Tomas Elliot

Ehi you did put into the game a magazine with photos of half-naked Saphira, so my hypotesis wasn't completely absurd after all...

Oooooh I see

So as a reward for beating the E4 you get to see a strippers show? Now that os quite the... Uh... Different idea

Isn't it going to get very cloggy very soon, if we do it that way? We are already at the fourth page, maybe starting a new topic might be a better idea...

Just wondering: now that we of the first team have left, are we going to start a different topic describing the actual raid in Eterna?

If you wanted drama, I'd say you got it...

INTRO Hi everyone, and welcome to my first RMT in this community. My name is Tomas Elliot, but I used to be known as Tears of tomorrow back in my PO days, and this is why my main alt on the server is still Tears of tomorrow, an this team was made and tested under that alt. The results, as you can see in the pic that follows, were pretty impressive, and after some initial issues that mostly involved deciding what to run as a counter for Excadrill/Garchomp and Kingdra/Rain, the team really started to work wonders, soon, bringing me to position #3 on the ladder, even if I have only joined the server of this community less than a week ago. The Reborn Server is possibly the only one in which immensely powerful Pokemon like Excadrill, Garchomp, Blaziken, Chandelure, Deo-S and the Rain abusers (collectively referred to as Brokenmons) are allowed for use instead of being banned to Ubers (hell, even the Moody ability, that in other servers is banned from Ubers, is OU legal here). Instead of complaining about this peculiar situation, I decided to just take advantage from it: I will therefore make a series of teams focused on exploiting the various Brokenmons to their fullest, and this is just my first experiment which, as you can see in the pic below, was very succesful. But enough bragging, and let's get into the team itself, and the reasoning behind it. AT A GLANCE Just by looking at the team, you can easily understand what is its focus: Bulky Offense. By using Pokemon that are good at hitting hard and stalling at the same time, this team slowly wears down opponents by racking up indirect damage via setting up hazards, poisoning opponents, and firing off some unexpected powerful moves powered up by Choice Band/Specs. Afterwards, Excadrill will just come in and exploit its great Speed, Attack and coverage to pick up the bones and destroy any opposing Pokemon that might be still standing. It's a pretty straightforward strategy, yet immensely effective and very difficult to counter for a team that isn't specifically prepared to it. THE TEAM IN-DEPTH @ Leftovers Trait: Sand Stream EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 Def Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk) - Stealth Rock - Roar - Slack Off - Earthquake Hippo is bulky. Hell, the amount of hits in the physical spectrum (and even special, provided they are not supereffective STAB attacks) it can take is just incredible. Factor in a reliable recovery, and it should be clear why this guy is included in the team, and why it is the go-to lead. The fact that it also summon Sand is just the icing on the cake, and also what makes the Dual Sand core possible. Being the slowest Weather-inducing Pokemon, it will always guarantee me to have Sand up turn 1, which is a good advantage. And it can be switched into a huge amount of things, so it is not just a suicidal lead. While playing this team, you should always make sure that Hippo stays alive as long as possible. And with its bulk and recovery, it won't be a hard task after all. @ Choice Band Trait: Sand Stream EVs: 244 HP / 168 Atk / 96 SDef Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Crunch - Pursuit - Stone Edge - Superpower Ah, CBTar. How I love this set. With Max HP and those SpDef investiments, this bad boy can come into any specially-oriented Pokemon in existance, sponging any special attack they might fire off (provided it is not a Fighting-type move), and just scaring them off with its impressive defensive and offensive presence: t is a true pivot for this team. Its Special Defense complements Hippo and the Dual Sand core, and its huge Atk (those investiments are just enough, with help from a Choice Band, to score important kills) will be a great asset in order to revenge kill choiced Pokemon, destroy unsuspetting Politoed and Ninetales thus winning the Weather War, or just denting holes in opposing teams. The moves that allows it to do all this is Pursuit: with this set, Pursuit will guarantee