Tomas Elliot

I am pretty sure that, in the post of mine you quoted, the word "wrong" appeared at least twice...

Your uncanny ability to somehow always guess the right thing at the wrong time, and for all the wrong reasons, never ceases to amaze me...

Speaking of progress... It's been a while since I have made an announcement! And I am actually very happy, because tonight I get to announce another mandatory Pokemon! What do I mean by "mandatory Pokemon"? Well, it's simple: you know how each Pokemon game must have 3 starters, Rattata-like common mammal, a Caterpie-like common bug, a Weedle-like common bug that looks more menacing than the other one, a Pidgey-like common bird and a Pikachu clone? Well, we already revealed to you the starters, the Rattata expy and the Caterpie expy: now it's time for the Pidgey expy! Ladies and gentlemen please give it up for Magpy! Magpy is the crafty Pokemon: it is a very intelligent Pokemon that lacks the raw strength of things like the Taillow or Starly line, but makes up for it with a lot of useful abilities and out-of-the-box tactics. For example, in its unevolved form it may have the ability Pick Up, and you all know how important that ability is: growing up, it will eventually be swapped with another ability that is very useful in combat, so that is a bonus too! ... Or you could just get stuck with Keen Eye. Ehi don't blame us for making crappy abilities. Anyhow, this guy here is guaranteed to have a spot in your early game team but, if you get the right ability and give it a chance, it might prove useful going forward as well... How many evos will it get? Will it's basic Normal/Flying typing change upon evolution, or will it stay the same? And what could its HA be? You are free to discuss all these things! And as always, #FOLD

Acacia has got to be my fav.

Funny that you would say that...

As mentioned, my reasoning didn't encompass types at all. I just wanted to have a Mega Diancie named Elly because Mega Diancie has that gorgeous dress... And then I realized that this team with Mega Diancie had problems against Rotom-W, so I just put there a Pokemon that could solve the problem while still looking feminine enough. I wouldn't even know what to ditch to make room for a Scolipede, without dramatically altering the team...

