Commander

Bah, they say the partner AI is bad. ROFL, Aya actually saved my butt on the Aster & Eclipse fight. Anyways, I actually did beat Charlotte, but I'm thinking of scrapping that Volcarona...mostly because I've never seen it as an actual threat unlike the rest of her team. Charizard Y is in consideration...but that might be a little bit too extreme given her field effect hits like a truck already. I'll have it up probably by Friday or Saturday since her team isn't getting a big change.

So...believe it or not this is going to be a super short update because I swept Samsons new team. But trust me, it took 6 attempts to even do it. Literally his team only gives you one very small opening to even sweep before he just slaughters you with his revenge killing most of the time. Lucario got scrapped so you'll never see from him again. I love Lucario, but this new Pokemon just outclasses him in terms of field effects. I'm not going to spoiler it since I swept. Episode 12: Striker's Revenge So the battle started off by having Gypsy use sleep powder. This is a very risky strategy because Gypsy could die to any attack he had. I got really, really lucky because I was able to set up a quiver dance and use a Psychic without waking him up. When he healed Hariyama with a hyper potion, I opted for Gypsy to use Quiver Dance once more because last time I didn't and it just barely couldn't kill Mega Blaziken. Then began the sweep. Hariyama, Mega Blaziken, and Mienshao all went down to a single Psychic each. Then Heracross came out and outlived a Psychic to counter it with Strength. I'm so glad is only got a 2x Multiplier otherwise Gypsy would've been a dead Venomoth. (I'll show the pic here in a minute of how much damage that did). He then switched over to Hawlucha who got one shotted by Psychic before Heracross came back and was KO'd. Samson then sent out his ace, Conkeldurr...who barely lived a Psychic who KO'd Gypsy with an Ice Punch. I sent Abraham the Alakazam to trick the Assault Vest off as I thought he had another Hyper Potion, but he didn't and KO'd Abraham with Earthquake. Sir Robin then came in and finished the job with Psycho Cut ending the fight. Here's a pic of how hard Gypsy was hit: Here's a pic of the team: Sorry the fight was rather anti-climatic but trust me when I say if Gypsy was KO'd it would've been hell for me. It's really difficult to beat Samson if any of his Pokemon set up...especially with that newly required Heracross. I like his team and he is IMO the toughest leader in the game just due to how Big Top is honestly his personal field (Ciel...doesn't use it quite as effectively).

Dang I didn't think you'd have so much trouble since you plowed through the rest of the game. Anyways congrats...and part of me kind of enjoyed seeing you struggle after koing leader after leader so easily (and yeah she is getting a little revamp after I reach her). I'm still stuck at Samson though...

That's how Undertale was created. Kind of like how a bored meteor grunt threw a con...duit into a pulse machine creating the wasteland.

Yeah Chim, take your time. We are all patient people...well most of us anyways. Hope things get a little better on your side.

Honestly, I would call it insufficient compared to Mega Evolution. You're basically using all the Pokemon's power all out once to the point...it would die afterwards. I wouldn't use my personal Pokemon in one, but maybe if I was in a situation where the ends justify the means...maybe. I'm not to the point of killing my own Pokemon for power though. Only a fool would go that far.

The irony is that while Reborn is a grindfest at points...hardcore has the opposite problem. I did a five level shift for the whole game and the issue only appears after Julia (pre Julia I give a Lucky Egg and Exp Share to shorten the grindfest there). It turns out I give way too much experience so teams are at or pass the cap if they aren't careful. Like you can run a team of 8 too much experience at some points. Unfortunately, Reborn's normal system wouldn't work with a system like that given there's supposed to be a big gap between your Pokemon and the level cap normally (3-5 levels iirc). For Corey, the best place to grind is through Beedrills. Those things give a ton of experience and aren't that hard to kill. Thankfully, the early points of the game you can run almost any team to get by until the Lucky Egg is available (though it's nowhere near as helpful as the base Exp Share...saves so many hours of grinding). But yeah, it is a little bit of a hassle to raise those late game Pokemon, but some of them are so worth it.

