Pokemon Thread re-re-hashed

[Vypernight]

I figured the Pokemon talk was going on enough to bring back the thread.  Talk about your favorites, your favorite battles, those battles where everything went downhill, your teams, etc. 

Thus far, my records for Battle Hall are:

Cleffable (Cuddles)  82 wins:  Frustration, Brick Break, Flamethrower, Magical Leaf): 
90 wins, KO'ed by Heracross

Starmie (Intruder):  Surf, Psychic, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt (the usual Starmie moves):  82 wins, KO'ed by Hitmontop.

I've only played one Battle Tower thus far, in Sapphire.  My team was:
Golduck
Glalie
Salamence
76 wins, entire team killed by a #^@#^&*%## Weezing!

Currently, for the Battle Hall, I'm breeding an Aipom and training a Dragonite.

[jumpingjackflash]

Anybody needs rescuing in PMD: Time/Darkness/Sky? Team Impossible at your service.

[QueenofHearts]

Here's a semi-epic moment that I haven't mentioned yet on this board.

So every year Nintendo does a pokemon Video Game Championship (otherwise known as VGCs). So in 2011, the only pokes that could be used had to be #495 or higher, had to be officially released, and couldn't be a member of the dragon trio.

So for the month prior to when VGCs were to come to DC, I breed up and trained a solid trick room team consisting of Musharna (nicknamed Toki W.), Amoonguss (William M.), Gigalith (Nathan), Conkeldurr (Dr. Rockzo), Zoroark (Pickles), and Archeops (Skwisgaar). The team worked very well. Generally, anyone who knew what they were doing would send out common TR counters (Faster Amoonguss, Scrafty, Fling Krookodile) and be meet with Skwisgaar who is faster and can put a hurting on them and (depending on what I saw) Pickles (who would present as Musharna) to counter them or an actual Musharna who could set up Trick room with Skwisgaar/Pickles KOing his main threat.

So this team fared very well come VGC time and got me through to the Semi finals (after making the top 16, I was given an invite to nationals). So I saw my opponents team and didn't see any common counters or threats to my main four pokes (All but Pickles and Skwisgaar) so I sent out William M/ and Toki first. This way, I could easily set up Trick room, use Murderface to put one or both of his pokes to sleep, and sweep to the finals. Since these pokes are slower, they went last until Trick Room was up. He sent out Vannilux and Excadrill.

Turn 1: Excadrill uses Rock Slide, Vannilux uses Blizzard. Both attacks hit both my pokes. William M. is frozen solid. Toki W. is frozen solid. The odds of this happening on a given turn is less 0.4% (1:250, that is both pokes being hit by both attacks, and both being frozen).

-_- I couldn't set up TR and Toki and William M. ended up being KO'd before they could thaw. Nathan and Dr. Rockzo did very well. The next turn Nathan protected while Rockzo KO'd Excradill with a drain punch (fully restoring the HP he lost that turn and letting Flame orb burn him for a guts boost). The next turn Nathan used Explosion while Rockzo protected (which was powered up by Normal Gem to KO both Vanilux and his other poke and bringing it to 1v1). Unfortunately his 1 was Golurk who completely walled Dr. Rockzo.

I never went to nationals because I didn't feel like driving 12 hours to Indy on my dime (1st and 2nd place got paid trips to Indy, 3rd-16th only got invites).

Though, everyone I battled laughed at the names I had given my team. If I do VGC '13, I plan to go with pokes named after Lady Gaga songs (Judas, BadRomance, DanceNDark, Monster, BornDisWay, Just Dance, Love Game, Poker Face, Alejandro; the list goes on).

[Yaezakura]

I guess I'm wondering how a Golurk walls a Conkeldurr. Were you running Protect/Drain Punch/Facade/Thunderpunch or something?

Edit: Hrm, after checking, Conkeldurr can't even learn Thunderpunch. Which means you must have had nothing but Fighting and Normal type offensive moves. That kind of smacks of bad planning for an environment where ghost-types are incredibly common due to the widespread abuse of Explosion.

