Timber Dragon

I'm estimating sometime in September actually, though with the alpha(s) and beta it might not actually be released until later, maybe October-ish. I believe Ame mentioned that updates from here on out might be sporadic, so for all we know there could be a big percentage bump down the line.

For Charlotte I usually fight fire with fire. In my experience it's hard to keep the field effect dampened since Charlotte keeps burning it, so I just take advantage of the field boosts with one or two good Fire-types and wreck her. I suggest letting Delphox be the main attacker and have a second mon be a meat shield to keep Delphox healthy. Just beware that some of Charlotte's mons have Fighting-type moves (I know Darmanitan does, but I can't remember the rest), but when they're out of the way it'll be safer to bring in one of your Rock-types. If you're having trouble leveling on the clown, what I do is just soft reset until I get a team that I can handle. It's a little tedious, but those fights can be really tough if you're underleveled or don't have a proper team. Even for Charlotte I'm sure you don't need to bring in a team of Rock-types specifically to counter her, but I don't know what other mons you have waiting in the wings.

Focus Bands, not Sashes. XD If only we could buy those things. Luna the Ghostbuster Ghosties: Welp, here it is, folks. The fight that I've been dreading, and Luna did not prove me wrong. This was by far the hardest battle in the game. Harder even than PULSE Abra and Arceus -- at least I found ways to cheese them, but never has a gym leader in this run taken this much planning and trial-and-error. Dark-types have always been my Achilles heel in this run. They often outspeed my team and have higher-than-normal attack power, which is not good for my relatively slower and squishier spookies. Normally my solution for that is to send out my tankier ghosts like Cofagrigus and burn them with Will-O-Wisp, but as PULSE Abra and Arceus previously demonstrated, it doesn't help against special attackers. And even when I can defend against them okay, I still don't have any reliable ways to attack them. Golurk had only recently learned Hammer Arm. Before that, my only anti-Dark counter methods were Aegislash with Fury Cutter, who can't survive long enough to get its maximum effect. With all that, a Dark-type Pokemon -- or even just a Dark-type move -- can derail an otherwise simple fight pretty quickly. And now I get to fight against a full team of 'em! Time to die. Chandelure OHKOs Bisharp with Flame Burst. If only the rest of the fight was that easy. Golurk against Tyranitar. The giant dark Barney can somehow outspeed Golurk, so he has a Colbur Berry that resists a super effective Dark-type move, giving him a freebie while so he can Earthquake the Dark Crystal Cavern into a boring old regular cave. Tyranitar winds up doing my work for me. It uses Earthquake, because a move that destroys your own beneficial field effect is a good idea. Golurk gets in his own Earthquake. Make a mental note of this. Luna heals, giving Golurk a chance to OHKO it with beautiful Hammer Arm. Cofagrigus goes against Honchkrow. He survives a Night Slash with 17 HP and successfully Will-O-Wisps it, burning it and also Mummying it so WHERE'S YOUR MOXIE NOW HUH ASSHOLE? Now that Honchkrow is burned, the next few turns are spent healing and stalling her while burn does its thing, occassionally attacking. As Luna has about two more Hyper Potions to go through, this... takes a while. Many potions later, the cheap stalling tactic works. Honchkrow apparently runs out of PP for Night Slash and starts using its birb moves, including Brave Bird and... Roost. Dammit. I go back on the offensive and the hit, combined with recoil damage and burn, finally finally faints it. Can't say I'm proud of this one, but cut me some slack, I'm fighting Luna. Cofagrigus stays for Malamar to burn it, but he doesn't have enough HP to survive a Night Slash and faints, though Malamar gets Mummy'd in payback. Chandelure comes out and does the Will-O-Wisp instead. She's not off the hook yet, as a critical Night Slash can do serious damage, but she's not vulnerable. Minimize gives me some lucky RNG and she safely faints Malamar with some Flame Bursts. Sableye KOs Chandelure with Dark Pulse, but she managed to weaken it. Aegislash finishes the job with Iron Head, though he gets Confuse Ray'd. Now for the really tricky part: Umbreon. Umbreon's only offensive Dark-type attack is Dark Pulse, which is special. I switch to Spiritomb, having the best special defense of everyone besides Aegislash in Shield Forme but without the weakness to Dark. I use Spiritomb's turns to heal Golurk. Umbreon uses Toxic, which is fine because Spiritomb isn't strong enough to bypass type resistance combined with its overall beefiness. I let Spiritomb take the fall, using his remaining turn to revive Chandelure. Dark Pulse finishes him off, and I'm hoping that Spiritomb's Pressure had did SOMETHING to Dark Pulse's PP. Golurk comes out. Umbreon uses Toxic while Golurk and uses Hammer Arm, which does... a little over 1/4 damage. Oh screw it. Earthquake. Except that Umbreon uses Confuse Ray, Golurk hits himself. Umbreon uses Dark Pulse, which would have finished him... except he's still holding a Colbur Berry, dampening it enough for Golurk to survive. Remember how Tyranitar had previously used an Earthquake that demolished the field into a cave? And that Golurk then used his own Earthquake? This makes two Earthquakes, and in this field, you know what that means! Golurk and Umbreon both go down, and that's how a Ghost trainer beat a Dark trainer: by being very, very cheap. So that's a major fight out of the way, and now it's time to move onto Agate. Before crossing the point of no return, I'll be spending some time catching the remaining available spookies, because you never know when I'll need them. This means Misdreavus, Dusclops, Rotom, Shuppet, Sableye, and possibly Pumpkaboo and Shedinja. Since I tend to soft reset for not-bad nature and IVs, this might take a while. But! For the next post on I plan to change the formula up a bit. I got some recording software and an imgur account, which means that from here on out there will probably be... PICTURES Yay now you can actually see stuff instead of having me describe it to you

