NickCrash

If you don't care about your Klefki being eaten.

For those that voted for the artwork, the drawings will be made by the committee and we're notorious for not being able to hold a pencil straight. Nevertheless, it was your choice so...

To tell the truth, no Fire type starter has ever been defensive. I personally believe this will be the first, since it's a good typing even with 4 weaknesses. Grass are divided. Sceptile and Serperior are purely offensive while Torterra works both ways. Water on the other hand, are mostly defensive, with Feraligatr and Greninja being the only purely offensive ones. As it seems, Flying has to be offensive, Fire is most probably leaning towards defense, and Water is so derpy it might be offensive.

I've been covered as far as Leafage is concerned. However, you are all describing Razor Leaf, which also is leafs being shot at the opponent. Here Owl can easily turn the feathers into leafs and throw them (also Featherdance confirmed). I'll be laughing if "attacking from a distance" means Bolt/Beam coverage.

The description says it Kicks so it's going to be a physical attacker. That's new, since the other Grass/Flying were special. It's definitely getting the following moves: A man can only wonder.

So it's better than Heracross?

Pokemon that a month ago were in RU and NU respectively won't enter Ubers, no matter how much people use them. Basically, there is no way they overcentralize the metagame. If they become prominent threats, corresponding checks will rise from lower tiers, and other pokemon will drop accordingly to make space. If those fat mons didn't have the ability to break the lower tiers, where de facto less threatening and 'centralizing' pokemon reside, they have zero chance doing so in a higher tier, where the threats are bigger and stronger. What you are basically saying is a reverse ban, in which a pokemon is too good to be used in a higher tier, but it wasn't good enough not to be banned in a lower tier, so the way to deal with this problem is to send it back to RU where it was doing fine and not attracting too much attention. That cannot be true as each BL stage is effectively a banlist for pokemon that would 'break' the competitive scene in the tier below. Simply put, we cannot send a pokemon to Ubers for overcentralizing the tier directly below it, when 2 more tiers below that there was no problem at all. The higher you go, the more the variety of playstyles, since nobody stops you from using everything below that from BL all the way to FU. If nothing else, they both have their run for a few months in OU, then drop to UU where they see little usage anyway, and then drop back to NU. We may see the cycle repeat itself several times, like Zapdos does with its constant trips between OU and UU, but this time we may just see a more complex cycle that follows the same rule.

U WOT M8?

I can only laugh at that. True, the Gen1 mons were the most controversial, but that dear Uri is plain projection of your unsurmountable ego. Every mentalist, psychic and other form of charlatan has been associated with spoon bending and mind reading. He should also sued the Matrix movies for having young Aang manage this feat. I don't care about the Trading Card Game because it's a rip-off from Magic The Gathering, but this is nonesense. Sure, the gameboy game was nice (and had a black cartrige which was extra cool at that time (plus nice music)) but I didn't know they continued with the card trades. Not on a big scale at least. Since GF wants to make a good impression this time and sell more than their last gens (to outperform the.. something Watch that's getting populatity in Japan), they won't touch too soft subjects. Perhaps enter murder in games, but that's about it.

Cultists would make a good choice for evil teams, but then people would freak out about 'the game that tries to steer pokemon away from religion and god', like they did 10 years after RBY were published with 'games promoting underage gambling'. @Lady of Bears, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I can't help but express my disappointment when a creation doesn't meet my standards, even when it's the Pokemon franchise (one I grew up with) that's promoting it. One would expect fantastic designs from a game that's celebrating 20 years of success. Yes, I currently am salty, but one cannot deny that it's for a good reason. Let's hope the other (at least) 80 pokemon of this region and the newer megas are worth it. @Viri, if we don't get a Dolphin pokemon in Hawaii (or Alola region *vomits in mouth*), we never will. NEVER. EDIT: @Chubb, what do you mean "two of those"? I count 4.

May I ask why the sprite looks different than the concept art? Or is that the steampunk shiny version? Pokemon has Quicksand in its name, so you guys really took a lot of thought to associate this one with time. I can say I'm impressed. Hopefully it doesn't roar. That said, quicksand doesn't increase your speed, but decrease the opponents. Prankster seems like a nice ability, unless you created a new one. Can't say I see this as a Sand Rusher since it looks nomadic and easily rattled. Duster will use it... with Eviolite.

Or we have already passed on to the 3rd stage (bargaining) and we try to connect them to things we like to make them more tolerable. This game is aimed at people of all ages. They will appreciate it when people realize the hidden messages, but when they include them, they usually have an NPC that explains them, usually by the 4th town. Starters aren't unique, even if you just get one of them, so a mystical backstory like this would be more fitting to the side legends, which we all know are included. XY had the only 3 not connected to each other in some way, so I'm hoping SM doesn't do the same.

By the way, I updated the OP with the May statistics and dropped February to the follow-up post. What bothers me is the amount of new players that will see pokemon like Quagsire in OU, use it as they may find more suitable, without knowing the precise gimmicks that led to its rise in OU. I don't hate it because it's fat. I hate it because it can work under very specific frames (albeit admittedly very well) and has no purpose but to stay there, eat hits and recover, forcing people to run Toxic and/or Grass coverage.