After the whole Florinia Whimy fiasco, I can't tell you how true this is. Honestly, I don't really see any Water type other than Greninja being an A-tiered started because there's no point in picking them until they are available. Feraligatr? Don't bother because there's a D-dance one down the line and the access to Waterfall eclipse whatever small use it would've had before then. Squirtle? Mirror Coat is pretty much better than anything a starter squirtle would have. Mudkip? Well...I guess if you want to sweep Julia he's your man. Piplup I suppose would get poison immunity, but it has jack squat to damage Aya. You're telling me these Water types are so good that when compared to the grass types, they outclass them. Let's just take an analysis of the grass starters. Bulbasaur is the fastest of all the starters on a sun team and access to both Leech Seed and Sleep Powder allowing for it to help settup Pokemon or settup itself. Chikorita gets screens and is quite tanky letting cannons set up and sweep. Treecko gets very early access to Giga Drain and Unburden can be used for sweeping with a bit of planning or the use of Oran berries. Turtwig gets very early access to Curse and Leech Seed pretty much making it a bulky sweeper who never has to worry about crits with Shell Armor. Snivy...requires a bit of babying, but Leaf Storm Contrary pays off down the line. The first four Pokemon mentioned all get some great move by 20s and water...has to wait until its fully evolved to even be somewhat useful. Grass also evolves earlier letting a couple of them even find use against Corey and Shelly...especially Venusaur. I'm not saying the water starters are bad...but they are severely outclassed by their event counterparts to the point you may as well wait (kind of like Emboar). You can't really put Feraligatr on that list above Bulbusaur and Turtwig because those two start out good and remain good the entire game. Totodile also could be scrapped for better sheer force users like Darmanitan and Nidoking who get stab attacks to use with that ability. I could probably knock the water starters down to Bs and Cs except Greninja who is meh at first but when it gets moves, its ungodly good. You know what else Medicham gets. Elemental Punches through the move relearner. I mean if you can Baton Pass a single speed boost to Medicham, it'll wreck stuff. You know who can do that? Girafarig. I prefer Hi-Jump Kick personally, but Medicham's speed and fear of Ghosts are the only thing holding it back from the A tier (it should be A- if you ask me). Diggersby suffers from the same problems though so they should be tiered tied imo. Pokemon usability really is hard to rank. Picking 6 Pokemon from the A-tier may be a much weaker team compared to someone more skilled picking only from the D-tier. My personal tiering system is to get rid of S-rank and have a very shallow A-rank (aka Pokemon that would be good on almost any team), a pretty big B-rank, most will fall in C-rank, and the pokemon who just can't be used that well be D-rank, and maybe an F-rank. I'm not really into the whole rank stuff because I still generally believe in the use what you want system. Neither Reborn nor the hardcore mod punish people for using a favorite...unless its Dunsparce. I feel sorry for Dunsparce lovers. Anyways, that'll probably be the last you hear of me here. Good luck on this daunting task.

I might do some livestreaming or something, but whatever I do it won't be a part of this run. This is more like a progress report...and we're almost to the end. That's something I'll do at the end or something. Singles Radomus is harder than Doubles because if he sets up a calm mind...GG. The only thing that's different from his old team is the lack of Alakazam. Radomus's Doubles team no longer has Gallade...cause that thing was the problem in the first place for some reason. Unlike Shelly's Rain Dance, I can manipulate Trick Room. I'll fight both though, but I'm not sure I'll win given my team in the test run. I'm not going to do Luna or Benett as they are very similar to their old fights just updated a bit. I just use a really weak, but well rounded team to make sure everything is right and working properly for each Pokemon. The only issue I'm having is the "Attack Hiccup" which is problematic in the official game as well. But yeah, tests are kind of boring so you probably wouldn't want to watch them. Samson's new team will be put here though. I almost beat him with the test team...then Hawlucha. I have more trouble with that than anything else on his team.

