create -Fusion Bolt -Brick Break (note: change to Zen Headbutt) -U-turn Rotom-C @ arbitrary item (notice a pattern, here) Modest, Levitate, some EV spread that I forget - Thunderbolt - Leaf Storm - Will-O-Wisp -Thunder Wave Salamence @ blah Naive, Moxie, 64 Atk / 192 SAtk / 252 Spe - Draco Meteor - Dragon Claw - Earthquake - Fire Blast and a spot for Braviary to stay as an HM slave (Cut / Fly / Strength / Rock Smash, although Cut and Rock Smash are so sparsely used that it barely matters). I don't particularly care about all the Audino grinding involved (they're all coming over at Lv. 50 with the exception of Genesect and Keldeo, which are at 20), because it's super easy and quick to get to very high levels, especially with the Lucky Egg that you are conveniently supplied with. That's not even including that these 'mons get an EXP boost from having a different OT. I'm even restricting myself to using the Pokemon that aren't Lv. 100 from White 1 to attempt to keep some semblance of challenge. I managed to put together a FWG core, a Steel, and a Dragon, along with some status to help catch random stuff on the way. I'm making the postgame basically be "Genesect's quest to the P2 Lab to get the Douse Drive, a.k.a. the only Drive that matters at all." My rationale behind the chosen members (I have access to other goodstuffs, but not much that wouldn't be obscenely overlevelled) is as follows: Keldeo has Surf and a strong Fighting-type move, which is always good for fighting your rival's Bouffalant and other bulky Fighting-weaks. Genesect provides useful coverage all in one Pokemon, along with a backup user of Fire- and Electric-type moves, but perhaps most of all, it has Ice Beam and resists Dragon. Victini completes the set of accessible Gen V Event Legendaries, but more importantly gives me a strong physical Pokemon with neat coverage and is a stepping stone towards a FWG core. Rotom-C (the lawn mower, for those who aren't familiar with the abbreviations) completes a FWG core, gives me STAB Electric, and can throw two kinds of status around, all in one. Levitate is nifty too, since I was getting a bit weak to Ground moves. Mence is a nuke and can handle some pretty stacked teams, given that Draco Meteor is great at netting a Moxie boost to snowball sweep. Fighting resistance is cool as well. Braviary loves field moves, but impassable Waterfalls suck, so maybe Keldeo's filler will become Strength and Braviary will become a Dragonite with Waterfall and Fly. After all preparations are made (and I get through this pile of college stuff), the postgame shall begin. Afterwards, I'll focus on catching at least 300 Pokemon for both a 1.5x multiplier on the Critical Capture rate and the Oval Charm, so breeding will become a lot easier whenever I get to doing that. That also inherently comes with unlocking the Nature Preserve, and therefore a guaranteed shiny Haxorus, so that's cool as well. I'll probably go with Adamant Mold Breaker Choice Band with Outrage / Superpower / Aqua Tail / Earthquake or something. I propose that this thread is used by people to document their progress with BW2, among the previous purposes. All in favor, document your progress or something, I guess?

So I beat the Elite Four a couple days ago in White 2, my team was the following: Starmie @ Expert Belt Natural Cure -Surf -Psychic -Ice Beam -Thunderbolt Volcarona @ Scope Lens Flame Body -Quiver Dance -Signal Beam -Flamethrower -Psychic Roserade @ Leftovers Natural Cure -Giga Drain -Venoshock -Toxic -Leech Seed Magneton @ Eviolite Sturdy -Thunder Wave -Metal Sound -Thunderbolt -Flash Cannon Krookodile @ BlackGlasses Intimidate -Crunch -Earthquake -Rock Slide -Cut Braviary @ Rocky Helmet Defiant -Hone Claws -Strength -Fly -Superpower Natures not listed because they don't matter ingame, EVs not listed because I have no idea because it's ingame. Probably quite a few HP, though, thank you based Audino. Anyway, they totally trivialized most major fights. Screw starters. I started with Oshawott, but Starmie is so much better in every regard and the only downside is that it comes at Undella, after the 6th gym. Colress was lulz with Krook and Volc, especially, and Starmie, Krookodile, and Volc did major work on the entire E4 and champion. Ghetsis was only remotely difficult because I wanted to use Roserade pretty badly against that Cofagrigus, but crit Psychic sucks, so I had nothing for Seismitoad. Overall, Braviary was really useful when I got it, but dropped off in lategame to the point where I didn't even use it in the E4. Roserade was much the same, although it managed to take on Marshal fairly well. The rest were veritable gods, to the point where Volcarona clean swept Shauntal and Grimsley, and Krook and Magneton cockblocked (is this even applicable in this situation?) Caitlin, actually forcing the AI to switch first-turn. Marshal would've been easy for Starmie, but Sturdy Sawk crushes dreams. Magneton ended up being a fallback Pokemon, not seeing much use after Marlon except random shit like paralyzing Iris's Haxorus and killing Caitlin's Sigilyph. I declined to use the event Genesect, N's Zorua, etc. because I'd rather EV train them postgame or something. But yeah, great game.