Ok so, this is actually a dual sand OU team, but since I made it with the specific purpose to nickname the various members after members of the Pokemon Se7en project (what is that? Check my signature for details ) I thought I'd take the chance to advertise the project a little. With this being said, let's cut the chatter short and have a look at the team, shall we? At a glance Well, I told you it was a dual sand team. It is your bread-and-butter semi-stall team, whose purpose is to wear down opponents with indirect damage, remove walls and threats with Slowbro anf Tyranitar, and allow Excadrill to go to town. Between the fact that weather as a whole mechanic was nerfed (meaning that weather-based teams are now less common) and the fact that Hippo and Ttar work well together (both from an offensive and, surprisingly enough, a defensive standpoint), this team is more or less guaranteed to keep the sandstorm up all the time, so if you don't misplay you WILL pull off a sweep with Excadrill... Or with Slowbro after softening walls with Excadrill, it is always hilarious when that happens. This team brought me to quite a nice ranking, which unfortunately is 8 points short of being in the Showdown top 100... But well, I must focus on studying (and on Se7en) in these days, exams are coming up, so I thought it best not to risk being haxed all the way down and having to climb up again, I don't have much time to dedicate to the ladder... With this being said, let's have a detailed look at each Pokemon. They are all nicknamed after members of the Se7en project, so I will also explain the choice of nickname in the descriptions. In-depth analysis Hukuna @ Rocky Helmet Ability: Iron Barbs EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def Relaxed Nature IVs: 0 Spe - Leech Seed - Protect - Spikes - Gyro Ball Hukuna is always complaining that he hates the whole #FreeHukunaHugs joke, because he hates physical contact... So I gave his name to a Pokemon that punishes opponents for making physical contact. The combination of Rocky Helmet and Iron Barbs dishes out some serious indirect damage, with Leech Seed providing recovery, Protect scouting choiced moves (and trolling Mega Lopunny), Spikes helping the general "wear down via indirect damage" strategy, and Gyro Ball punishing switches as well as Dragon Dance attempts. It is important to keep in mind however that this guy is NOT the go-to physical wall of the team (that would be Hippo), because it lacks a reliable form of recovery (Leech Seed is good and all, but switching out removes it and opposing Grass-type Pokemon are immune), so it cannot repeatedly come into moves like Earthquake. This guy is designed specifically to punish opposing attackers that are overly reliant on moves that make physical contact, like Bisharp, Scizor, even Lopunny if you predict right: make sure you only ever switch it into those. Azery @ Leftovers Ability: Regenerator EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpA Bold Nature - Calm Mind - Slack Off - Scald - Fire Blast You would be surprised. With a fantastic physical defense, a fantastic set-up move in Calm Mind, two different ways of recovering reliably and nice coverage in Scald and Fire Blast, Slowbro can not only wall many attackers that are otherwise problematic to the team (like Keldeo), it can also remove many unsuspecting defensive threats like Ferrothorn and Skarmory, and even attempt a pseudo-sweep if opponents are worn down enough. A very interesting fact is that, at +1, Slowbro is guaranteed to suevive any Electric-type attack physically defensive Rotom-W might throw at it... And since nowadays people only ever use Volt Switch, if Rotom is their only out to Slowbro they will be in a lot of troubles, when you survive the Volt Switch and heal off the damage, because they will probably be forced to switch again, at the risk of having their Rotom burned by Scald... As for Slack Off is the reason why this Pokemon is nicknamed after Azery. Elly @ Leftovers Ability: Magic Guard EVs: 252 HP / 4 SpA / 252 SpD Calm Nature - Toxic - Soft-Boiled - Moonblast - Stealth Rock Elly is actually the reason why I made a sand team to begin with: you see, originally I wanted to give her name to a Mega Diancie, because when you think about a feminine Pokemon, you cannot help but think about that gorgeous dress. So I built this team around Mega Diancie, but then I realized that Rotom-W was giving me problems: sure, Slowbro can pull off the sheanigans described above against it, but it cannot SWITCH into it... And even with no SpAtk investiments, Rotom-W will always be able to OHKO Mega Diancie with Hydro Pump, regardless of the sand boost to SpDef. So I decided to put a specially defensive Pokemon in this spot instead, but I still needed a Fairy-type that could give no damns about WoW, to take care of those pesky Sableye... So I ultimately decided to use Clefable. With a very solid SpDef, a reliable form of recovery and immunity to indirect damage, Clefable is impossible to wear down, so she is ideal to set up Stealth Rock in this meta where your hazard users need to be able to stay alive and reuse their hazards over and over again.Toxic punishes careless switches, Soft-Boiled keeps Clefable healthy, and Moonblast is the offensive move of choice. Zim @ Smooth Rock Ability: Sand Stream EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 Def Impish Nature - Slack Off - Toxic - Roar - Earthquake Now this, this is a bulky son of a gun. Its physical bulk is really impressive, making it the go-to out to things like Lando-T and Excadrill, while also allowing it to take boosted hits from dragon dancers and phaze them out. Earthquake hits surprisingly hard even with only 8 EVs in Atk, Toxic is preferred to Stealth Rock so that I have something to fight back against Lando-T and other fliers Hippo can wall, like for example Talonflame, and Slack Off is the reason why this Pokemon is named after Zim. Darius @ Tyranitarite Ability: Sand Stream EVs: 248 HP / 8 Atk / 252 SpA Quiet Nature - Pursuit - Earthquake - Ice Beam - Fire Blast Weird set, right? Well here is the thing: this guy is supposed to switch into a plethora of threats and to hit them hard in return, meaning that, in order to catch enemies off-guard, it needs to invest on both offensive stats... But it cannot sacrifice either defensive stat, so Speed is sacrificed instead, given that realistically, it would be impossible for it to outspeed most of the threats it is supposed to take on anyway. Upon mega evolving, you get a nice boost to your overall bulk, making it even easier to take on said threats, all the while getting a boost to Atk that will guarantee you to always OHKO the Lati twins with Pursuit and Heatran with EQ (which is particularly important because, burn hax from Lava Plume nonwithstanding, this guy is the only member of the team who can freely switch into Heatran). In turn, this means you can afford a Quiet nature over a Brave one, allowing you to always OHKO Ferrothorn and physically defensive Skarmory with Fire Blast, and Gliscor, Garchomp and Lando-T with Ice Beam (however, Lando-T can OHKO TTar with EQ, so you should try and catch it on the switch, rather than taking it on one on one). A wise thing to do would be to use Pursuit on something you know you can kill without mega evolving (or to use EQ on Heatran without mega evolving), in order to fake the Choice Band set and bait opponents into doing things like sending out Skarm/Ferro, setting up SR with their bulky Garchomp or Swords Dance with their offensive one, and the likes, and THAT is where you mega evolve and score the surprise kill... As far as the name goes, this Pokemon is of the Dark type, so it of course made sense to nickname it Dark... But I didn't want to leave Calvius out, so I fused their names and came up with "Darius". Nova @ Life Orb Ability: Sand Rush EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe Adamant Nature - Swords Dance - Earthquake - Iron Head - Rock Slide And then there is the win condition. A win condition that is immune to Toxic Spikes and double resistant to Stealth Rock, mind you, and this is exactly why I am not running Defog or Rapid spin in this team. Swords Dance should only be used when you are absolutely certain that your opponent will switch out, because LO Excadrill really cannot afford taking any hits, EQ and Iron Head provide fantastic STAB coverage, and Rock Slide is for fliers that resist Iron Head. Adamant Nature to hit as hard as possible: with Sand Rush you hit 550 speed, meaning you are already faster than more or less anything... DO NOT carelessly stay in against an enemy Excadrill if you don't see the "the foe's Excadrill breaks the mold!" message, because it might be Jolly and screw you. In the event of a Exca vs Exca situation, you should always switch to Hippo (meaning that, if you see an Excadrill in the team preview, you should adjust your strategy to focus on keeping Hippo healthy, just in case). Named after Nova because, just like Nova, this guy is the fastest member of the team when it comes to doing its job. Well, this is all. As usual, try to make constructive criticism, don't point out problems if you cannot suggest adequate solutions, and feel free to try the test for yourself, the importable is below. And if you liked this thread, please do check out Pokemon Se7en!

Minor update: just letting everyone know that we just started the detailed planning of the first episode. So yeah hooray for progresses

Or maybe, just maybe, that's what we want you to think...

I guess this means I owe Zim a beer.

*posts just to get a +1 from Vinny*

You know I am actually surprised Hukuna hasn't shown up to bash you all for this idea yet...