I'm going to have to go with Dondon on Venusaur being an A rank or preferably and A+ rank. So what if it doesn't get its best movesets. It's probably one of the best starter choices bar Blaziken, Greninja, and Infernape. Under the sun, Venusaur can outspeed anything and given it has early access to Leech Seed and sleep powder along with bulk and a good typing, Venusaur is good. It even evolves a little bit earlier and gains access to petal dance. If you run growth under the sun combined with Petal Dance, Venusaur could one shot almost anything. Even without Chlorophyll, Venusaur is still a very good pokemon. Heck, it's the thing I threw out at threats in hardcore testing. I'd probably give Sudowoodo a B+ rank. Sure it's not the best possible rock type, but due to it's early availability and versatile movepool, it's definitely one worth keeping for a long time. Sucker Punch is a great move for almost any Pokemon and it's a great kill tactic to avoid hits. Sturdy is a great gimmick in Reborn and unlike Golem, Sudowoodo makes great use of it. Even competitively, I've used a counter type tactic and it can save your butt in some of the worst possible moments. Sudowoodo is prone to hazards, but most leaders don't bother using them. I think the only thing holding it back is that it takes a bit of skill to use as it has many different strategies that could be run. Aggron...is another gimmicky Pokemon, but I'd say it's a B-/C+ type Pokemon depending on how you see it. It's outclassed, but it can to quite a bit with what it has. Sturdy Metal Burst is a fun gimmick to take down powerful Pokemon, but Aggron has a hard time setting up or launch many attacks. Automize/Rock Polish with Iron Head is pretty nice put relies a bit on luck. It's not a bad option for someone in need of a bulky steel type though I feel Forretress is slightly better. Drapion...is kind of a mixed bag so C rank would be its best placement. It's not a bad Pokemon at all and can be quite good especially if it has Agility or Hone Claws. It's bulky enough that it can also be a Toxic Spikes setter and take use of that Black Sludge in a world with a lack of good items. Scolipede outclasses it due to being stronger and faster, but it's a fun Pokemon to use if you haven't used it before. Ursurang for Hardcore is a C rank, but I'd have to give it a D rank due to when it evolves. Kiki pretty much just comes in and kills of any shooting chance it had. Ursurang is a good Pokemon, but it requires a bit of teamwork to use. Trick Room is where it shines because that Slash attack is really powerful and with the Toxic Orb coming into play, it would've been back in the game...but just about every fighting type can make better use of it. Not a bad Pokemon...just severely outclassed. I'm not going to lie, I'd probably drop a lot of the Pokemon you have up high up like Diggersby and raise a lot of Pokemon lower ranked up a tier or two. The fact that you don't have Reuniclus in the A tier kind of surprises me given it's probably one of the best possible Psychic types (and the best Trick Room Pokemon). It's certainly way better than Gardevoir (another Pokemon I feel is a little bit too high up on the list). Gallade should be C rank if you don't count breeding. I would've ditched my own Gallade if I didn't breed Shadow Sneak on it due to how slow it is.