Blargh I had a big long thing about Choice Band, started on Specs, then shenanigans happened and I lost it all Nonetheless, I shall persist, @@AntiDentite, I shall persist! Note for all Choice items: they require the holder to switch quite a bit to be very effective, so resistance to hazard damage is especially good to have. Regardless, hazard-weak Choiced Pokemon can still work with Magic Bounce/Rapid Spin/Wish support. CHOICE BAND Effects: raises holder's Attack stat by 1.5x (equivalent of a +1 Attack boost, but doesn't stack, i.e. a +1 CB Pokemon will have x2.25 Atk instead of x2; this is only really applicable for Guts Pokemon, but it's nice to know) at the cost of locking the Pokemon into one move until it switches out Introduced in Gen III, the Choice Band might at first seem to be more a hindrance than a help; after all, switching moves is a great and convenient thing to be able to do. Despite this, Banded Pokemon have been quite commonly used competitively ever since its introduction as an item. The immediate power it gave to the holder proved its worth, as it often allowed certain physical attackers to bypass Pokemon that could otherwise switch in safely. For Choice Banders, it's less about sweeping through teams than it is about clearing the way for another Pokemon to clean up. Once physical walls such as Skarmory are removed, physical sweepers should have little problem with whatever remains, and vice versa. It's worth noting that different Pokemon lure out different walls, so your team should capitalize on what your Choice Bander is able to power its way past. Given the effects of the item, it should be fairly obvious that the Pokemon that utilize the Choice Band the best are those with strong physical attacks. That's the only real prerequisite to effectively use the Choice Band, and as you'll see, there is a large amount of variety with the common CBers. Some use it to juice up their priority moves (Extremespeed, Mach Punch, Bullet Punch, Aqua Jet, etc.), and as such make fairly effective revenge killers. Some like to spam a STAB move or two of incredible power, some of which can be boosted by the weather to become even stronger (V-create, Outrage, Close Combat, Stone Edge, etc.). Some are bulky and slow (Tyranitar, Azumarill, Scizor, etc.), others are faster (Victini, Terrakion, Infernape, etc.). Really, the only thing in common with all effective CBers is that the Choice Band gives them what they need: power without setup. Setup moves have become increasingly difficult to use, and it's often more convenient to slap a Choice item on a Pokemon and go to town rather than create an opportunity to use Swords Dance, for example. Choice Banders that you may see nowadays include, but are not limited to, the following: Tyranitar @ Choice Band, Adamant, Sand Stream, 156 HP / 252 Atk / 100 Spe Stone Edge | Crunch | Superpower | Pursuit What better way to win the weather war than to smash everything that tries to switch into you? As an added bonus, Pursuit can trap-kill fleeing Special Attackers that you can easily switch into with your 100/110/100 base defenses and sandstorm-boosted SDef. Scizor @ Choice Band, Adamant, Technician, 248 HP / 252 Atk / 8 Spe Bullet Punch | U-turn | Superpower | Pursuit For a long time, Scizor was the epitome of powerful Banded priority. U-turn gets you away from anything that could come in safely while dealing damage, and Superpower helps a lot against Heatran and Magnezone. Pursuit is, in this case, great for trapping Lati@s, as you resist the powerful Dragon moves they will inevitably use. Breloom @ Choice Band, Adamant/Jolly, Technician, 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe Bullet Seed | Mach Punch | Low Sweep | Stone Edge/Spore Scizor suddenly has some great competition. Bullet Seed is obscenely powerful, maxing out at 187.5 power even before STAB. Tech Low Sweep lets you outspeed and 2HKO some nifty things on the switch. Locking yourself into a non-damaging move isn't oft-recommended, but it's hard to say no to Spore. Victini @ Choice Band, Adamant/Jolly, Victory Star, 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe V-create | Fusion Bolt | Brick Break | U-turn If you're in sun, you should almost exclusively be using V-create. If not, you should still use