Not even the children in the Japanese trailer like the Water abomination, and for a good reason. Do not be surprized when people pop up saying GF has run out of ideas. The only design in this trailer that I can tolerate is the Owl, and that because Masquerain and I already speculated about it and thought it was a cool idea (we thought it would be a wooden carving of an owl, but we didn't deviate much). I have no problems with Hawaii, since the art looks improved, so cudos for that. The graphics go back to PC games of 2000 but that's also fine by me, since I enjoy them not being realistic. The animations look nice. The island is way too small to be the whole region, and the harbor at the bottom left assures we travel to more islands. What's a bummer is the coral reefs down right and further up, also to the right, that downright say we cannot surf outside the island to visit other habitable ones. Sure there will be trainers on the rocks we visit, but that's going to be backtracking to the first island after we get Surf. About the starters themselves. Forest Owl better deliver as a fast attacker. I'm expecting the final evo to look like an Articuno-Staraptor mix breed, which in my head looks awesome. Grass/Flying has 5 weaknesses (Fire, Poison, Flying, Ice(x4), Rock), while only 3 resistances (Water, Grass(x4), Fighting) and am immunity to Ground. So even if it can take some hits from good dominant types, it can't serve as a well-made defensive pokemon. So if I decide to buy and play those games (perhaps not but I may be hyped enough), I'm giving the Owl a chance Future Tiger is not appealing enough. Sure it fits the Zodiacs, but I was expecting a Ram, and was sure we were getting one since we already have a Lion in Pyroar and 99% the Sun Legend was also going to be a lion. Too many felines for such a small place. Nevertheless, I also expect it to gain a secondary typing in Dark, with little hope for Electric, since those marks on its body may hint to scortch marks that lightning leaves when it hits a body. We'll see. I can't speculate anything about this one. It just better be good, and fast. Samurott's and Walrein's child born out of wedlock may as well face the darkest corners of my basement. The base form sets a new low for bad designs so that's an achievement on its own. Definitely not an Ice type, yet didn't come up to the expectations, since it will be hard to see this evolve into a badass part Fighting type that we all felt was coming. My optimistic side encourages me not to let go of that hope just yet, but if I were to pick between this and Chicorita, I'm not sure what the result would be. Legends are... not enough. Normally you're supposed to project original ideas for the legendaries. After all, they are unique in their own non-competitive way and their appearances should show that they are special. Well, not the way I would describe Flipper (see above) as 'special', but you get my point. Sun Lion looks good enough and I wouldn't have any issue with that Digimon if it didn't appear like a Male Pyroar on steroids, essentially outshining its counterpart. The Moon Bat looks more appealing, but the design seems to include a lot of unneeded detail. Sure, people want to show off when they present their creations, but sometimes simple is best. Your audience doesn't want something that is 'optically heavy' as the eye cannot focus at any specific point you might want to emphasize on. Besides, I think the went this way to make sure you don't find similarities between this one and Noivern, YET ANOTHER pokemon introduced in the very last gen. It pains me that I have to quote Septa Unella for this: "Shame...Shame...Shame". Given GF's latest additions to the game, those two are jumping into Ubers in a shorter amount of time than it takes Nova to make a sprite of a just revealed pokemon.

Not-so-much-of-a Mystery Dungeon, Zygardians of the PokeGalaxy Title needs work, but the main concept is there.

Volcanion is going to follow its brother in Ubers soon enough. If the meta continues like this, such overcentralization is going to prove bothersome. It's like Aegislash all over again. Super Scald is cool to use, but when your Rotom-W is 2HKO by it, something's wrong. I'm personally happy with Amoonguss making it to OU, since it can justify its presense there without necessarily being in Stall teams. After Gengar and M-Venusaur, it's the first non-offensive Poison type to enter OU, which I believe is remarkable. Sure Grass/Poison makes for a good defensive pokemon, and its stats are not that bad. It won't centralize the metagame, and it won't be a problem. If nothing else, next month, it's dropping to UU along with Zapdos. Quagsire is... another story for another day.

Florges too. Probably we'll see Toxicroak and Nidoking rise in usage.

Alright, can't say I haven't predicted most of them (except for Quagsire, because Stall will always be there in OU) Most notable things here: RU meta is changing with the absense of the ever famous Regen-core My best UU teams will need to be reworked with the absense of Zapdos M-Alakazam and M-Altaria fell and the next in line seems to be M-Zard-Y Hoopa-U got perma-banned in Ubers halfway this month but it still was used enough to get a 2.8% Luxray dropped all the way down to FU Same people who use Emboar now tried with Trevenant, Scrafty and Ambipom.

Substitute is all he needs, as Raichu outspeeds all relevant Toxic inducers. I have only seen that with an Electrode but Mold Breaker is a thing.

Volcanion will get its suspect and be thrown to Ubers where it belongs.