Tomas Elliot

I had many things to say about the points that were made about the UU tier since my last post... But unfortunately I have no time since I am back in my hometown for Xmas, and I have kinda lagged behind... I am sorry but I have to drop out the discussion :/

Since I am usually the guy who speaks against bannning/suspecting Pokemon, I will now do something new and actually suggest a suspect for the UU tier: how the hell is Mega Alakazam not banned from UU? I mean seriously, I am pretty damn sure it was untill a short while ago, and after playing the tier for quite some time I can honestly say that it doesn't look like ORAS changed it so dramatically from a defensive point of view: a few new offensive threats appeared in the form of Mega Beedrill and Mega Sceptile, (which I would suggest for suspect too if it wasn't for Blissey), but the defensive go-to mons are more or less the same, and I cannot see anything that can seriously hope to stand a chance against Mega Alakazam. All it needs to do is to come in while still in its normal form (thus taking advantage from Magic Guard to set up in the face of most defensive Pokemon that rely on status to threaten foes), use Calm Mind, Mega Evolve, and then blast through the opposition: Psyshock is a clear 2KO on Blissey at +1 if I am not wrong, and the coverage moves (HP Fire and Dazzling Gleam probably grant the best coverage, but Zam lso has Focus Blast and Energy Ball as viable options) can easily obliterate anything else in the tier... Have I mentioned that it is the fastest non-scarfed mon in the tier, on top of a Special Attack stat that would have been Uber material just one single generation ago? So yeah, I don't know about you guys, but I don't really like the idea of running into this thing in UU. And I repeat, I am pretty damn sure it was BL not long ago, and I fail to understand how it made it back...

Personally, I have always failed to understand why Aegislash became Uber in the first place, and I wouldn't mind a re-test (or at least, someone explaining to me what happened, I was away from Pokemon for a while, it was OU when I left and I found it in Ubers upon returning...). Also, I cannot help but notice that the conversation is mostly about OU, however I have suggestions for lower tiers as well, and I am sure other people do too, so... Why not starting a separate topic for the lower tiers? It's obvious that a topic like this one will always be OU-centric, because that's the most played tier, but... Let's not neglect the rest!

May I point out that, last time we had something similar on this forum (not long ago), there was actually the need of a topic (which apparently got lost in the redesigning of the forum) to explain to people that they didn't need to get mad over it to the point of breaking up friendships?

One could argue that the points we are providing in favor or against Greninja work for both a suspect discussion and a ban discussion But seriously, I personally believe that Greninja is not a pivotal player in the current meta: in other words, I think it is not capable of single-handedly changing the way the metagame works. If a suspect test or a temporary ban can prove just that, I am all for it. However, I would like to take a minute to address this point made by Hukuna: This actually proves my point: if you send it in after another Pokemon of yours has died, then it is going to even the situation by killing an opponent's Pokemon, or AT MOST to score one extra kill. In other words, it will net you either a +0 or at most a +1, how is this enough to consider a Pokemon broken, when there are things in the tier that are not considered broken and can easily score a +2 or even a +3 ? And as I said previously, it is true that a slow Volt Switch (I know full well how such strategy works, I regularly use it with Forretress in my UU team ) can give Greninja a free switch in, but it is also true that the opponent can do the same to bring in something that beats Greninja one on one. So again, I am not saying that your arguments are invalid, I am saying that they do not prove in a certain way that Greninja is broken. I can only repeat what I said previously: I strongly believe that Greninja cannot shape the metagame on its own, and if in order to prove it we need to ban it for a week, and see that the metagame doesn't change at all (or changes for the worse, with things it checks suddenly becoming prominent) in its absence, then I am all for it.

Wait, is it a way to add spice to the challenge, or does the overlevel Pokemon actually obey you, as long as you have only one? And what about the one used by each Gym Leader? Haven't played the latest update(s), so I didn't know of this...