it pretty much all the time, it's that strong. FBolt helps agains Politoed and Slowbro, Brick Break against Heatran and Tyranitar, and U-turn is nice if you're not sure what's gonna try to take a V-create. Dragonite @ Choice Band, Adamant, Multiscale, 252 Atk / 4 Def / 252 Spe Outrage | Fire Punch/Aqua Tail | Earthquake/Superpower | Extremespeed Only Steels could hope to take that Outrage easily, and they're dealt with by your choice of coverage moves. Only go with Aqua Tail on a rain team, and EQ/SP is your choice really. Extremespeed is great for killing really fast and/or boosted things. I'll leave some for you guys too CHOICE SPECS Effects: raises holder's Special Attack stat by 1.5x (equivalent of a +1 Special Attack boost, but doesn't stack, i.e. a +1 CS Pokemon will have x2.25 SAtk instead of x2; this is only really applicable for random stuff like Specs Gastrodon, but it's nice to know) at the cost of locking the Pokemon into one move until it switches out Along with Gen IV came two new Choice items, one of which was (were?) the Choice Specs. They're essentially a special counterpart to the Choice Band in every way imaginable, although the special end of the attacking spectrum does have some key differences that warrant explanation. You're still going to be putting these on things with very powerful special moves to abuse, but special priority is much rarer than the physical sort; in fact, the only special priority move is the poorly-distributed Vacuum Wave. Also, while special moves are generally more powerful than their physical counterparts, there exist more sturdy special walls to take those moves - Blissey and Chansey remain capable of absorbing absolutely hideous amounts of special damage and healing it all off with Softboiled or Wish, although they are becoming more easily defeated as time goes on. One of the primary methods special attackers have of bypassing defensive walls is Trick (more specifically, Tricking a Choice item), which very few physical attackers have access to. Special attackers also have the distinction of being able to go pseudo-mixed by virtue of Psyshock and Secret Sword. Everything else remains very similar to what's been said about Choice Banders: there's a fair amount of variety. As before, Choice Specsers (is this an actual colloquialism?) that you may see nowadays include, but are not limited to, the following: Politoed @ Choice Specs, Timid/Modest, Drizzle, 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe Hydro Pump | Ice Beam | Focus Blast | Hidden Power [Grass]/Surf This operates on a similar principle to the aforementioned Tyranitar. Rain-boosted Hydro Pump even has a chance to 2HKO some Blissey after some hazard damage. The HP Grass/Surf thing is fairly trivial, as neither will get used much. HP Grass is for those who fear Gastrodon, Surf is a more reliable STAB. They sheer power of Hydro Pump really is necessary, though. Heatran @ Choice Specs, Modest/Timid, Flash Fire, 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe Fire Blast/Magma Storm | Earth Power | Dragon Pulse/Hidden Power [ice] | Hidden Power [Grass]/Flamethrower I love you SpecsTran. Flash Fire Specs sun-boosted STAB Fire Blast is ludicrous, getting a guaranteed 2HKO against ChestoRest Kingdra (which 4x resists Fire, mind you). Earth Power is mainly for Ttar and other Heatran, whereas Dragon Pulse or HP Ice does work on Dragons regardless of weather. HP Grass hurts Politoed and Gastrodon, but Flamethrower is reliable, bluh bluh. Latios @ Choice Specs, Timid, Levitate, 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe Draco Meteor | Surf | Hidden Power [Fire]/Psyshock | Trick I could put a few Specs DM-spammers, but I think one will suffice. Draco Meteor murders anything that isn't SDef Jirachi, Heatran, Blissey, Chansey, or some other special wall or Steel type, and Surf helps with Heatran. HP Fire KOs Scizor and hurts Jirachi, but Psyshock is a solid offensive option against Blissey and Chansey. TrickSpecs is the less offensive, but equally as effective, way of dealing with walls. Tornadus-Therian @ Choice Specs, Timid, Regenerator, 252 SAtk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe Hurricane | Focus Blast | U-turn/Hidden Power [ice]/Heat Wave | Sleep Talk/U-turn Use in rain. Hurricane