I’m glad I do my job so well!
The ultimate time waster!
Look: if I hadn’t ruined your build, you would have been awesome. I’m going to revert you back and pretend this never happened.
Man. This is hitting deep.
Thank you. I’m feeling touched.
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Sorry Notymenow, I’m going to let one more bonus 'mon slip in before you. This one just happened to be an easy one.
@BLUE_BLACK_PURPLE , your buff, giant-prawn-like physique and the straightforward way you attack life makes you a shiny mega-gyarados, the not-actually-a-dragon that loves to get hype and just can’t be kept down.
While I had thought that making a poke-tulpa for you might be a good way to introduce you to the complexities of the competitive Pokemon metagame, I realized after putting this build together that you are possibly the most straightforward pokemon in this entire thread. No crazy turn-based feints or buffing shenanigans–no, “If the enemy does this, and I do this, and he forgets to do that, THEN I’M UNSTOPPABLE.” No: you’re just a big monster that hits really hard.
Gyarados enters the the ring with everything in its corner: great typing, great stats, and great abilities. As a Flying/Water type you only have to worry about a weakness to Rock and a super-weakness to Electric, two fairly uncommon attack types. And yet you have five common resistances and an immunity to Ground, one of the most offensive types in the game. In addition, you have the choice of either Intimidate (an ability that lowers your opponent’s attack as soon as you enter the ring) or Moxie (which raises your attack by a level after each successful kill), both of which compliment your very high 125 base attack and your all around decent defensive stats and Speed.
However, things get a little more complicated if and when you decide to go mega. In the OU metagame, going mega with gyarados is a given: you get a huge stat boost to your Attack and defenses, doubling down on your innate advantages, and your Flying typing switches to the arguably more offensive Dark typing. But this sudden growth doesn’t come without sacrifice. While Dark is immune to Psychic attacks and super-effective against Ghost and Psychic, it also comes with a bunch of common weaknesses, including Fairy, one of the more threatening types in the OU meta. While you feel the need to bulk up to the next level, that choice comes with some pressure and some vulnerability. While you want to embody your best self, that path ultimately leads to the realization that you are not invincible. In fact, it’s only by acknowledging your own weaknesses that you can honestly express yourself and flow like water.
BBP (Gyarados-Mega) @ Gyaradosite
Ability: Intimidate
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 88 HP / 244 Atk / 176 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Crunch
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
Of course, part of accepting your weaknesses is admitting your strengths, which remain quite formidable. When it comes to training and stat distribution we’ll double down on your Attack while investing liberally in your Speed and a bit in your HP bulk, ensuring that you’re a lean, mean, brutal killing machine. Your main attacks will be the standard STAB attacks of Waterfall and Crunch, with Earthquake added to take care of any Electric types who bother you. Last but not least, we use Dragon Dance, the move that compensates for your one minor stat weakness while tripling down on your Attack. Dragon Dance raises your Attack and Speed stats by one level. This makes your attacks absolutely monstrous, but with your starting Speed adjusted just-so, it also makes you faster than any other unboosted ‘mon in the game.
Dragon Dance is your opening move: you enter the field, instantly lower the opponent’s Physical Attack with Intimidate, immediately raise two of your most important stats, and with that move jump to your super-powerful mega form. From there, you just attack, taking down as many chumps as you can muster.
While that might sound like a hell of a combination, despite it all, you can’t outrun or outpunch your greatest weakness: it’s all temporary. With your item slot taken up by the gem that allows you to go mega and no healing move, when you take damage, that damage sticks with you, meaning that no matter how many enemies you take down with you, they will eventually chip you away to nothing.
Still, yours will be a mighty streak, a blaze of glory to be remembered. Contrary to many of your teammates yours is not to bide your time, building your arsenal, waiting for an opportunity. You don’t eke out safety one buff at a time, anxious over your opponent’s hidden moves. Instead, you take the straight approach, and you do it well, with your utmost, head-on and fearless, plunging into the inevitable infinite, without hesitation.