Oh, Noel Ghosties: From the get-go I didn't believe I had an advantage over Noel just because he's Normal-type and I'm Ghost-type. If anything, it puts ME at the disadvantage because some of my strongest moves (i.e. Shadow Ball) are useless, and a lot of Noel's most dangerous moves aren't even Normal-type. At the top of my head, the only Normal-type moves I would otherwise need to worry about are Porygon-Z's TriAttack and Swellow's Facade. *shudder* Sorry. Getting some flashbacks here. So since I don't have any particular advantages, and two of Noel's mons are Fairy-types, my idea is to turn the field into a Corrosive Field with Jellicent's Sludge Wave, then have Gengar wreck whoever he can with Venoshock... unless either of them pull a fast one with Psychc... which I think Clefable has. Crap. Well, we'll see how this goes. Jellicent leads against Wigglytuff. He's a tad underleveled (43 to Wigglytuff's 52) but he survives Dazzling Gleam just fine and successfully lands Sludge Wave for decent damage, corroding the field. We keep pounding each other and healing. Noel uses up all his healing potions, but a final Dazzling Gleam eventually faints Jellicent. Gengar finishes off the last of its HP with some Venoshock action, boosted with a Poison Barb. Porygon-Z and Girafarig take entry damage from the field, and are KO'd. Cinccino however is faster and deals heavy damage to Gengar with Rock Blast... and flinches him. Dick. I switch to Aegislash. Cinccino tries Bullet Seed, but thanks to the field, it makes Aegislash immune. While he's still in Shield Forme, I use his turn to heal Gengar. Cinccino tries a useless Bullet Seed again, then tries Rock Blast, which doesn't deal much damage. Aegislash gets it down to the reds with Iron Head, but doesn't quite KO it. Cinccino's Hidden Power is somehow super effective, though I don't know what type it was and it did little damage despite Aegislash being outside Shield Forme. A final Iron Head KOs it. Swello, hmm. I didn't really think about how I would deal with Swellow. I switch back to Gengar for Venoshock since Swellow is squishy. Apparently anticipating how badly this would end for it, Swellow U-Turns back to Noel and brings out... Clefable. Who is then OHKO'd by Venoshock. With nowhere to run, Swellow desperately tries a Steel Wing, gives a good effort, but is similarly OHKO'd. Arceus Ghosties: Uh oh. Arceus has Shadow Ball. Okayokayokay, so I raided the Department Store for some goodies. Among those goods were six X Sp.Defs, two Focus Bands, a Quick Claw, and anti-super-effective-Ghost-move berries. Dunno how much of those I'll use, but it beats shelling out another Heart Scale like I already had to do with PULSE Abra. Being my only ghost not weak to his own haunted fraternity, and having among the highest special defenses of my crew, I lead with Spiritomb. I use up most of the X Sp.Defs, negating Arceus's Shadow Ball to manageable damage. I need to be wary that Shadow Ball still has a chance of lowering special defense, and it does so at one point, but the damage eventually becomes minimal. When it's safe, I set up three Nasty Plots, and Dark Pulse turns the field into a Dark Crystal Cave. This is a double-edged sword since it also boosts Shadow Ball's power, but with three Nasty Plots and all those special defense boosts, Spiritomb should be okay. And he is. Arceus tries Judgment (useless), Focus Blast (equally useless), and Recover (it's at full health). In other words, it tries everything except for the thing that will actually give me problems. Yay AI! Anyhoo, now that Spiritomb is all set up, he can finally start attacking. Dark Pulse changes the field and WHAMMO, look at that damage. It's not quiiiiite enough, even when the first Dark Pulse gets a critical, and we spend a few turns going back and fourth between Dark Pulse and Recover. Eventually Dark Pulse wins out and lookie! I didn't even need to waste another Heart Scale. Way to go, Spiritomb. You earned that exp. Sorry, Radomus, I might be getting too comfortable with these 'buff then sweep' strategies Ghosties: Psychic mixed with Rock is a weird typing to counter, making both Gengar and Chandelure risky to use. Luckily Spiritomb is up to bat again, being immune to Radomus's most dangerous attacks, and thanks to the field typing, Golurk and Aegislash are also resistant. The fight pretty much boiled down to Spiritomb setting up two Nasty Plots, boosting his special attack to max thanks to the field effect, and sweeping everyone. Radomus's tendency for secrets and plotting backfired on him spectacularly. I think he's proud. Spiritomb and Golurk lead against Reuniclus and Gallade. Golurk OHKOs Gallade with Shadow Punch... huh. That was easy. Well, Metagross comes out to replace him, and he and Reuniclus gang up on Golurk to KO him, too busy keeping Spiritomb healthy to heal himself. Don't worry, I'm sure my ghosts know the drill by now. Anyhoo, once Spiritomb gets his Nasty Plots in, the rest of the fight is all downhill for Radomus. Aegislash remains in Shield Forme to keep Spiritomb or himself healthy, while Spiritomb utterly wrecks Radomus's team. Aegislash eventually comes out of Shield Forme to OHKO Gardevoir with Iron Head, and Metagross, who'd been on the field this whole time watching his teammates get wailed on, takes his Dark Pulse like a champ. And that's how my evil plot cheesed Radomus. Two really hard PULSE battles, but two easy gym leaders. I should enjoy this while I can, because the next gym is... Luna. Let me remind you how much I love Dark-types.