becomes a powerful move with no actual downsides. Focus Blast takes down Steels and Rocks, the only common things that resist Flying. U-turn is pretty great no matter what, but HP Ice can help against Thundurus-T. Heat Wave is there because Jirachi. Sleep Talk makes you a pretty decent Breloom counter. Regen is wonderful for mitigating Stealth Rock damage. Keldeo @ Choice Specs, Timid, Justified, 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe Hydro Pump | Secret Sword | Icy Wind | Hidden Power [Electric]/Surf I feel obligated to mention Keldeo, since I brought up Secret Sword earlier. It's basically a pseudo-mixed, mainly special Terrakion in that it can spam its STABs and not really care. Icy Wind is for Lati@s and Celebi/Amoonguss, HP Electric is for Gyarados and Jellicent. Everything else eats your STAB. As before, you guys are free to bring up anything else or discuss what's here, because this sure isn't everything. CHOICE SCARF Effects: raises holder's Speed stat by 1.5x (equivalent of a +1 Speed boost, but doesn't stack, i.e. a +1 CS Pokemon will have x2.25 Spe instead of x2; this isn't really applicable for much at all, but it's nice to know) at the cost of locking the Pokemon into one move until it switches out Also introduced in Gen IV, the Choice Scarf is typically used quite differently than the other Choice items. Rather than as a tool to bust through particularly sturdy opponents, it became an integral tool used widely on revenge killers; the immediate Speed boost allowed for a new way to deal with Speed-boosting sweepers and fast Pokemon in general. However, given that it does not augment power in any way, the most effective users are those that don't need power increases to function effectively. In fact, one of the main ways in which Choice Scarf users will let you down is if they lock themselves into a sufficiently weak move so that the opponent can get a free turn or two. Relying on Choice Scarfers can be tricky, since those free turns can make a big difference in the long run. TrickScarf is a thing, very much like TrickSpecs and has a lot of the same users (Rotom-W, Latios, etc.). Scarfed sweepers aren't particularly common, but they do exist and usually have Moxie as an ability for snowball sweeps. As before, Choice Scarfers that you may see nowadays include, but are not limited to, the following: Salamence @ Choice Scarf, Naive, Moxie, 252 Atk / 4 SDef / 252 Spe Outrage | Earthquake | Fire Blast | Dragon Claw The premier Scarf-Moxie sweeper, and really effective in the absence of enemy Steels. After one kill, it's real hard to stop this dude. Dragon Claw is only there to get some hits in without locking yourself into Outrage for 2-3 turns if you're not too confident as to what your opponent will do. Rotom-Wash @ Choice Scarf, Timid, Levitate, 4 HP / 252 SAtk / 252 Spe Volt Switch | Hydro Pump | Hidden Power [ice/Fire] | Trick Fast and fairly powerful, the real kicker here is Volt Switch, which lets you escape potentially tricky scenarios. Trick can be cool for screwing over some more defensive answers to you. Landorus-Incarnate @ Choice Scarf, Naive, Sand Force, 252 Atk / 4 SAtk / 252 Spe Earthquake | Stone Edge | Hidden Power [ice] | U-turn In sand, this dude is pretty scary with juiced EQs, and always threatens to U-turn the hell out of there should Gliscor or Skarmory switch in. 101 base Speed is slick as anything, letting you outspeed +1 base 100s all the time (which is most boosters). Terrakion @ Choice Scarf, Jolly, Justified, 4 HP / 252 Atk / 252 Spe Stone Edge | Close Combat | X Scissor | Rock Slide/Earthquake/Sacred Sword/Sleep Talk Last slot is complete filler, but it makes a great revenge killer with just three moveslots. Powerful, and can become even more so on a switch into a Dark move. Fast as shit and is only outsped by a few +2 Pokemon (Timid Chlorosaur and up) and, like, Scarf Latios and Starmie. But I'm getting dangerously close to 10k characters, so I'll let you guys discuss if you want. Favorite Choice users, unorthodox Choice users that work well, great ones that I didn't mention (there are definitely some that I left out, hint hint), and whatever else you can think of. Sorry I took so long to deliver on this, but you know how it is, typing up giant walls of text.

