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I ATTAC

8 (15.4%)

I PROTECC

6 (11.5%)

Waiting on the third one

2 (3.8%)

Waiting on the third AND fourth one

1 (1.9%)

GET WELL SOON ZYGARDE

5 (9.6%)

I am a concientous objector and abstain from taking up arms

30 (57.7%)

Total Members Voted: 51

[umiman]

So... Anyone know if ultrasun and moon brought back triple battles yet?

They'll never bring it back for the 3DS. It's too laggy. The game can't even handle 2v2s without going into 10fps. Even on the N3DS it lags.

Look at the battle royale. It's not really even playable.

[umiman]

Remember how I wrote about how Konmo-o sucked?

Someone said it was going to get buffed in Ultra. So I checked. Sure enough, it got a massively powerful z-move.

This Z-Move does a lot of damage, hitting both opponents in a Double Battle and then raising each of Kommo-o's stats by one stage. It works by attaching the Kommo-oium Z to Kommo-o and it changes the move Clanging Scales

Look at that shit.

[RekkaAtsuma]

So question about USUM:
Any one know how,(or if it's if even possible), to get the battle Agency shades as a full trainer-customization item to wear around the main game?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

---Shame they didnt give us facial expressions, which is why i need those shades...hide that eerie always-blank look.

[tnc]

Do you guys play TCG Online? Cause I don't and I have this urge to play and I don't know if I should?

[Reudh]

Phwoar, I think it's time for another one of Reudh's Shitty Pokemon Reviews.

This time, it's Bastiodon, the Shield Pokemon. Rock/Steel typing, much like Aggron a generation before it. Let's see how the bulky fossil shield pokemon weighs in.

Some impressively lopsided stats at play.

60/52/168/47/138/30. Look at those defenses!!!!! 168 phys def, and 138 spdef! But... oh. 60 HP. What a let down. Well, does it at least have somewhat decent offenses, like Steelix? Oh. Uh. 52/47/30. That's bad. That's really bad. That's "if I get taunted I can't do anything but slightly tickle you". It can't even gimmick counter with Metal Burst, because it has such shit HP. It lacks Volt Switch, like the near identical Probopass, also a Rock/Steel defensive Stealth Rock setter. Probopass has similar stats, with 60/55/145/75/150/40. Same HP, marginally better attack, worse defense, significantly better SpAtk, better spdef, better speed. 

Slow volt switches like Probopass can throw out are super useful, it lets frail pokemon get in to battle safely. Bastiodon entirely lacks this.

Another crippling flaw in poor Bastiodon's armor is the fact that while it can take hits, it certainly can't recover from them. Its only source of recovery is either Rest or Leftovers. That's... pretty abysmal. Probopass at least gets Pain Split.

One slight benefit it gets is Magic Coat, the ability to reflect status moves is kind of cool if predicted properly.... oh wait, Probopass gets that as well.

The only niche it can possibly occupy in PU as a bulky utility pokemon is completely outclassed by its straight up better rock/steel also PU cousin Probopass. Poor Bastiodon. Both Probopass and Bastiodon suffer seriously as bulky defensive pokemon because of two grave 4x weaknesses: Fighting and Ground. They can't do shit against them.


Poor Bastiodon. I think its Rock typing dooms it to obscurity. Much like any of the other fossil pokemon, they all have some sort of crippling flaw that lets them down, usually related to their typing, or in Archeop's case, a horrifically neutering ability.

Next time, I'll look at the other Fossil Pokemon and examine them.

[tnc]

I just wanted to share this:
"If you think that you had a good dream but you can't remember it, a Drowzee has probably eaten it."

[umiman]

The only thing Bastodion is good for is toxic.

That is to say, it's good at nothing.

[Akura]

I imagine there's a reason the Fossil Pokemon are supposed to be extinct. Until Science came along anyway.