Slaking. Laziness reaches a whole new level when it's incorporated into your own gameplay. How can a mon with 100 base speed only move every other turn?

Yeah, I kinda suspected it was too early to see anything in Labradorra, since reborn Reborn seems to be the main focus and we haven't addressed Agate yet. It was just a thought because I don't know how much content ep 16 will cover. And even if by chance we do get to Labradorra around then, that wouldn't necessarily mean we'd fight Saphira immediately, which I'd be thankful for. She looks terrifying to fight.

Oh yeah, Heather would also be a candidate for Scrappydom. She might also fit Rescued From the Scrappy Heap after some self-reflection on how her actions have impacted others, and how she helped Ametrine not starve and stuff. That's when she started growing on me, at least.

Ironic, huh? I was about to mention Empoleon, but held off because surprisingly it isn't the best idea to bring one into Cal's fight -- plus, if it was a regular member of the team, it'd probably have been mentioned. Cal covers his weakness to Water quite well, and the field effect makes it worse. It's also weak to Fighting like the rest, but unlike other Steel-types, Empoleon isn't really bulky enough to survive moves like Close Combat. Oh, and Steelix can't be obtained yet. The first Metal Coat available isn't until after Noel, so too bad.

It's also possible that Sigmund might be the one to get offed. Saphira is gunning for his blood after all, and assuming ep 16 covers anything to do with Laboradorra, well, there's only one barrier between him and death by Hyper Beam.

Not too familiar with how Steel-types play out in Reborn, but do any of them know moves like Iron Defense? It won't do much for special attacks (Delphox says hi), but since you can't resist their attacks then at least you can buff yourself to make it manageable. Aggron could be an MVP if it has Rock Slide, but you'd still need to be careful with some of the Fighting moves Cal has (Infernape and Blaziken say hi, too). But with that freakish defense, boosted even further by spamming Iron Defense if you have it, it might be in the best position to stay alive. You might wanna bench Klink for something else. It'd be great if you could evolve it into Klinklang, but that wouldn't be until level 49, beyond the current level cap unless you switch train on the Grand Hall trainers. Also, if anyone knows Magnitude or Earthquake, you could destroy the field and get rid of the Fire boost

Agreed for Victoria as a Scrappy, and Titania and Saphira for Base Breakers. For another Base Breaker, I'd probably add Charlotte too. I'm sure she has her fans, but I know her attitude tends to rub some people the wrong way, including myself. She's snarky and flippant and despite supposedly being a high-ranked gym leader, she depends on the PC (who's "Not up to [her] rank" yet) to save her ass, without actively contributing to much herself. It's like, who do you even think you are? I'd also argue that Titania could be a Creator's Pet. I say arguably because she doesn't get significantly more... significance than other characters, but Ame says Titania is her favorite character whereas a good chunk of the fanbase has... well, mixed feelings about her. On the flipside, would anyone agree that Shelly could be added to the Ensemble Darkhorse entry? I don't actually know how (un)popular she is, but she's one of the gym leaders who tends to get more screen time and she is pretty damn adorable. I'm not sure how many fans she actually has, but I have this feeling it's a decent amount.

You'll probably get more mileage out of Feraligatr as your designated Water-type. Even in my Ghost-type monorun, Jellicent isn't all that impressive. Feraligatr has overall better stats and doesn't have those additional weaknesses to account for like with Jellicent. Seriously, I never realized how many different Pokemon carry Dark-type moves until I kept getting pummeled with Crunch and Sucker Punch...