Well that took a lot longer than anticipated. Let's see Radomus now has two team, the level cap has been fixed (gdi Ame) for Luna and Samson, and a few team changes here and there. A couple like Craudberry's have been implemented in 1.9, but some haven't. Anyways, I'll make a quick update from what I remember on the run. Episode 11: Darkness is love Vs Bennet Well this fight changed a bit because some ding-dong put the wrong ability on his last Pokemon (that ding-dong was me). Anyways Bennett lead with Volcarona who died to a Head Smash from Emboar which all Volca did was Quiver Dance. Pumba lost about half his HP which is a little scary. I believe Venomoth came out next so I sent my own Venomoth to fight him, but Gypsy eventually was taken down by either a Bug Buzz or a Sludge Bomb so Manectric came in to finish it off. Up next came Bennett's Heracross and I'm trying to remember what I did to him. Oh yeah, I sent Cologne out who hit Heracross with a Moonblast, but was taken down by a second Stone Edge. I think Manectric came in and finished it off (he likes to do that a lot). Anyways, Mega Pinsir came out next and it only put a big dent in Manectric before dying to a second discharge (yay para hax). Scizor came out next, but Pumba finished it off with Flamethrower. Next came out Bennett's new Ace, Vivillon. Just imagine something with 100% accuracy hurricanes putting dents in my team until Manectric finished it off or something. I hate that thing. here's a pic of that team for the battle: Hopefully new Bennett is a bit better. Since I know we're fighting him at least one more time, that's when I'll make him full power (this is about half as hard as I could make him). Luna also got a minor team change, but it's still more or less the same. It can just handle things a little bit better. Vs Luna I think I lead with Emboar using Flamethrower to waste all of Luna's Hyper Potions before KOing Bisharp with Super Power. Great Pokemon, terrible lead. Anyways, she decided to send out Spiritomb next which I had Armo...Cologne out to handle it. Both used Calm Mind and after a tense battle, Colonge remained victorious. T-tar was coming out so I quickly switch out to...ah! Sir Robin the Gallade. That T-tar didn't last long thanks to Sir Robin's Close Combat, but I believe it lived and countered with Iron Head or something. Sir Robin the KO'd it next round. Up next came out Sableye...which I sent Gypsy I believe to weaken it down so Pumba could finish it off with a Flamethrower. That thing is both scary and annoying when it knows what it's doing. Next came out Mandibuzz...who pretty much started plucking my team one by one seeing how hurt they were. Eventually I took it down, but all I had left was a Lilligant and Aroma...Cologne in the the red. I lead with Colonge who managed to land a single Moonblast before dying. Shing pretty much went in all types of directions and kept barely living in the fight and missing Sleep Powder. I had to spam giga drain just to live through some of those Dark Pulses and this was with X2 defenses. It took some work, but I eventually got it down to the zone where I could KO it with Petal Dance to end the fight. Here's a pic of the team...again (I used the same one for Bennett): Again, sorry if the updates seem lackluster, but I've actually been busy with about 5 previous fights including the two above to try and adjust the Pokemon a bit. Radomus now has a Singles that rewards calm mind, but his trick room team will be my main focus. You have the option to face either though and I will probably keep it that way. The only fight that is kind of sucky in 11 now are the Magma/Aqua boss fights, but I'm not going to spend time on that one. If somebody wants to revamp their teams they can. Just PM me and I'll give you the format and explain how it works. Next, I'm going to edit Samson a bit now that I know how to do level caps. (If he's too hard, I'll adjust Luna's level cap to 67 to give some leeway).

That's a both true and false statement. I'm looking into finding the correct dialogue, but Luna's is not supposed to raise the cap if you look at your gym badges. It used to be that way but it was supposed to be changed for Episode 15. It was Samson who originally didn't raise the cap, but now it's Luna and I'm going to adjust it to that for the sake of not pulling my hair out down the line.

Well at least Samson can fight, but I could've sworn the level cap was supposed to be 65. I guess I'll have to go fix that then.

If you have a problem with it, take it up with Ame and actual Reborn. My focus is on trainer data and will stay that way. Besides, I don't honestly care if people use Perish Song or D-bond abuse. That's their choice so why should I bother punishing them for making the fight easy. If you don't like the idea, then don't use the moves. That's all there is to it.