I did not read anything in the thread but the OP, but from skimming across some massive, angry-looking red text, it looks like I'm one of the only ones who would go about life as usual. I have been pretty lax as far as keeping up with any forum stuff goes, and I'm all busy with school, and to top it off, I have things to do on the internet that aren't on this site. Catch up on any theoretical Homestuck updates and/or potatoes, browse other forums (that, despite testimony to the contrary, actually exist), draw stuff, watch TV...I would be a bit disappointed, but it wouldn't be an apocalyptic thing for me. There were no specifications about Skype contacts that aren't Feld0 or Skype groups that aren't the official one, so I'm fine there. The friends have been made and are on unofficial channels. Hope is restored.

Allow me to respectfully disagree with most of what people have said here, although ninjas everywhere because walls of text take time to procure. Re: the show, I've sampled some of the new stuff and it's not worth watching really. I don't remember the old stuff, so I won't judge, but I have heard that the movies are always objectively better than the show (I've only seen Mewtwo Strikes Back and Destiny Deoxys in that respect). I have a ton more to say about the games, though. I've played Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed, Leafgreen, Diamond, Pearl, SoulSilver, and White in the main series (which I assume we're talking about instead of spinoffs like Mystery Dungeon or Colloseum/XD). The first generation (RBY) had strange, severely unbalanced mechanics and were full of bugs (for example, the only move that hit every time was Swift due to how accuracy was calculated; everything else had at least a 1/256 chance of missing. Crit rate was based on Speed, with high crit moves having guaranteed crits and Focus Energy doing nothing because the games were so damn buggy, etc). These things are immutable facts I am stating for the record. It does not mean bashing is what is taking place here. Some people think these things add to the charm of the games and make them unique. Personally, while I do think these games are good simply because they're Pokemon, I do not think that they're better than other games in the series. Pokemon selection is severely limited: for example, the only Ghost types were the Gastly line, the only Dragons were the Dratini line, the only Dragon move was Dragon Rage, the only damaging Ghost move was Lick, the only damaging Bug moves were Twineedle, Pin MIssile, and Leech Life...there's just so little variety to choose from, really. As a pre-emptive thing about Pokemon design, if you dislike things like Vanilluxe and Garbodor because they're "uncreative," you must've forgotten about the Doduo line, Magnemite line, Diglett line, and Grimer line. I don't know how many times I have to say this, but Pokemon designs haven't radically changed ever, really, and there always have been poorly designed Pokemon. Some people (cough*SuntouchedCoco*cough) just don't want to like the newer stuff, thereby blinding themselves to the likes of Volcarona, Zoroark, and other well-designed Gen V Pokemon. This must be about the tenth time I've said this exact thing on this forum alone. It's fine to have opinions, but when they blatantly disregard certain things, that's less okay with me. Second gen (GSC) was really neat. The Special stat was broken down into Special Attack and Special Defense, the Dark and Steel types were added, and more kinds of different types of Pokemon and moves were introduced, drastically increasing the variety, even if the new types did only get a few members each. I personally loved the idea of gaining access to an entire region for pseudo-postgame shenanigans. Other than the aforementioned goodstuffs and some mechanic refining and Pokemon and item adding (oh yeah, how about those items), not much happened in the generational shift, what with the whole "still on GBC" thing. I guess the games were a bit more colorful? The Battle Tower in Crystal was fun to mess around in, and set the stage for some of the really cool post-postgame stuff in later games. That's really all there is to say on the matter. Gen III (RSEFRLG) kicked tons of ass in my opinion, especially since Emerald is my favorite game (as I said in the "Which Pokemon Game is your Favorite" thread that I'm too lazy to link here). Hoenn is my favorite region design, since it has a little of everything. Expansive water routes, foresty areas, beaches, volcanoes, and islands...it all felt really exotic and interesting. Cover legendaries started getting really neat backstory that had story significance, which became a thing. Double the ambiguously-evil teams make for double the fun, perhaps even more than double. The style of the games became much more colorful and clean compared to generations previous, which I liked. More Pokemon, new moves and items, and the new EV/IV/nature system meant a near exponential increase in variety, since a Pokemon could now perform more than one role effectively (case in point: Salamence, who was pretty cool with a Choice Band, a Dragon Dance set, or a fully Special attacking set). Abilities were introduced as well, so yay. Perhaps the best thing, though, was Emerald's Battle Frontier, which basically made the game infinitely entertaining (and, for a change, challenging). FireRed and LeafGreen set the precedent to remake the games of two generations prior, and they were neat games despite being Red and Blue with updated mechanics and graphics with a postgame thing tacked on. I just can't get enough of Emerald. Gen IV (DPPtHGSS) had a rather slow start, in my opinion. Diamond and Pearl were actually notorious for how long anything took to happen, from battle animations to overworld loading to text scrolling. Galactic is probably the best single antagonisteam (yes, I just made this term up) because they go big or go home, and have Admins and a leader with very developed character. Platinum, from what I know, fixed nearly every problem with DP and added sweet stuffs like Pokemon that got a new evolution (no more Fire type E4 with two Fire types out of his five Pokemon because there aren't any more) and a redesigned Battle Frontier, complete with Move Tutors out the wazoo. HGSS brought back and expanded upon Yellow's Pikachu-following shenanigans, which is really cool and I want it to return in other games because oh my god reasons. They also were updated Gold and Crystal games, which is totally awesome and they're probably my second favorite games. The mechanic changes were strong in this one: no longer is damage type (physical/special) determined on the basis of the move's type. It's now on a move to move basis, giving things like Gyarados, for example, a physical Water move in Waterfall (or the new Aqua Tail: adding new moves is still a thing that happens). A lot of things became more useful because of this, and it really makes a lot of sense to do things this way (lol Shadow Ball used to be a physical move and Dragon Claw was special). But yeah: pretty decent generation right here. Gen V (BW, BW2 in Japan now, but worldwide in a month or so) is a mixed bag so far. On the one hand, I like what they did with certain aspects of the postgame timewaster (Battle Subway in this case) in allowing us to immediately challenge reasonably strong opponents. Unlike most people, I don't really mind any of the new Pokemon designs, although I obviously have my preferences. I enjoyed the storyline because it seemed to be much more involved than ever before, dealing with moral ambiguities and such as well. One thing I'm not too keen on, though, is being led by the nose to the next area. It won't be a half-circle ingame for BW2 at least, thank gog. The only real addition here was Dream World, which is a lot bigger than most realize, but not quite as big as any other generational transition. What I'm really looking forward to is a possible remake of Ruby and Sapphire (or Emerald, actually, to keep the number of games per gen-with-remakes constant). They would basically be the greatest things ever in the history of anything, and make Gen V my favorite by a wide margin, since I really do like White, and BW2 can only be improvements. The order for me is something like III>IV>V>II>I. One and two are so low because they've been remade and improved and all that jazz, so y'know. Gen III also has Colloseum, XD, and the first Mystery Dungeon games, so that's a plus, although I prefer Explorers of X to Red and Blue Rescue Team. Average post size for me in a Pokemon thread, yes/yes