Funnily enough, I never manage to beat Garchomp on normal playthroughs but usually manage to do it on monotype/themed challenges, when I don't expect to. My bird-themed run was sort of a fluke in the AI. I equipped an Aromatisse with an Air Balloon and Garchomp kept spamming Earthquake while Aromatisse just hammered it with Moonblast. I could tell it was a fluke because when I did the same Air Balloon trick in my Ghost-type monorun with Cofagrigus, Garchomp went straight for Stone Edge. I don't know if there's something in the AI that makes it act differently against Fairy-types, but hey, I still won. In my Ghost-type monorun, Cofagrigus did the Air Balloon thing again, and the fight involved Curse, Will-O-Wisp, Leech Seed, Power Split, and surviving long enough for Solaris to use up three Full Restores. That was a long fight.

I do reset for decent IVs and nature, but I think it's more for my own peace of mind than because they make a huge difference. I'm honestly not sure if they're a huge deal in Reborn, but I do it anyway because better safe than sorry, I guess. EVs I'm far more lax about. I'll do some tweaks with power bracers and friendship berries if I feel like I need to, but I'm not concerned about perfection. I never did like micromanaging stats (one of the reasons I could never get into competitive battling)

He does have Autotomize in case I need to keep him in Shield Forme, but once he's out in Blade Forme and attacking, there's no changing back until I switch him out. Without being able to freely switch between forms, the only use I have for Shield Forme is for stalling while I heal a teammate or something. I would have done Iron Defense instead, but I figured that anything that made it safe to come out of Shield Forme defeats the purpose of banning King's Shield. Well, besides how King's Shield also lowers the opponent's attack if it makes contact... and Iron Defense doesn't cover special defense, but you get the idea. Team Updates Lizbeth's a Chandelure nao Hey lookit who we haven't seen for a while. Shelly had been her last big moment before her awful Litwick stats made her unable to keep up. She does evolve into Lampent at level 41, just one larger than the level cap at the time, but I held off on it so she could learn Shadow Ball... at level 53. Which I only got close to after beating Aya. And I was far too lazy to switch train her against those Grand Hall weirdos without the Exp. Share (otherwise I would've taken her to Yureyu and used her freakish special attack to wreck Sigmund), but I grinded her to get Shadow Ball, used up one of my Dusk Stones, and holy hell I'm gonna enjoy wrecking Serra. So many years of bad luck Ghosties: The Mirror Arena is probably my least favorite field in Reborn, so I'm getting rid of it ASAP. Since Golurk will be going down as a Ground-type anyway, he might as well make himself useful by shattering the field with Earthquake. Golurk barely survives Frost Breath and unleashes Earthquake, dooming us to enough years of bad luck to curse our descendants. Serra will have some serious cleanup to do. The resulting misfortune KOs Golurk and takes Cryogonal down to half, but at least the field is gone gone gone. Like Serra's career. Wow, I keep picking on her. Chandelure and Aegislash were the MVPs here, respectively equipped with Flame Plate and Iron Plate. Flame Burst and Iron head make for a potent duo. There were some minor bumps here and there, like Serra abruptly withdrawing Vanilluxe for Aurorus (whose 4x Steel weakness I was saving for Aegislash to maul), evasion-based annoyances, and Froslass in general, but wrecking the field really made the fight straightforward. ... oh wow, I really DID crack those mirrors with Earthquake. Like, it shows up on the map and everything. I thought I was just joking, but who'da thought that actions have consequences? Nice touch, Ame. Nice touch. Er, sorry about the mirrors, Serra. But hey, you're an ex-model, you can afford to replace 'em. I think. Why so Sirius? Ghosties: Firsttimethatjoke'severbeenmade whoooo. I keep forgetting what mons Sirius has besides Chandelure and Seviper, so let's just do this thing. Oh speaking of Chandelure, look who's leading with one (hint: the one who's not me). In karmic retribution from previously sweeping Sigmund's orderlies, Chandelure's Shadow Ball OHKOs Golurk, whoopsie. In defiance of that karmic retribution, my Chandelure throws a OHKO Shadow Ball right back at it. Mmhmm. For Seviper, oh gee if only I had my little ground golem not-fainted, that'd be convenient. Since I know it has Aqua Tail, I send in Aegislash with Iron Head. It doesn't quite KO Seviper, and Sirius uses up most of his potions. Y'know, even though I'm not using King's Shield and whatnot, I'm very grateful Aegislash has a Hasty nature -- if he can't defend himself in Blade Forme, then at least he can outspeed a few things. For Manectric, oh gee if only I had my little ground golem not-fainted, that'd be convenient! Sheesh. I send in Gengar because stuff. Shadow Ball does more stuff and Sirius uses up his last healing items. For Honchkrow, of gee if only I had something that DOESN'T DIE TO DARK-TYPES. Well, I have Spiritomb but he's Dark-type too. Too bad I hadn't brought in Froslass, not that she's quite up to par yet anyway. All right, Chandelure it is. She Will-O-Wisps it to save her some pain and KOs it with Flame Bursts. For Probopass, oh gee if only I had my little ground golem not-fainted, that'd be convenient what with that 4x Ground weakness! Ye gods, Sirius, no wonder you wanted Golurk out of the way. Well, Jellicent doesn't see much action despite being in the party a lot. Aaaaand the first Rock Slide gets a critical and flinches him, and the second KOs him. Welp. Gee, if only I had my little ground golem not-fainted, that'd be convenient. Well, okay if we're gonna be tank-y. Cofagrigus comes out and gets paralyzed, Probopass Rests, and Cofagrigus gets a Will-O-Wisp in. A LOT of bad luck with RNG and Rest, Cofagrigus eventually faints with Probopass down to the reds, I get annoyed and finish it with Chandelure. Hitmontop Sucker Punches Chandelure (dammit) and does the same to Gengar, though he hangs on with 8 HP, though the next KOs him obviously. Aegislash is the only one left. I use his turn to revive Chandelure just in case, and Iron Head finishes it off. Steelix Ghosties: Steelix's Stone Edge misses and Cofagrigus safely Will-O-Wisps it and Power Split makes things even worse. Sorry, Steelix. Must be tough getting solo'd by a dead coffin with stick arms. PULSE Abra Ghosties: Uh oh. No one in my team outspeeds it. No one in my team resists it. Aegislash in Shield Forme, equipped with a berry that temporarily resists Dark-type attacks, can barely survive a Dark Pulse. AEGISLASH. In SHIELD FORME. Can't take a Dark Pulse without help. And apparently, PULSE Abra is beefier than I thought -- Night Slash barely took out a quarter of its health. All right, welp. No choice then. Gengar gets my only Focus Sash to survive Dark Pulse and unleashes Curse. Now we just gotta survive -- WHAT. Why is Curse not doing any damage? Is... is this a glitch? Oh. Oh fucking hell, it has Magic Guard. All right, welp. No choice then. Cofagrigus gets my only Focus Sash, and I go aaaaaall the way back to the Move Tutor so he can relearn Grudge. Now, if only Dark Pulse didn't flinch me. Try again, and THERE. Finally, it works. Now it can't do anything but spam useless Hyper Beams while I spam not-so-useless Shadow Balls. That's what you get for making me waste a Focus Sash AND a Heart Scale, dick.