The thing about Mega Sableye is that I had one on her team before and if you are going to complain about any Pokemon on any team fight in the game, they eclipsed Mega Sableye in terms of usability. Prankster Sableye is much, much better than its Mega form and I immediately dropped it in the original test. Even in league battles Luna didn't always have a close battle even some leaving with 4-5 Pokemon alive. I agreed on the Bisharp, but everything else on her team more or less is probably going to stay like that...until the Episode with Hard is released. Hopefully by then I can get Mega Sableye to be a threat because the one Luna had was weaker than Spiritomb or Bisharp. If I can't, expect Mega Sharpedo to replace T-tar on the team with some other team adjustments. Greninja should make the fight harder as unlike Bisharp, it can sweep teams rather easily if not prepared. Trust me, I have to go out of my way to find what Pokemon had what nickname for Luna. As for that Umbreon, that thing can take hits. I actually was locked down to only having Lilligant and I had two quiver dances under my belt and Giga drain didn't even do 1/4th of its HP. I believe is was also able to take down Hariyama by surviving a close combat (I think it did a little less then half). Moxie stuff I can't really counter so even with a highly skilled AI and perfect coverage team, it'd still be able to destroy leaders like Luna quite easily. It's just really something I have to say oh well to. (Btw, I probably could 6-0 Serra or Aya easily if I really tried so using that logic is kind of difficult to defend to. That'd basically mean I'd have to buff them hard since I find them easy). I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but I'm just saying her team really isn't going to change that much in any release. I've spent hours testing leaders' Pokemon in many different ways to make sure they are performing right. I've tested her team many times and only Bisharp seems to be an issue due to typing (T-tar can also cover for the fairy weakness quite well). Basically the only thing I can do is drop Sableye, Luna's Secondary Ace, or just leave it like it is until down the line. I'm not going to bring back Mega Sableye because then I'll have everybody whining about Luna being super weak compared to just one. Sorry if I disappoint you on this one.

By saying you want Mega Sableye, you are more or less asking for me to put in a slow Pokemon who only spams dark pulse versus a prankster user who can screw teams over. Her team is fine and this is a really unfair arguement because you're using powerful fighting types against dark types. That's like saying I should buff Julia because she isn't strong enough to handle six ground types. Kind of silly when you think about it. As for her team, I they all to what they're supposed to and how they're supposed to do it. The only one I'm really willing to replace is Bisharp due to how frail it is for Greninja as a lead. Noel was a bit different. Only Mega Audino was really bad due to trying to use a gimmick that didn't really work. That's why he got a team change. The rest imo work perfectly fine. The other thing is that this is a mid point cap boss like Corey so the recommended level is actually 60-62 (despite Luna's high levels) seeing as Samson's is 64-65. I'm not saying that I'm ignoring this, but it's kind of hard to consider accurate compared to something like the Monogen run who has a more balanced system. I have my reasons and kind of use those to make sure leaders fight like they're supposed to. Also, I fixed Radomus's Trick Room team. To think that Gallade was the real problem in all of this.

Let's not get in a big debate about this here. Yanmega makes for a decent special based bug being really fast and has decent special attack stats. The only other thing that challenges that is Vivillion due to having Hurricane and Sleep Powder. I'm going to retest him but I'm thinking about giving him a Durant instead of a Scizor just for speed reasons and the fact that every other character and his mother uses a Scizor when Scizor is only alright imo. (Titania, Solaris, Fern, and Bennett all have Scizor for their teams currently). As for hazards, that's really a tough call. Generally the only hazard I use is toxic spikes so it's hard to assume that the masses use hazards in play. Then we get into the can of worms where I think hazards are overrated in competitive play, but that's not what we're talking about. Bennett isn't meant to be at full power. Though I only had one Pokemon alive at the end of the battle so take that as you will. Venomoth is difficult for those who play on set. If you have the wrong Pokemon out, whoever switches in is gonna get hurt no matter what due to Tinted Lens. I wouldn't say it's the best Pokemon but it's not bad this late in the game. Probably his weakest Pokemon. (Volcarona is about at half strength as what it will be when the next Bennett battle happens so that's his second weakest).