[QueenofHearts]

I guess I'm wondering how a Golurk walls a Conkeldurr. Were you running Protect/Drain Punch/Facade/Thunderpunch or something?

I was running Mach Punch/Protect/Drain Punch/Rock Slide. I went with Rock Slide over Payback because I felt it worked better with trick room; i.e. because Conkel would almost always go first, he could get a flinch 51% of the time if Rock Slide hit both pokes. Not to mention the genies.Finally, I went with Mach Punch so he wouldn't always be out sped when TR ended.

Edit: Hrm, after checking, Conkeldurr can't even learn Thunderpunch. Which means you must have had nothing but Fighting and Normal type offensive moves. That kind of smacks of bad planning for an environment where ghost-types are incredibly common due to the widespread abuse of Explosion.

Well you could've said it a bit nicer  , but ghosts weren't too common in VGC '11. The only ones I can remember off the top of my head were Chandelure (Rock Slide), Jellicent (who admittedly if it had Cursed body would also wall Conkeldurr), and Golurk; all of which weren't suited very well to the VGC metagame (Jellicent being the best IMO). I had counters to all of them, Chandelure would be taken care of by Conkel and Gigalith, Jellicent and Golurk by Amoonguss, not to mention I had Zoroark with Night Daze and Life Orb. It was just one of those battles where a poke that he had came out after my counter for it was KO'd. 

EDIT: This team has also won something like 98 or 99 (not quite 100) straight double battles on the battle subway. That is, Musharna, Amoonguss, Conkeldurr, and Gigalith. So if someone wants to mimic it to get some easy Battle Points, it works. In my opinion, this speaks volumes of my team, that a team limited to only GenV pokes, none of whom are legendary, can hand teams consisting of pretty much any of the 600 or so pokes allowed on the battle subway.

[Yaezakura]

Hrm. I suppose that makes sense. But then, I've never really liked doubles. The fact that Protect is a prerequisite on every single Pokemon just makes the format feel far too limiting for me.

[jumpingjackflash]

I guess I'm wondering how a Golurk walls a Conkeldurr. Were you running Protect/Drain Punch/Facade/Thunderpunch or something?

Edit: Hrm, after checking, Conkeldurr can't even learn Thunderpunch. Which means you must have had nothing but Fighting and Normal type offensive moves. That kind of smacks of bad planning for an environment where ghost-types are incredibly common due to the widespread abuse of Explosion.

Probably to offset the sheer power of the Gen 5 'mons; if they have as a diverse moveset as the previous 'mons, then there would be no reason to use the old ones.

[Vypernight]

Here's a semi-epic moment that I haven't mentioned yet on this board.

So every year Nintendo does a pokemon Video Game Championship (otherwise known as VGCs). So in 2011, the only pokes that could be used had to be #495 or higher, had to be officially released, and couldn't be a member of the dragon trio.

So for the month prior to when VGCs were to come to DC, I breed up and trained a solid trick room team consisting of Musharna (nicknamed Toki W.), Amoonguss (William M.), Gigalith (Nathan), Conkeldurr (Dr. Rockzo), Zoroark (Pickles), and Archeops (Skwisgaar). The team worked very well. Generally, anyone who knew what they were doing would send out common TR counters (Faster Amoonguss, Scrafty, Fling Krookodile) and be meet with Skwisgaar who is faster and can put a hurting on them and (depending on what I saw) Pickles (who would present as Musharna) to counter them or an actual Musharna who could set up Trick room with Skwisgaar/Pickles KOing his main threat.

So this team fared very well come VGC time and got me through to the Semi finals (after making the top 16, I was given an invite to nationals). So I saw my opponents team and didn't see any common counters or threats to my main four pokes (All but Pickles and Skwisgaar) so I sent out William M/ and Toki first. This way, I could easily set up Trick room, use Murderface to put one or both of his pokes to sleep, and sweep to the finals. Since these pokes are slower, they went last until Trick Room was up. He sent out Vannilux and Excadrill.

Turn 1: Excadrill uses Rock Slide, Vannilux uses Blizzard. Both attacks hit both my pokes. William M. is frozen solid. Toki W. is frozen solid. The odds of this happening on a given turn is less 0.4% (1:250, that is both pokes being hit by both attacks, and both being frozen).