Team Updates Kayako (F) Species: Froslass Nature: Hasty/Often lost in thought Ability: Snow Cloak (may change to Cursed Body) Hey, remember that Snorunt I'd been keeping in my PC? ... You don't? Well, I'd been keeping a Snorunt in my PC, and now that I have the Dawn Stone to evolve her, I get a Froslass now! She doesn't excel in anything but speed, but she's overall balanced and my only access to anything Ice-type. Unfortunately I'm currently too lazy to grind her up to speed, so you'll probably see more of her... later. Soon-ish. GUESS THE GHOST: Crooooooak Beetlejuice (M) Species: Spiritomb Nature: Sassy/Often dozes off Ability: Pressure You have no idea how many soft resets it took to get a Spiritomb with a not-bad nature and good-ish IVs. I even had to skimp out on a measly 4 in Attack because the rest were pretty good and I had little patience left. EV training it is, then.. oh well. Spiritomb will probably be the ONLY member of my team who's not weak to Dark-type... even though he won't have any way to reliably attack said Dark-types due to being Dark-type himself. Meh. I'll think of something. GUESS THE GHOST: Gee I wonder who it could be. Aya Ghosties: Ghosts just happen to resist some of Aya's more dangerous attacks. Doublade also happens to be immune to them, but that doesn't necessarily mean he'll be able to survive for long. He's been falling behind for some time now, and honestly I'm not expecting much. Gengar and Doublade lead against Nidoqueen and Tentacruel. Nidoqueen should go down first to protect Doublade's shiny steel ass -- literally. Did I ever mention Cervantes is shiny? I wanted that bloody-looking sword for this spooky run, dammit. Anyway, Nidoqueen needs to go down for Gengar's sake, too. She has Crunch, and you know how much I love Dark-type moves. We keep wailing on her with Shadow Ball and Shadow Sneak, not quite dealing enough damage but making Aya use up her potions. Eventually she goes down and Dragalge. Enough Muddy Waters from Tentacruel and a Hydro Pump from Dragalgae take down Doublade, not that that's hard to accomplish by this point. Cofagrigus takes his place, because why not no, because he's a tank. We keep healing (maybe I should've stocked up on more ice cream...) and Gengar finally KOs Dragalge. ... oh crap I totally forgot Aya has a Drapion. Uh oh uh oh uh oh you know how much I love Dark-types. Uhhhhh errrr crap I wish I could get Golurk out here, but it's dangerous with Tentacruel out. Gengar focuses on Tentacruel, but Drapion KOs Gengar soon after with Night Slash. Cofagrigus successfully Will-O-Wisps Drapion and with Tentacruel down to low health anyway, I can probably risk bringing out Golurk. It turns out Drapion has Aqua Tail too, but Golurk's such a beefcake that he's just like, nah. Golurk finishes off Tentacruel and... Oh Arceus, now Aya's Gengar is out on the field. This is the worst thing ever. Granted, Drapion is burned and down to the reds so maybe this won't suck THAT badly? Well, Gengar easily KOs Cofagrigus with Shadow Ball, but Golurk OHKOs it with Shadow Punch. Believe me, I know from first-hand experience how hard-hitting yet squishy a Gengar is. I'm also glad that Drapion isn't spamming Night Slash. So yay, it didn't suck that badly! Jellicent comes out because why not no, because he's another tank-ish ghost and the rest of my team besides Golurk and Drifblim are fainted anyway. ... and Venusaur comes out. I did not plan this fight well, did I? Ground- and Water-type against Venusaur, what could go wrong? Jellicent uses his turn to revive Gengar and Golurk is KO'd by Power Whip. Drapion uses Confuse Ray Jellicent before finally succumbing to burn. Gengar is back out and Shadow Balls Venusaur for good damage, and Venusaur Leech Seeds Jellicent, nearly restoring its health to full. Oh, so that's how you're playing it. Gengar uses Curse, because you know the drill. Leech Seed restores much of Venusaur's HP, so I switch out Jellicent (who's confused and useless) for Drifblim. Double Shadow Balls from Gengar and Drifblim finish off Venusaur and win the fight. Oh, and I teach Jellicent Sludge Wave, because why not because Gengar couldn't learn it. Moar Team Updates ta daaaaaaaah bam Cervantes is an Aegislash now whoooo Since there are more ghosts that need Dusk Stones to evolve than there currently are Dusk Stones to evolve them with, I'd requested an extra one in my inventory (Request-A-Mon actually gave me two. That was nice!). That meant that, yes, I could've evolved Cervantes into Aegislash the second he became Doublade. I just held off on it for as long as I could for honor-related, I-refuse-to-let-anyone-nag-me-about-cheesing-the-early-game-with-an-Aegislash sort of reasons. But now that I made it to Yureyu HQ, which is a hop skip and jump away from obtaining a Dusk Stone legitimately anyway, I figured I might as well evolve him. He's been lagging behind And just to remind everyone: -King's Shield is BANNED -Sacred Sword is BANNED -Swords Dance is BANNED -Anything else I deem BANNABLE is BANNED. This wound up including things like Iron Defense and Power Trick, though for Power Trick, it's more that I thought it might get in the way... but it's still King's Shield Lite in a sense. These limitations will not be lifted until the time Aegislash can be obtained in Reborn legitimately. Until then, I'm not sure if anyone's aware of how tricky it might be to use an Aegislash without being able to freely switch between Blade and Shield Formes. At the least, I won't be using Aegislash's full potential, so that evens things out. Riiiight? Right. Shut up. Dr. Butt Ghosties: Since I have a field effect to my advantage, I figured I could take on Sigmund instead of ditching Heather to fight the relatively easier Sirius. While my available Pokemon count is only 5 since I have to bring along an HM slave, I'm still in a double battle with Cain who can... usually do useful things. Sigmund wasn't too bad. Cofagrigus leads alongside Cain's Nidoking and gets some burn action in with Will-O-Wisp to offset Luxray's Crunch and Electivire's whatevers. All of Cain's team eventually falls, but luckily that only happened when Sigmund was down to his last Pokemon, Lanturn. Lanturn was a bit of a problem against Golurk with Bubble Beam, but the day was eventually saved by Aegislash's Night Slash. Not bad for his debut boss fight.