One thing both Bastiodon and Probopass have is Magnet Rise(both via Tutor), which removes their 4x Ground weakness.

[pikachu17]

But not their 4X weakness to Fighting.

[Reudh]

I imagine there's a reason the Fossil Pokemon are supposed to be extinct. Until Science came along anyway.

One thing both Bastiodon and Probopass have is Magnet Rise(both via Tutor), which removes their 4x Ground weakness.

That's all well and good, but like Pikachu17 said they're still weak to fighting and any speedy pokemon with earthquake STAB or coverage is likely to at the very least dent the shit out of them. Heck, Bastiodon could benefit heaps with an Air Balloon and its sets don't even bother with it.

But yeah, like I said, I think the fossil pokemon were mostly designed around having glaring and gaping flaws in some part of their design. Archeops is really the only one without it, so they gave it a horrific ability.

[umiman]

There is Aerodactyl.

Useful guy. His mega form was really fearsome when originally released.

Even now he's kinda nice to have around.

The shell smash guys are pretty good too. Not as good as Cloyster, but they're alright.

And I've always had a fondness for Aurorus. On paper he seems weak but I've found he performs well competitively. Especially now that he has a move against water types.

Amusingly enough, Archeops is the master of PU tier. That sounds bad, but honestly these days PU tier is way more fun as there are so so so many Pokemon in it now.

[birdy51]

Ah Aerodactyl, a sweeper only limited by his movesets. He'd be truly terrifying if he had a strong, reliable Flying STAB like Brave Bird.

[umiman]

Ah Aerodactyl, a sweeper only limited by his movesets. He'd be truly terrifying if he had a strong, reliable Flying STAB like Brave Bird.

His moveset is pretty good though. He doesn't have brave bird, but he has edgequake, all the fangs, defog, stealth rock, etc. Etc.

Would really love swords dance but sadly has to settle with hone claws.

But it doesn't have to be a sweeper. I think more people run it as a defogger or stealth rock lead which can threaten other leads due to its strong attack. If you forgo mega, then you can use acrobatics to combo with a berry.

[Greiger]

When triples were still around my Aerodactyl ran wide guard, smack down, sky drop, and I think the last move was taunt.  It was astoundingly effective, basically the linchpin of my team against folks who would use all legendary pokes.  Wide guard shut down origin pulse, taunt and sky drop would shut down trick room users.   

Nothing quite as satisfying as seeing someone X mega a mewtwo or mega a sceptile only for it to be sky dropped immediately.  It was doubly amusing when something was trying to hit the aerodactyl on that turn.  Not only is it fast enough to cancel one of their poke's turns, it's fast enough to get out of the way of anything else trying to hurt it on that turn.  Anything being sky dropped also counts as being in the air for the likes of my Jolteon's thunder or it's Ryperior buddy's smack down.

[umiman]

I wanna talk about another one of my all-time favorite Pokemon, and surprisingly this one isn't a wall of any kind.



Yep, it's Gyarados, the Atrocious Pokemon. Man, that sounds racist.

------------------------

Gyarados has always been a favorite not just for me, but I think a lot of people, especially anyone who used to play the original series where he basically was a secret character. You know, back when the internet wasn't a thing and we relied on our little silly 6-year old friends for information. Also this was back when Hyper Beam was an amazing move.

His design is always fun, but I think he's one of those Pokemon where the longer you look at it, the stupider it looks. Like, what's up with that crown on his head? And that oversized mouth?

But whatever. Big flying oriental-style dragon with lazors. What's not to love?

-------------------------

The reason I really love this guy though is how versatile and unpredictable he is. I just love flexible Pokemon in general, and just like Tyranitar, this guy can basically do whatever the hell he wants and it's up to the opponent to guess what the non-dragon dragon is going to do. Similarly to Tyranitar as well is that he's not some bullshit OP Pokemon that is just OP because his stats / typing are OP like say... Arceus or Mewtwo. He has very obvious weaknesses and his stat distribution is just average at best. Unlike Tyranitar he's not even a pseudo-legendary, further cementing his non-dragon status.