to KO any set of Politoed and any set of Ninetales after they have taken damage from Stealth Rock (and eventually a layer of Spikes), and will also score important kills on specially-oriented Pokemon that cannot beat it one-on-one, and are thus forced out (for example Tornadus-T, Latios, Thundurus-T, even Kingdra if it locks itself into Draco Meteor and Ttar sponges it...). Crunch, Stone Edge and Superpower provide great coverage, but personally I have found myself using Pursuit in 99.8% of the situations. It is just that good. @ Toxic Orb Trait: Poison Heal EVs: 244 HP / 40 Def / 224 Spd Impish Nature (+Def, -SAtk) - Earthquake - Taunt - Toxic - Protect This guy is amazing. Fast enough to taunt support Pokemon and to finish off sweepers that are left with low health, powerful enough to deal relevant damage to any Pokemon that doesn't resist EQ, bulky enough to sponge any non-supereffective physical attack, Gliscor is a huge asset to this team. Hell, thanks to its ability it is even a status absorber, thus negating the main weapon of Technician Breloom, an otherwise problematic Pokemon. It is also a great counter for opposing Excadrills, and it is also a great Toxic staller, further wearing down opponents. Gliscor has been one of my favorite Pokemon since it first came out in Gen 4 (Ame, put Razor Fang in Reborn already!), and in this team it truly shines. @ Leftovers Trait: Iron Barbs EVs: 252 HP / 4 Atk / 252 SDef Relaxed Nature (+Def, -Spd) - Leech Seed - Power Whip - Gyro Ball - Spikes Currently the best Spikes-user in the Pokemon world, Ferrothorn came out in Gen 5 and was saluted as a blessing by any stall player, and for a reason. In this team, it does what it does best: wall stuff and set up Spikes, while at the same time steal health with Leech Seed and hit surprisingly powerful Gyro Balls and Power Whips to finish off unsuspecting opponents. Ttar can freely switch into any Fire-type move that may threat Ferro, and kill the opponent using it with Pursuit, so it is easy for Ferro to do its job. If you don't want your Ferro to be just a bait for Chandelure (which will be revenged by Ttar every time it kills Ferro, thus resulting in a one-for-one situation) you can run Shed Shell as an item over Leftovers, but that extra recovery is usually needed. @ Choice Specs Trait: Storm Drain EVs: 252 HP / 252 SAtk / 4 SDef Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk) - Ice Beam - Surf - Earth Power - Hidden Power [Electric] People just don't realize how strong this guy is, as a pokemon in general, and as a Rain counter in particular. Bulky, with 2 key immunities (Electric and Water, the latter through its ability) and a ver good Special Attack, after absorbing a Scald from Politoed, if rain is still up, this guy can deal around 41% damage to an incoming Kingdra with Surf, a 4x resisted move. Yes, you read it right, do your calcs if you don't believe me. And the funny thing is that Kingdra cannot KO back this guy with any of its moves, and thus will be 2KOed (factoring in hazard damage) or forced out again. Sponging attacks and hitting back hard, this is the way of Bulky Offense, my personal favorite way. @ Air Balloon Trait: Sand Rush EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spd Adamant Nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Earthquake - Rock Slide - Iron Head - Swords Dance And here is the Brokenmon. When your opponent's Pokemon are starting to be low in health due to the combined efforts of the rest of this team, all you need to do is to wait for the right time to switch in this guy, exploiting its 3 key immunities (Electric, Poison, and Ground thanks to Air Balloon): if you mnage (and you should) to force a switch, you will simply be able to use Swords Dance on the switch, further boosting the already impressive Atk of this beast, and then just swing for game: very few Pokemon can take a beating from this monster, even less can hurt it back, and chances are that, by the time it hits the field, you will be able to call gg. Adamant Nature is chosen to maximize attack power, since generally the extra speed is not needed: 275 means that in sand you will be boosted to an outstanding 550, more than enough to outspeed the vaste majority of the metagame, even with Scarves equipped. CONCLUSIONS Well, this is it. Dual Sand is a very powerful concept, and I feel this team exploits it to its fullest: feel free to rate, comment and suggest anything that might improve it. Talking is the key to improving, so all comments (as long as they are polite) are welcome! Lastly, here is the importable:

Aruma had been silently following all the developments of the conersation after the mission briefing. She was disappointed that she wasn't in the same team with Kael and Lupus, but mostly she was worried: the reason why she had not interacted with her mates yet was that she was desperately trying to come up with a strategy, a way of getting the team to work as a unit. But no matter how desperately she tried, she couldn't see a solution. So, let me get this straight: people-wise, we have a guy and a girl who cannot stand each other, a master of stealth (that would be me) and... I am afraid I haven't understood you that much yet, Odin. Pokemon-wise, we have a Zangoose, a Leafeon and a Mismagius. In a sandstorm. She grabbed the ball in which Fluffy rested, and sighed while shaking her head. Sweet tap-dancing Arceus, this is going to be hard...

Jesus Christ, one cannot be away for one day, 24 FREAKING HOURS, and so many things happen... *starts reading stuff in order to catch up*

Well that happens to every newcomer, but you'll eventually learn and become good over time... If you need help, starting tomorrow at 6 PM GMT+1 I will be able to come around in the server, and I will gladly lend you a hand to learn the basics of competitive Pokemon

You never publicly said it in my presence, so technically I wasn't allowed to assume that from a strict logic point of view... But well, now we have officially clarified it With a HUGE Atk, HUGE defenses (in particular the special one, which is boosted by 50% when Ttar is in sand, which means ALWAYS due to its own ability), a very good SpAtk and the second largest movepool in Pokemon world (discounting Smeargle), Ttar has access to at least 5 different, highly competitive sets: CBTar, MixTar, LeadTar, Total Defense Tar and the old but still somewhat viable ScarfTar are all impressively strong and consistent, and can allow the Armor Pokemon to play as the pivot of any Sand team. The fact that it is horribly weak to the Fighting type doesn't hinder it one bit, because that is what the "switch Pokemon" button is there for. If anything, what hinders Ttar's usefulness is its ability: you are not going to exploit Ttar outside a Sand team because... Well, it summons sand itself, so unless its teammates can take advantage from Sand, they won't be really happy to work with it... And PO is the #1 free online Pokemon simulator in the world. The Reborn community have a server there, and that's where the whole league thing takes place. You might want to check that out Inb4 "Oh ok, you are right, Ttar is immensely strong, so I changed my mind, you cannot use it"

Reborn's OU metagame is easy to explain: everything goes. Aslo known as LOLBROKENMONS. In serious terms, it means that Chandelure, Thundurus, Blaziken, Excadrill, Garchomp, Deo-S and the Drizzle+Swift Swim combination (as to say, all the stuff that was banned throughout Gen 5) are all allowed on Reborn server.

I am sure Hokuna posted in here just so that somebody could tell him this but... Skitty Houndoom

Apparently she believes Ttar is weak (despite the fact that I clearly proved her wrong on PO ), to my excuse I can say that I made that objection myself! But ehi, she said it was ok, so I won't argue lol. P.S.: why the hell am I assuming Acquiescence is female? It must be that Whimsicott fetish...

Isn't it a bit risky to rely ONLY on Perish-trapping? I mean, one thing is creating a Perish-trapping core for a team that can win also in other ways (for example, Politoed and Wobbuffet make a great Perish-trap core for a rain team), but having Perish-trapping as only win condition... I only need to switch immediately to beat it, and if you try to prevent me from doing so by using Mean Look... Well, that might be a huge risk: two turns with Murkrow (a very frail Pokemon) out without attacking, I can easily kill it before it gets the strategy going... Also, in Reborn's metagame, with Chandelure running rampant, Gothitelle is generally the least efficent trapper... All in all, my tip is to rethink your team: you like Perish-trapping? That's fine, is a cool strategy, but don't use it as only win condition of your team, don't be like "I pull it off or lose"... Try to build an efficent core consisting of one Perish-user and one trapper (Politoed is great on this regard, since it has Perish Song and it synergizes greatly with both Wobbuffet, which is arguably the best trapper, while Chandelure has a great type-synergy with Politoed, but is also hindered by rain, and thus it would be better used with the likes of Celebi, Smeargle, or even Murkrow), and then build around them a strategy that exploits their potential to their fullest, including also other win conditions. A good team needs to be able to adapt to different situations! For example, the Politoed-Wobbuffet core works wonders in a Rain Stall team, while a more offensive core exploiting Chandelure would be good at removing Pokemon that can counter Blaziken, thus removing defensive threats and paving the way for a late-game sweep... Hell, Celebi synergizes very well with both Chandelure and Blaziken, toss in a pair of defensive Pokemon able to cover the common weaknesses (like Ghost) and rack up indirect damage through hazards and status aliments and you have a great basis to start working from! These are just general tips, do whatever you wish with them...

That's why you should always save before catching a Pokemon that is important for breeding Also, I STILL wish this topic was pinned...

Just notifying that, as usual, I won't be able to come online during weekends. My next post in IC topic will therefore come this monday... Apologies to everyone.