I love Final Fantasy. I didn't play all the games but I've been exposed to it for as long as I can remember, even if I was just watching my big bro play (and get his ass kicked) by FFI. But I always hated the rivalry between the pre- and post-FFVI eras. It's damn near impossible to find anyone like me who places both FFVI and FFVII on their favorites list, let alone finding anyone who ranks them anywhere close together. And it's not even always a matter of old school vs new school -- it's usually specifically VI vs VII. I've noticed the old school players (and/or the ones who specifically love VI and hate VII) tended to grow up with the older games, and the new school players who favor VII and beyond barely even realize FF games before VII are even a thing -- after all, a lot of players didn't get into Final Fantasy or RPGs in general until FFVII came out. But I still think it's weird that it's such an anomaly to run into anyone who grew up with the older FFs and still managed to love the newer games too. I'm not saying FFVII is a masterpiece, and nostalgia certainly does color some of my perception of it, but nostalgia isn't everything. I've heard of more than a few people who hadn't played VII back in the day, decided to play it and was prepared to hate it... and instead wound up falling in love (that, or they thought it was just a good game). In any case, I'm disappointed that there's such a huge divide between the two camps. Honestly I wish we could all get along and sing and hold hands about how awesome FF is and stuff. Choosing between Terra and Cloud is like choosing between two friends. (Yes, that was corny and I don't care.)