-_- I couldn't set up TR and Toki and William M. ended up being KO'd before they could thaw. Nathan and Dr. Rockzo did very well. The next turn Nathan protected while Rockzo KO'd Excradill with a drain punch (fully restoring the HP he lost that turn and letting Flame orb burn him for a guts boost). The next turn Nathan used Explosion while Rockzo protected (which was powered up by Normal Gem to KO both Vanilux and his other poke and bringing it to 1v1). Unfortunately his 1 was Golurk who completely walled Dr. Rockzo.

I never went to nationals because I didn't feel like driving 12 hours to Indy on my dime (1st and 2nd place got paid trips to Indy, 3rd-16th only got invites).

Though, everyone I battled laughed at the names I had given my team. If I do VGC '13, I plan to go with pokes named after Lady Gaga songs (Judas, BadRomance, DanceNDark, Monster, BornDisWay, Just Dance, Love Game, Poker Face, Alejandro; the list goes on).

I love the names of your pokes, especially Swisgaar and Pickles. 

[Vypernight]

I realized that I hadn't beaten the Elite 4 in my Emeralrd game, so I built up a team to do that.  Then I decided I really want the 3 Reg's (the rock, steel and ice legendaries) to get the normal one in Platinum.  Then I realized I need Dig to get them, a TM I deleted from one poke to give him another move.

My timing at its usual.

[DarkfireTaimatsu]

I realized that I hadn't beaten the Elite 4 in my Emeralrd game, so I built up a team to do that.  Then I decided I really want the 3 Reg's (the rock, steel and ice legendaries) to get the normal one in Platinum.  Then I realized I need Dig to get them, a TM I deleted from one poke to give him another move.

My timing at its usual.

I had this same problem~  Fortunately, Trapinch learns Dig by level up, if you can keep the patience to raise it to 40-something.

[Vypernight]

True, I'm just not good at the patience thing, though it might be worth it to get those legendaries.  I have a master ball; I'm just trying to find something to use it on.  I'd prefer a legendary that can be used in the battle frontier, so Rayquaza is out.

My other option is to transfer it to Platinum and get either Cressila or Azelf.

[QueenofHearts]

I realized that I hadn't beaten the Elite 4 in my Emeralrd game, so I built up a team to do that.  Then I decided I really want the 3 Reg's (the rock, steel and ice legendaries) to get the normal one in Platinum.  Then I realized I need Dig to get them, a TM I deleted from one poke to give him another move.

My timing at its usual.

I had this same problem~  Fortunately, Trapinch learns Dig by level up, if you can keep the patience to raise it to 40-something.

I ended up doing just that because I have a thing about not using 1-time-only TMs unless I use it on an important poke. Trading for a diglett from FR/LG is the fastest way but Vyper probably doesn't have that luxury. Trapinch is the best option after that (as the only other poke that can learn Dig via level in Emerald is Nincada who takes more EXP and can only be caught 12 levels lower). Leveling up Trapinch shouldn't be too difficult, I mean you beat the E4 and all. Although, word to the wise, try to make it a male trapinch and save him so you can breed dig onto other pokes in case you want it later.

I also don't use Masterballs except on roamers or the extremely rare shiny. Personally half the joy for me is in catching a poke through battle (fond memories of Mewtwo in gen 1 come to mind) and using a masterball just erases that joy.

[Vypernight]

Good points.  Trapinch it is.

And yeah, I don't have the gba's to transfer a game from FR/LG (which I also don't have).  I might invest in some in the future so I can try the Mimin Glitch and get my Extreme Speed Snorlax.

[Witchyjoshy]

I booted up Platinum, started a new game, and...

...remembered that I don't really like any of the starters.  We have Son Goku the Flaming, a koopa treepa, and a penguin.

/sigh

[DarkfireTaimatsu]

I booted up Platinum, started a new game, and...

...remembered that I don't really like any of the starters.  We have Son Goku the Flaming, a koopa treepa, and a penguin.

/sigh

I invariably pick Turtwig, because it's the least ugly. Especially once it hits that final stage.