My top ten according to this: Dragonair Gardevoir Aggron Ho-oh Suicune Snorlax Dugtrio Kabutops Eelektross Rhydon At the end I ended up spamming Dragonair without thought, really. I swear it must've given me the same matchup a few times, though (like Pidgeot vs. Manectric or something). I don't really think Snorlax or Eelektross should be that high up on mine, though, but w/e

>little to no continuity between episodes This makes me question how much AT you've watched. There's a lot more continuity than you think, even if some of it is as insignificant as, for example, when Finn threw his sword at the tesseract and it never made another appearance. Some has a bit more potential, such as the Lich's possession of the waving snail that appears in every episode, especially the end of the episode "In Your Footsteps" where he obtains the Enchiridion (hey, more continuity). Then there's the Magic Man arc with "Freak City" and "Sons of Mars," the multiple Nightosphere episodes, and more. What I'm waiting for is a major world-building / history episode or series of episodes that delves deeper into what happened in the events leading up to the Great Mushroom War and in the years thereafter. The earth that the series takes place on doesn't look like someone took a bite out of it for nothing, as Lobstaarr said. As far as a good AT episode to start out with, my first was Rainy Day Daydream. Really, the only episodes I don't recommend are ones in the middle of an arc, like Sons of Mars (which you should only watch after both Freak City and the pilot, actually, because holy shit King of Mars is Abraham Lincoln who was in the pilot oh my god).

Oh god let's not bring the "Pokemon isn't good any more" thing in this thread plz, someone stop me before I rant about it for a few thousand characters Favorite game: Emerald, hands down. It was the first game that really combined every aspect just right: rather than you vs. bad guys, it was bad guys vs. bad guys with you getting caught in the crossfire and generally opposing either at your convenience. The perfect blend of both versions' antagonists, you might say. It also just felt really good to play: more streamlined than Ruby and Sapphire, and, being one of the last GBA games, more refined than most DS games so far. All the kinks were worked out of it, just in time for a big hardware jump. The story never really left you waiting for more stuff to happen, and even in the postgame, there was still an abundance of things to do, most notably the very first (and my favorite) Battle Frontier. It was something that in-game Pokemon had never really been before: challenging. There's no overlevelling your team to curbstomp everything when everything is the same level, and later trainers in there had coherent strategies that worked, rather than the "these moves are kinda cool" of the Gym Leaders. The facilities offered something radically different each time, be it rentals, letting your Pokemon battle without your input, a tournament system, etc. Everything in Emerald came together really nicely for me. As a side note, fairly easy in-game access to all of Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, the Lati of choice, and the Regis can't hurt Favorite Pokemon: There have been a few threads for this, but Pokemon threads here rapidly multiply and die off pretty quickly, so I'll take this as being the circle of life. The sig tells all, although I probably favor Dragonair the most, since it looks pretty damn fly.

Oh hey there Pokemon thread. How's it going? It's been a while. What's not to like? They're super cool ways to give older Pokemon a new twist, something to keep up with other things. They make tons of things suddenly usable, where they were once subpar. The introduction of another ability for the majority of Pokemon created a diverse pool of options for teams, much moreso than ever before. Dream World abilities are pretty much the major "thing" that Gen V added to the game, and while it's not quite as huge as any of the others (Special stat split, EVs and Natures, Phys./Spec. split are all pretty dang huge), it's still significant in many ways. Things like Politoed, Ninetales, Sandslash, Sableye, and more all owe pretty much all of their use to their Dream World abilities, and things like Slowbro, Dragonite, and Gliscor got even better than they already were with theirs. It's unfortunate that all the Levitate 'Mons that aren't Bronzong got denied one (I personally would've liked to see Sand Stream Flygon [and Snow Warning Kyurem, but that's for another discussion], since it fits the flavor text in the Dex), but eh, I'll take what I can get. Levitate's great anyway (and I can't really picture things ending well for SS Flygon: drop to UU for being worse than Tar and Hippo and losing Spikes and TSpikes immunity, then go to BL with UU sand being b&; I guess Levitate Flygon would still be good, but it would be a waste of a DW ability since it wouldn't be used in OU, where it's actually allowed). But yeah, without DW abilities, BW would just be DPPt with some new Pokemon, items, and moves, none of the weather that defines BW OU. Hell, weather pretty much broke UU for some time, with Vulpix and Aboma/Snover being allowed to power up Victini and make Froslass nigh untouchable, respectively. Basically, DW abilities let Pokemon do different things than they ever could before, which is almost always a good thing. Also, Garchomp testing is being discussed with Rough Skin alongside a ban of Sand Veil. Potential discussion topic here, although given how everyone ignores my posts in this thread, there is a very small group of people who know anything about competitive Pokemon here, and how there's a thread for it on Smogon, I don't really see this happening. Other potential discussion topic: Choice items. If people want, I can do a fancy OP-style post to make this accessible to those who may not know that much about them, but I won't unless there's a general demand. Basically, if one person posts with the go-ahead, I'd probably put something together eventually and I wouldn't double post, all in one go. So...yeah.

Head h isn't offensive. Head h just IS.

Fixed. Also, I fully support a Head H forum takeover, complete with banner and all staff (all forum members?) namechanging to Head H. All in favor say "H"

Nein

It's nice to see someone else who likes dadrock. I see you already got a pretty comprehensive welcome wagon from Dreamwalker, but there can never be too much welcome. In addition to that, Canterlot Castle has a bunch of nifty threads about new features. This is a cool place and I hope you enjoy your stay outta my shed.