The original 151 will always have a special place in my heart, but that nostalgia mainly comes from the Pokemon anime, not really the games. When I was veeery young and wee I remember sometimes watching my brother playing Pokemon Red on an emulator (not that I understood half of what was happening, but the monsters were cool), but I didn't actually sit down to play a Pokemon game myself until around the middle of high school, roughly when the series was in Gen 3. But I wanted to start from the roots, so my friend lent me her Gameboy Color with Yellow and I was officially hooked on the Pokermons. Then I played some of the later games. And I was unsure if I would ever go back to those Gen 1 games. What gets to me about Genwunners is that they seem to base their criticisms of later games entirely off the Pokemon designs. While that can be valid, what with personal tastes and all, I sat down and actually played those later games, and saw how streamlined the gameplay and mechanics was compared to Gen 1. I hadn't even realized generation elitism was a thing until much later, so I had no preconceived notions of what a Pokemon game 'should' be like (in Pokemon design or otherwise). So it baffles me a bit whenever people say that Gen 1 was when the series was at its best, even though, having seen the series evolve and ironed out, RBY is so freakin' clunky. Like, I don't think I can bring myself to play it anymore. The only time when I looked back at Gen 1 was during Twitch Plays Pokemon, and that was hilarious.

Yeah, a Nuzlocke might seem a bit much if you haven't even completed a full game yet. I like DemICE's second suggestion about catching only the first Pokemon in an area (and one event mon), but without the death penalty. Because honestly, it's the death penalty that really gets to me. My mons die a lot in Reborn. Like, a lot. Like, I can get through Reborn just fine but it's not unusual to win a major battle with, like, half my team fainted. I'm not the best example of a good Reborn player.

I wouldn't mind if Ame implemented Gen 7 after Reborn is finished, but I also wouldn't mind if she didn't implement it at all. Maybe I'll change my mind once Gen 7 actually comes out, but as it stands now I'm not all that hyped to get it into Reborn yet. We already have enough content to work with, and when we don't even have everything from the previous six generations implemented yet, I'm in no rush to get a brand-spanking new generation implemented just because it's brand-spanking new.

Anna is another consideration, but I still don't think that Ame would make the champion a monotype trainer (she's supposed to be Psychic, I believe). Sure, she could put up a huge fight, but it would still probably just be a gym leader fight on steroids. Which... actually sounds pretty damn terrifying, but I suspect Ame would have other plans for who the champ would be -- unless the champ isn't the final boss, which in that case, maybe it could be Anna.

True, Fern wouldn't be champ NOW with such a glaring weakness, but he's still demonstrated the most prominent team rotations of any character we've seen so far. I imagine not even the team he currently has is set in stone, so with more tweaking, he might at least be able to take on the Elite 4. Maybe. I'm not sure about Aster since he's kind of a side character in comparison to other Meteor admins. But if we're looking at the admins, maybe Taka? He usually puts up a tough fight, and he doesn't necessarily agree with some of Meteor's methods so would maybe try to get power some other way. I also considered either Solars or Sirius, but they seem too busy with Team Meteor to challenge the league, and Lin would probably tear them down before they even thought about obtaining such a position. Though, I guess the same could be said for Taka.

I doubt that a new character would be introduced so late into the game despite being so important as to hold the championship position, so the champ would most likely be a character we've already encountered. I entertained the thought that it might be either Fern or Lin, but Fern is a bit cliche, as people have pointed out, and we don't know enough about Lin yet to say anything one way or the other. The only lead I'd have to go on is that I don't think Ame would make the Champion a monotype trainer, which eliminates about 90 percent of the characters we've met so far unless they get some team updates. That actually makes me consider Fern more than the others (even Lin, who is shown through archives scattered around the site that she's a Dragon-type trainer), because he's moving away from pure Grass-types and is tough enough to put up a good fight. That's not to say that I WANT him to be champ, for reasons already stated above, but unfortunately it seems the most likely at this point. That is, unless one of the Meteor admins decide to take up the mantle, which brings me back to the idea that it's Lin (but again, I don't think the Champion would be a monotype trainer, even a particularly powerful one). I mean, I don't know what the Reborn League's policy is on who can become champ, but if all it takes is to beat the E4 and defeat the previous champ, who's to say it wouldn't be Lin who treats it as another step in her quest for powerorwhateveritisshewants.