I love to see that many people addressed the one thing I was worrying about, so yeah, at this point I can only say: go for it! I'll be happy to contribute to the IW forum to the best of my abilities when it is created

I see many people here are making the same mistake I saw on PO forum in the suspect discussion about Greninja: you are describing situations in which it would be broken, assuming that it is safely in, at full health, and with the right move ready to use. My question is: how many chances are there of it actually happening? Greninja is very weak defensively, so it cannot really switch into anything. You might argue that a clever use of Volt-Turn can allow you to give it a free switch in, but then I could argue that the opponent could do the same to bring in something that can obliterate the frog in a one-on-one situation, like Talonflame. Also, the only item that is really viable on Greninja is Life Orb: factor in the passive damage taken from the omnipresent entry hazards, and you see that its survivability will be very very very very low. So basically what we are here is a Pokemon whose role has always been, since its first introduction, to just hit as hard as it can untill it goes down, which means that its contribution to the overall strategy of the team is minimal (basically, you just pray to kill a crucial Pokemon with it, nothing more, nothing less): it cannot sweep entire teams by itself and it cannot provide some kind of vital support to other memebers. With this, I am not necessarily saying that Greninja isn't broken, and that it shouldn't be banned: I am simply saying that failing to keep such points into consideration means doing theorymon talk, instead of an actual discussion on the state of the metagame. On this regard, I find it kinda silly that people would highlight how dangerous Greninja is when using Hydro Pump, Ice Beam and the likes, because it had those moves in the previous format as well, and nobody ever found it to be broken. All there's new about Greninja's role in OU is Gunk Shot: I personally think that's simply not enough to ban a Pokemon, and that the whole threat Greninja would pose is being overhyped by people who make calculations about its 6/7 viable moves and see nothing can resist them all. But the fact of the matter is that a Pokemon only has 4 moves when it comes to actual battling, which means that Greninja will always lack something when you face it. Which in turn means that you'll probably have a Pokemon in your team that can take advantage from that something. In other words: Greninja has no dedicated counters right now, but please let's shed off this Gen 4 mentality according to which anything that has no dedicated counter is broken. In today's fast, hard-hitting and unpredictable meta, the very definition of the word "broken" needs to be reworked. I just hope that people, instead of doing like on PO and immediately being "LOL WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THE FROG IS BROKEN I HAVE CALCS TO PROVE IT" will actually take two minutes to give some thought to this aspect of the problem. Personally, all I know is that I have faced Greninja in OU many times since ORAS came out, and I always had a way to deal with it, simply by taking advantage of the fact that it NEVER had perfect coverage. Because, I repeat, Greninja has 6/7 moves that grant it perfect coverage, but you can only bring 4 in battle.

Voted in favor of independent writing, even if I am not sure about the attention it would receive... I mean ok, many people would be glad to post their creations, but how many people would actually take the time to read them? As for the sports, I have no real preference...

Personally I am rather fine with the current Smogon tiers... I have been playing prevalently UU since ORAS came out, and there are maybe a couple adjustments that tier could use, for example looking into Damp Rock (Mega Swampert, Kabutops and Kingdra being free to do whatever the hell they want for 6 turns is... Not good) and a couple of Mega Stones (Sceptilite anyone?) but seriously, nothing particularly tier-breaking in general, these are just minor worries of mine. All in all, I like Smogon tiers the way they are right now.

Well it is interesting because I have been wanting to create something similar (as in, a mixture of fanfiction and art) for quite some time, but... I don't know, I am not really into writing Pokemon stuff...

Well Staraptor is not an universal problem solver in Reborn, and this comes from a guy who did try to use it that way... Also @OP welcome to Reborn! Despite Ame's passion or trolling players over and over, you'll soon realize Reborn isn't actually that difficult: it's just that it requires a complete change of mentality: if you thought you could beat this the way you always beat GameFreak games, you are in for another story, but with the right mindset, a bit of strategy and a lot of patience, you can make it through it without particular problems...