All that said, I did make an alternate build for you, based around not going mega. Basically, it doubles your usability by allowing me to slot you on teams that already have a mega (you can only have one) and/or wouldn’t benefit from your Dark typing. Also, when I think about it, I wonder if having an item that can heal 25% of your HP, paired with much more defensive typing is ultimately better than more vulnerable typing and higher defense. Afterall, automatically healing 25% of your HP is kind of like having 500 HP in your case, which is quite a lot. And having a Rock and Electric weakness is almost like having no weakness at all when you’re fast enough to attack first (after Dragon Dance). So yeah, we’ll keep both options around. Since Gyarados doesn’t really have any viable Flying attacks, we’ll just go with the utility of Dragon Tail, which always goes last but switches the opponent for a random teammate, or Thunder Wave, which paralyzes non-Electric opponents, meaning their Speed is lowered and they only attack 50% of the time, unless healed.
BBP (alt) (Gyarados) @ Sitrus Berry
Ability: Moxie
Shiny: Yes
EVs: 248 HP / 240 Atk / 20 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Waterfall
- Dragon Tail
- Earthquake
- Dragon Dance
Oh man, this is so damn cool! I saw this when you posted it and it took me till now to former a somewhat decent response. I didn’t know what to say. It’s one of the coolest things anyone has ever done for me. I’m feeling very aggrandized! ;D And I get to be such a cool pokemon too. I’m really feeling it. Now I want to do battle with other selectbuttonmon!
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I’ll have to dissect all the stats and ask you super specific questions
Glad you like it! Yeah, the overall goal of the thread is to form everyone’s pokesonas into effective teams, battle them online, and post videos of the battles. I haven’t been updating really regularly lately, but if you look above you’ll see a ton of battle links, though I’m pretty far behind on solidifying teams.
Ronk, Rudie, and Drobe have proven to be a very solid (and not internet-known) core. A core is a combination of two or three 'mon that have such good synergy that they can basically take down a whole team on their own. Obviously, this takes a lot of pressure off the other three pokemon.
So right now I’m trying to identify cores and sweepers (sweepers hit hard and fast out of the gate and are usually held to the end, when the opponent’s team is weakened, and/or all the counters to the sweeper have been removed).
I have an idea for a core that includes you, but we’ll have to see how well it works out. I’ll ping you when you show up in battles (same as for your initial write-up).
The dream is that when everyone’s sorted into solid teams, we’ll do “ladder climbs”: posts in which I chronicle the team going from the bottom to the top of the online rankings. I don’t consider myself a championship-level player, but actually with a good team I think I could get pretty high. We’ll see.
Also, the text stats I post for each 'mon is actually code that can be pasted into Pokemon Showdown. So literally anyone reading this thread can use an SB team or teammate. You guys have the ability to play as yourselves online or to catch and train your mirror selves in a Pokemon game!
But yeah, you can fire away with any questions you have about your 'mon or Pokemon in general.
Did you get the two Bruce Lee references in the write-up, btw? I was proud of those but not sure that anyone would get them.
Man, you didn’t have to ask that! Haha Of course I noticed! When you point away at the moon I don’t concentrate on your finger and miss all the heavenly glory
I’ll try that 'mon Showdown indeed. Sounds like fun!
Well sheeeeeeeeeeeit.
I’ve been pretty busy at work guys–staying late for some 12 and 13 hour days and such. But that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten our pokemission!
I haven’t been playing Showdown at all lately, but I don’t want to think that I’ve completely lost interest. Only time will tell, I suppose. In any case, I should probably post the two write-ups I had in mind two months ago and wrote weeks agon, huh? Yeah: maybe!
@Notymenow, your significant defensive capabilities, enviable speed, and ability to both blend in and stand out make you a starmie, the versatile decapod who packs a serious wallop.
While starmie might not have the most fearsome rep among denizens of the pokekingdom, it’s bedazzled appearance is merely a distraction, underplaying its natural aggression. With a fairly high Special Attack stat, exceptional Speed, and an almost daunting amount of offensive coverage, you’re a ready-made sweeper.