He's just cool.

So what if he's weak 4x to lightning? He's also immune to ground and / or psychic. Hell, he can be resistant and weak to whatever the fuck he wants depending on his mood. For me, Gyarados has a Megavolution that is a sign of good design. You can equip it and it gives you the choice to either transform or stay the same, as either one is completely viable. Basically gives you two different Pokemon in one. Sure the Megavolution is significantly more powerful and tankier than the regular version, but at the same time completely changes up his typing and ability.

If there's a Mega Lopunny on the enemy team you might not really want to Mega evolve for example. Or you could switch it up when you see the enemy is packing a Mega Slowbro. Up to you.

Sometimes he can be an amazing intimidate user, and sometimes he can slaughter your whole team with moxie. Up to him. Or he can just pop to Megavolution and get Mold Breaker to smash the shit out of your Pokemon's abilities.

Sometimes he can be running Choice Band or Scarf. Sometimes he could have a berry. It could be leftovers or life orb or Z move or whatever the hell. Unless you have frisk, you have no idea.

--------------------------

So you're in a Pokemon battle. The enemy has a Gyarados in their team. Already the mindgames start. What the hell kind of Gyarados is it? Intimidate? It's probably intimidate right? If it's doubles or triples it's almost certainly intimidate. But it could easily be moxie too, and he could switch in on a weak Pokemon to begin the sweep. Gotta watch out for it. But what if it's a Mega? Are there any other Mega-potentials in his team? If it's Mega then it would probably be doing Substitute + Dragon Dance instead.

It's mental. You never know what he's going to do. I don't think I've ever fought any exact same Gyarados twice before. They're always slightly different. And it's not like he has a massive movepool like T-tar either. His movepool is actually quite shallow (relative to some of the other good Pokemon I've covered here). It's just that even with such a small movepool he can be moulded into so many different things.

I have seen Gyarados with all these moves before and they're all potent. Every single one of them. Especially because you can't know which one is coming.

Dragon Dance
Crunch
Bounce
Ice Fang
Roar
Dragon Tail
Taunt
Earthquake
Stone Edge
Bulldoze
Thunder Wave
Swagger
Substitute
Waterfall

Every single one of those moves is viable on every single variant of Gyarados. Predicting him is almost impossible if you've never fought that player before. I can't tell you how many times I've lost when I was expecting a Substitute or Dragon Dance when I was smacked in the face with a Dragon Tail or an Ice Fang instead. Hell, my own personal favorite Gyarados moveset is Dragon Dance, Taunt, Waterfall, Earthquake. I could easily switch any of the above in, but I like that combo the best.

Did I mention this guy is amazing in multi-battles? Because he is. Especially when paired with a Lightning Rod user.

Hell, these days he's even paired very well with the Z moves for even more unpredictability. It's a testament to his design that even until now, this Gen 1 Pokemon is still reliably used in OU and Ubers despite those tiers being completely infested with legendaries and pseudo-legendaries. And it's not like he really needed the Megavolution either. He'd still be in those tiers even without, though it helps quite a bit.

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But of course, Gyarados is not perfect. He has so many weaknesses to balance out the unpredictability. He's squishy, though not so much that he'd die in one hit to most things. Hell, he can offset the squishiness somewhat with the Mega form (it's actually quite tanky) or berries. His stats aren't the best either. Mega form has great stats but a completely different typing which may or may not work out. He's not particularly fast either.

Not to mention if the opponent is able to predict you through their amazing skill or awesome luck, you're pretty much done. Not to mention the myriad of Pokemon that hard counter it like say... Tapu Koko or Rotom and so on.

But hey, no one Pokemon is perfect right? And it's being able to play around with the weaknesses and still being viable that make a Pokemon beautiful in my mind.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)