True, it's not that big a loss, but it's the principle of the thing dammit. why not why not why not why not why not why not Aster & Eclipse (again) Ghosties: Stupid Azurine Island, making me take an HM slave to a Meteor admin fight. Gengar and Doublade take down Solrock and Rhydon while Lunatone just kinda floats there. Magmar is annoying with Feint Attack, and Lunatone helps it out with Psywaves. Gengar and Doublade team up against Magmar, but they don't quite do enough damage and is continually healed with Ultra Potions. Eventually Doublade faints from enough Psywaves to the scabbard, and Golurk takes his place. He uses Magnitude, but Gengar had already fainted Magmar so the rest of us just Levitated over it. Oh well. Now Milotic is out. Hydro Pump misses, which is good because I'm pretty sure it had Golurk's name on it. Eventually they take it down, Electabuzz is out, and Gengar finishes off Lunatone. Then Elecatbuzz faints. Yay. Taka (again) Ghosties: At least I'm not bringing in Bidoof this time. Also, I'm already not sure how I'm gonna handle Chatot. Maybe just Curse it again -- haven't seen that thing in a while, huh? Anyhoo, Gengar vs. Klefki. I should've led with Golurk, oh well. Gengar Shadow Balls it a few times and good stuff happens, like him learning Dark Pulse, which replaces Night Shade and finally gives Gengar a non-Ghost move in his arsenal. Jellicent is up against Gligar. Gligar also happens to know Night Slash so ugh, Gligar outspeeds it and faints Jellicent first. Never mind. Gengar is back out with Shadow Ball, Taka heals twice with Ultra Potion, and Gengar keeps at it until more good things happen, like Gligar and its stupid Dark-type move fainting. Chatot, wheee. Gengar uses Curse (yay)... but Chatot outspeeds it. And uses Nasty Plot. Oh lordy this is gonna hurt. Well, I guess they're roughly the same speed because Gengar managed to get in a Dark Pulse before Chatter chats him into fainting, like the worst pick-up line ever. Golurk holds down the fort the best he can, considering moveset consists of two Ground-type attacks, Shadow Punch, and Iron Defense... which is useless against Chatter. Oh, and I also forgot to get more revival items before coming to this fight, silly stupid foolish me. Well, Curse eventually does its job and Golurk hangs in there with 23 HP and is confused. And now I win -- oh right, Cradily. Doublade has a role besides as a healing sacrifice this time. Time for Fury Cutting action! Unfortunately Doublade's awful Sp.Def is vulnerable to Giga Drain, not to mention Cradily outspeeds him, and you know you're slow when a Cradily of all things is faster than you. That doesn't last long. Oh well, Doublade, you tried. I trust you'll be less useless as an Aegislash. Cofagrigus is out cuz why not. Shadow Ball doesn't do much, so Will-O-Wisp + Hex it is. Hex gets a critical and burn damage whittles down the last of its HP. Man, I just love how Taka is such a good sport about losing. It almost makes me forgive getting mauled by his awful awful Chatot. Solaris and the Garchomp Ghosties: HeygaizwannaseeifIcanwinthiswithoutCurse? lol jk. That's not happening. I WAS trying to do this by burning Garchomp, except that I learned that Solaris has three Full Restores to wreck my strategy. This required buying more Cotton Candies... I'll be stalling for a long time. Cofagrigus leads with his widdle pink Air Balloon to offset that little Earthquake-y issue, kind of a bad idea to do on top of a volcano, but I'm not questioning Team Meteor's logic. I had a feeling I would need Cofagrigus's Power Split one day, and today I was proven right. Stone Edge luckily misses, and Power Split averages out Garchomp's scary attack power with Cofagrigus's pitiful stick arms. This should make Garchomp's attacks easier to not die from -- easIER, not easy. Cofagrigus can still barely survive Dragon Rush, and that's after Cofagrigus managed to burn it with Will-O-Wisp. He doesn't last long after that. Gengar comes in and again barely survives Dragon Rush, and KOs himself to use Curse (what a trooper!). From there it's just a matter of holding out long enough for Solaris to use all his Full Restores and letting Curse work its black magic. Golurk gets in two Mud Slaps for all the good it did, and Trevenant uses Leech Seed to speed things along. Around the time Solaris uses up Full Restore #3, Cofagrigus is back out and it's safe to use Will-O-Wisp again. Curse + Leech Seed + Burn is a potent combination. Garchomp is in the reds, and I just gotta hold out for a little longer... unless it turns out Solaris has, like, infinite Full Restores or something. Then I'm rage quitting. Nope, he doesn't. Garchomp falls to its triple status gangbang, and the star player actually earns his exp instead of being upstaged by the meat shield who just happened to be on the field at the time of victory.