However, while your Water/Psychic typing is quite offensively formidable, your Psychic lineage makes you vulnerable to Knock Off, the ubiquitous Dark-type move that does double damage if you’re holding an item while also knocking it out of your hands, 80’s bully style. Of course, the answer for a Sweeper is always the same: attack first; attack hard.
With a full investment in your Speed and Special Attack stats and an emphasis on Speed, you become one of the fastest unboosted ‘mon in the OU format, and your Special Attack hits a formidable level. To capitalize on that offensive ability, we’ll be sure to give you a spread of attack moves that ensure the broadest threat to the most threatening Pokemon.
Notymenow (Starmie) @ Life Orb
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 0 Atk
- Scald
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Recover
While Thunder is a great option against fellow Water threats like Gyarados and Azumarill and HP Fire would offer a nice check against single-weakness ‘mon like Scizor and Ferrothorn, my damage calculations seem to indicate that you’ll have the broadest success by sticking with your STAB moves. Scald does a nice amount of damage with a chance to burn your opponent, while Psychic is equally damaging and hits neutrally or super-effectively against almost the entire meta-game. We’ll back those up with Ice Beam, a great punishment for opportunistic Grass types and a threat against cocky Dragons.
We’ll round out your moveset with Recover, the game’s most reliable healing move and a must for any ‘mon with access to it. And since you can recover, we won’t worry too much about carrying a LIfe Orb, which will drain you of 10% of your life with every attack but, in return, boosts your already good Special Attack to “great” with a 30% stat bonus.
Now, while this built certainly explores your aggressive side, it doesn’t address your more introspective, cautious tendencies. While starmie’s default stats suggest a sweeper, its varied moveset suggests a defensive utility ‘mon. You are one of the fortunate few who possess the move Rapid Spin, the only move in the game that clears only your own team’s field of the nagging entry hazards that penalize poke-swapping and slowly plink away at our constitution. You might also want to consider your own Cosmic Power, raising your piss poor defensive stats by 50%, making you into an instant Wall. This allows you to jump in, clear the field, Wall up, heal any damage taken, and then stick around for a while, dealing out decently effect blows with Scald, maybe even burning a few chumps.
Notymenow (alt) (Starmie) @ Colbur Berry
Ability: Natural Cure
EVs: 248 HP / 4 Def / 132 SpA / 4 SpD / 120 Spe
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Rapid Spin
- Cosmic Power
- Scald
- Recover
Your only real concerns should be surprise Knock Offs (which Colburr Berry will protect against) and being worn down by status effects. However, if you end up poisoned or paralyzed you can simply retreat, and your ability Natural Cure will relieve you of any nasty status.
All in all, you’re a ‘mon for every occasion. When you’re feeling feisty, you frailty is more than made up for with your tremendous Speed and Attack, but if the team demands a more tactical approach, you can lend a point and stick around as long as you’re needed. Altogether, you’re a team player who doesn’t mind standing out.
@GlamGrimfire , your connection to the aspirational mythology of superhero comics and headlong posting style pin you as a mega-gardevoir, the mild-mannered Fairy empath who–at the first sign of provocation–transforms into a homicidal psychic menace. You know: like a superhero.
As a gardevoir, you are yet another SB Psychic ‘mon. However, unlike the rest of these chumps, your Fairy typing neutralizes the weakness to Dark moves that so plagues Psychics across all Pokemon metas. While that still leaves you weak to Steel, Ghost, and Poison types, none of those ‘mon are particularly prevalent or offensive in the OU meta, and your immunity to Dragon, super-resistance to Fighting, and resistance to Psychic more than makes up for what amounts to the average three weaknesses. Add to that the great offensive synergy of your typing (Psychic super-effective against the Poison ‘mon Fairy is weak to, Fairy super-effective against the Dark ‘mon that are immune to Psychic), and you’ve definitely got one of the better type combinations in the game.