YOU STOLE THE THOUSANDTH POST But I got the thousandth reply One, I guess. This is mainly to snag the thousandth reply for posterity, but that plan could be implemented now maybe.

What we need to do is let this thread die down a bit until the <20 post people stalking it all get bored and eventually have at least 20 posts. Then, and only then, can we successfully strike. 19

>This site sucks >Bring back the chat Oh god my sides This is a pretty well-hidden thingy here, but as you said, plans to make it more visible etc. It should prove to be a lot better than a thread that's cluttered with tons of posts that might get overlooked, or a single-issue thread that gets made three times. The only reason I'm here is because of that bold, red-text warning to keep up with stuff in this section, by the way. It's always nice to have a reminder, especially one that's in deep red.

Were you waiting for 64 just for me? One, and we can still most likely do this maybe

The number in my name minus two

Okay, while this thread still has a heart rate, albeit at a couple beats per minute, I'll post a BW2 OU RMT that will most likely get ignored because no one cares. Regardless, BW2 brought a lot of cool stuff to the metagame, from move tutors to Dream World abilities to entire Pokemon that couldn't be used before. Most of the new toys were geared towards rain, such as Thundurus-T, Tornadus-T, Keldeo, and even Meloetta. Move tutors for great moves like Superpower and Aqua Tail helped Pokemon like Haxorus better abuse the rain, as well. With all this fancy stuff, it's pretty tempting to use offensive rain. This team is not that. It's some kind of a sun team, actually. Sun got very little in the way of new abusers, with perhaps the only one being Chlorosaur getting Giga Drain. There is a neat new Pokemon that's pretty weather neutral that was recently released, though: Genesect. It fits well in all weathers, getting use of Thunder in rain alongside a reduced Fire weakness, sun-boosted Flamethrower for sun teams, and immunity to sandstorm's passive damage for sand teams. Sun actually helps take some Genesect counters out of the picture, reducing them to pretty much just Heatran. With this in mind, I set out to build a sun team that can reasonably take on Heatran, along with all this new rain stuff. The following is the untested result; let me know what you think. Ninetales @ Leftovers Trait: Drought EVs: 252 HP / 120 SDef / 136 Spd Calm Nature - Flamethrower - Will-O-Wisp - Substitute - Pain Split Specially defensive Ninetales is all about keeping the sun up. Substitute can be used on a forced switch, letting me Will-o-wisp the switch-in if it's a physical attacker like Tyranitar. Flamethrower is painfully weak, even when sun-boosted, although it puts the hurt on most Steels. Pain Split can put some damage on a Blissey or Heatran at least, since Ninetales can't really do anything to them almost no matter what. I'm debating replacing Will-o-wisp with Toxic to cripple Latias switch-ins, or Pain Split with Roar so it's not such great set-up fodder. The special bulk lets it check/counter Genesect pretty reliably, and it's an alright switch-in to Tornadus-T since it reduces Hurricane's accuracy to 50%. Thundurus-T with Thunder have a bit of a tough time doing much to it as well, although I hope I don't have to rely on Ninetales to take one down. Genesect @ Choice Scarf Trait: Download EVs: 164 Spd / 248 SAtk / 96 Atk Naive Nature - U-turn - Flamethrower - Ice Beam - Thunderbolt Hey, speaking of Genesect, here it is. Pretty standard fare Scarf set, and it makes a great revenge killer with Download giving it the equivalent of either a Band or Specs as well. The 99 base Speed kinda kills it a bit, but what are you gonna do. It's arguably the best U-turner in the game, and it has some great coverage moves. BoltBeam helps it handle Gyarados, Salamence, Dragonite, Gliscor, and various other 4x weak Pokemon quite nicely, while also putting a ton of damage on 2x weak Pokemon, OHKOing some with a Download boost. Sun-boosted Flamethrower gives it a pseudo-STAB on the special side, since Bug Buzz is a bit redundant alongside U-turn. The EVs are a bit weird; at first I gave it enough speed to hit 300, outspeeding +1 neutral nature base 100s, then I maxed Special Attack and put the remaining 100 in Attack. I'm not sure if it works this way, but I reduced the Attack and Special Attack to even numbers so they would be the same after a Download boost, and put the rest in Speed to speed creep anything else looking to outpace +1 neutral base 100s. Maybe I'd be better off maxing Speed to tie at worst with other Scarf Genesect? Landorus-Therian @ Leftovers Trait: Intimidate EVs: 96 Atk / 196 HP / 216 Def Adamant Nature - Stealth Rock - Earthquake - Stone Edge - U-turn The initial plan was to have Sash Dugtrio, but I didn't really feel like it, so :V. He hits stupidly hard, reaching 385 Attack even with this small amount of investment, and is incredibly physically bulky with Intimidate and all