But, honestly, your type weaknesses don’t matter much. Once you go mega, you’re already great stats jump to exceptional, with your Speed just barely entering the top speed tier and your Special Attack hitting god levels–the perfect combination for a Special Sweeper. But that’s not all! When you go mega, you also happen to swap an already good ability (Synchronize: gives any status ailment you have to your opponent as well) for a great ability: Pixilate, which turns any Normal move into a Fairy-type move and gives it a 30% attack bonus. That’s 30% on top of the 50% same-type bonus you already get. This takes Hyper Voice, an already powerful and reliable move, from the standard 90 base power to a whopping 176BP!
And since you’ll attack first 90% of the time, well, few enemies will get a chance to even graze you.
Of course, the Fairy type attacks aren’t always the most effective route. We’ll also pack Psyshock, a powerful Psychic-type move that uses your Special Attack stat but attacks the enemy’s Physical Defense. This will hit Gengar where it leasts suspects it and catch Chansey on its bad side.
GlamGrimfire (Gardevoir-Mega) @ Gardevoirite
Ability: Synchronize
EVs: 4 Def / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 1 Atk / 30 SpA / 30 SpD
- Hyper Voice
- Psyshock
- Draining Kiss
- Hidden Power [Ground]
Your other two slots are something of a matter of choice. You’ve got great offensive and buff coverage. And it it might be prudent to pack Protect, to ensure that you get a clean mega transformation no matter what. But for now, I think you’d prefer to live saucy-dangerous until proven wrong. With that mind, you’ll pucker up with a Draining Kiss, the move that is always better for you than it is for them. While it only does 50BP of damage you heal yourself with 75% of that damage, which could be quite significant given your Special Attack. And we’ll round you out with Hidden Power Ground–another weak move, but one which offer valuable coverage: it hits super-effective against the Steel ‘mon that your other moves are weak against as well as Fire and Rock types and hits neutrally against the dreaded Steel/Bug type. With this moveset, not only do you have an unconventional healing option; you have complete offensive coverage against every type.
Now, while you might sound broken as hell, you do have some obvious checks. While you’re fast, you’re far from the fastest ‘mon in the meta, and any ‘mon with a priority move can guarantee to hit you first every time. Unfortunately for you, there are also quite a few fast-as-hell Steel sweepers like mega-metagross and excadrill who could probably OHKO you, if given the chance. Gengar can also outspeed you and might even OHKO you with a Poison move. Of course, Pokemon is all about prediction, and it’s not too hard to anticipate or run from these threats. All of them are weak to a move in your arsenal, and if we mis-predict, we can simply bring in a pivot ‘mon to take the hit while you run off to live another day. However, with your weaknesses in mind, it does make sense to hold you ‘til the end of the battle and pair you with Steel killers like drobe, nocode, and The King (Geoff).
So there you have it: a great ‘mon can always become greater. And, in the end, isn’t it the violence of superbeings that truly shines as a guiding light: showing us the path through the murk of moral relativity towards the righteous bloodbath that even the most even-tempered among us craves with ravenous lizard urges, hearkening to the very self-preservatory fey that first elevated us above the common creatures of biologically limited offensive capability? Is it not our very versatility–the free will to turn away from avenues of peace or mean persistence and pioneer new and more eccentric frontiers of murder–that allows us to ascend unto true vessels of chaos, emitting discord like a rhythmless pulsar against the weave of the universe–a dull, singular and selfish throb, greedily singing away darkness to exist like a cigarette burn piercing metaphor, as a metaphor for the many layered conceptualizations of a multivalent reality? You know: like a superhero.
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Well, I always knew it could happen. I just didn’t know when. And I still don’t!
@Tulpa your way of life is officially undergoing a suspect test to determine if you are too overpowered for Smogon’s OU meta: http://www.smogon.com/forums/threads/np-oras-ou-suspect-process-round-7-diamonds-read-post-226-banned.3585600/
There will be a period during which the win/lose ratios of any battle involving you will be monitored and reported, and at the end of that period, those Smogon members who have used you in enough battles during that period will vote to determine whether you are banished to god tier or allowed to remain to torment mortals.