that investment. The result is a Pokemon that can set SR fairly easily, check physical boosters in a pinch, and bounce around with U-turn or hit very hard with STAB EQ. The EVs guarantee that Stone Edge KOs offensive Dragonite after SR, while pumping up the bulk yo. With sun up, he can even take physical Water moves alright. Infernape @ Choice Scarf Trait: Blaze EVs: 252 Spd / 108 Atk / 148 SAtk Naive Nature - Flare Blitz - Close Combat - U-turn - Hidden Power [ice] Scarf Infernape is pretty much only here because I didn't want to overload on Psychics and SR weaks by putting Victini here. Infernape also hurts Heatran significantly harder. He's yet another U-turner, but the main attraction here is Flare Blitz. While it's no V-Create, it does some impressive damage in the sunlight, capable of denting many a wall. The rationale behind using Flare Blitz over Fire Blast is actually because of the recoil: it whittles Nape down to Blaze range for a massive final hit. It also unconditionally OHKOs offensive Volcarona in sun, and OHKOs Bulkyrona after SR (which means it only manages a bit more than 50%, but still). HP Ice is additional insurance against the likes of +1 Dragonite, Salamence, etc. Infernape can also switch into some of Genesect's moves and OHKO with Flare Blitz. Sometimes I feel like I'm overpreparing for these things, though. He's also one of my main answers to Heatran. Starmie @ Leftovers Trait: Natural Cure EVs: 4 SAtk / 252 HP / 252 Spd Timid Nature - Ice Beam - Psyshock - Rapid Spin - Recover A spinner is always nice to have for a sun team, given how inherently susceptible to hazards they are. Rather than Forretress or Donphan, I chose Starmie. I'm not sure how wise this was, but it completes a FWG core with Tales/Nape and that guy down there. The bulky set loses quite a bit of power, and in the sun I can't even really use a Water STAB effectively, so this is the best it can really do. Rapid Spin and Recover help keep the team and itself alive, respectively. Ice Beam is chosen over Thunderbolt for no real reason, although it does hit Thundurus-T and Dragons/Gliscor. Psyshock aids in handling CM Keldeo, who doesn't mind taking a couple Psychics with boosted SDef. Starmie gives me some neat resistances, and the defensive set capitalizes on them the best, whilst also being a reliable spinner to let Ninetales come in repeatedly. Venusaur @ Life Orb Trait: Chlorophyll EVs: 252 Spd / 252 SAtk / 4 HP Modest Nature IVs: 2 Atk / 30 SAtk / 30 Spd - Growth - Giga Drain - Sludge Bomb - Hidden Power [Fire] Venusaur just got real. In BW, it faced competition from Victreebel, as Victreebel had access to a physical STAB in Leaf Blade along with Giga Drain to use alongside Chlorophyll to get past Blissey and Chansey, something Venusaur couldn't. There's also the Weather Ball thing allowing use of a non-Fire Hidden Power. But anyway, this Venusaur htis stuff pretty damn well except for Heatran. The only decent way of bypassing Heatran that Venusaur has is Earthquake, which requires going mixed and losing coverage on Dragons as well as breaking a potential Air Balloon, which limits the times it can boost to after Heatran's item is revealed / broken. This is a bit simpler in that it needs Heatran gone, but can hit everything else very hard. Bluh bluh four moveslot syndrome, imagine Venusaur with Growth | Sleep Powder | Giga Drain | HP Fire/Ice | Sludge Bomb | EQ. Anyway, Giga Drain helps combat Water types and some rain teams in general, while recovering Life Orb recoil and potential damage taken, from hazards or otherwise acquired. HP Fire is pseudo-STAB that hits pretty much every non-Heatran Steel-type very hard, although I question the necessity of it when three of its teammates also have a Fire move, two of them with STAB. Sludge Bomb, whilst ordinarily a dismal STAB to have, gets a strong hit on Dragons, nearly as strong as a super effective HP Ice. This does make me wonder if I'd be better off going with HP Ice and EQ over HP Fire and Sludge Bomb, though, since it would be at least an okay way to deal with Heatran and would still hit Dragons. The main drawback is that EQ from a partially invested Attack is weaksauce against some Steels when unboosted, and taking away some SAtk EVs to guarantee the OHKO on Heatran after SR at +0 also takes away some key KOs otherwise. With the Growth boost, it's pretty much fine, but it would rely on it a lot more against stuff like Latios and Tornadus-T. There's also the matter of using a nature that lowers a defense, but that's not nearly as significant. Wat do, good people of MLP Forums that probably aren't even reading this? Suggestions? Also, if I could, I'd fit Hydreigon in there somewhere, but Ninetales why do you have to take up so much room

Fiddy won

47

See the things we can accomplish when Herlin is on our side? 44, check those dubs

37

34

Order of operations is the only way to do maths, yo. (4 + 1 - 3) x 2 works to get 4, but with any luck, we won't need to do 4 again 22, since I assume Kestrel was 21?