Specificall, this vote is to determine the banning of Sablenite, the item that allows you to go Mega. Unfortunately, going Mega is kind of your thing. We can continue to use you without your Mega ability (Magic Bounce, which reflects hazards and status effects back at the enemy) or your stat boosts. But…we’d have to adjust your build quite a bit.
Basically, you’d go from our most reliable late game buff-Sweeper to an annoying little troll.
So, I guess you could say that a bunch of poke-nerds are voting on who Tulpa really is. Personally, I don’t know what will happen, but–uh–yeah: you’re def overpowered the way I use you.
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Well, the suspect process round was completed on November 13 with the vote barely in favour of a ban from OU. Tulpa is now just a ficton in that meta.
Oh man! It was still front paged, so I thought it was unresolved. Huh. Well, I probably won’t feel like rerolling @Tulpa, so annoying goblin it is!
Kinda sucks, actually. I never really went hog wild with how invincible Tulpa was. Also, my 'mon (whch I’ve been too lazy to write up) is actually his strongest counter.
[spoiler]Despite frequently and frustratingly finding myself idly reading about and watching the complexities of competitive Pokemon simulation in dead procrastination time, I haven’t really played much PS itself, until the new Sun/Moon release on Friday. In the uncontrolled chaos of such a new generation’s drop-downs and unbans I screwed around for the better part of two days throwing together non-popular blanket-checks to the abused, and I’m probably going to take a good break from my paltry [20-3 offserver || 44-26 main server] record after spending 300 turns finding out the very hard way that my inexperience and an accidental-Stall team isn’t remotely ready to handle experienced opposing stall and that said people are more than ready to switch up to the thousand-turn limit. The community is unsurprisingly not the greatest, seeing as after giving me post-loss advice said person joked they’re off to drink bleach. Dehumanizing myself and face to calculationshed to chase arbitrary ladder ELO isn’t my idea of a great time, either…
It’s kind of fun to screw with the people who don’t have knowledge of all the new content / crash the new overcentralizing content into my armoured face, and unorthodox team-building / slo-mo-fighting-game prediction is nice stuff, but I might as well constantly reset my account to drop down the ladder instead. Peh.
Eventual functional team was {Imperishable the Celesteela}, {Watchtower Sword the Alolan-Marowak}, {Shining Needles the Toxapex}, {Confines of Avici the Mandibuzz}, and either {Scarlet the Scizor} and {Iron Rings the Hippowdon} or {Ultramarine Orb the Mega-Sableye} and {Qian & Kun the Zygarde-Complete}. Yes, I am a dork. The second I fought anybody who remembered the old meta’s stalwarts not countered by these befruckers I was mostly doomed.[/spoiler]
Not sure about your synergy, but Scizor can be a very powerful stall breaker, moreso if he goes mega.
But mega for the Salbeye is a good bet too. I would recommend Tulpa’s build though.
I know that in the actual game you don’t have nearly as much control over your builds, but–y’know.
I haven’t messed around at all with the new 'mon yet, because their data hasn’t been imported into Pokemon Showdown yet. But–man–celesteela is a pretty fun pokemon! A Steel/Flying pokemon with Grass stall moves! Really cool!
But despite the fact that it was definitely primarily designed as a stall, I actually think it’s secretly a really powerful special wall breaker with the potential to sweep after a kill (at which point its ability Beast Boost raises its max stat by 50%)
Check out this build:
Celesteela @ Life Orb
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 248 HP / 252 SpA / 8 SpD
Modest Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Air Slash
- Flash Cannon
- Giga Drain
- Autotomize
Basically, all celesteela needs to be decently bulky is maxed out HP. You can start the battle with Automotize to double its Speed, putting it in the top Speed tier. A maxed out Special Attack stat with Life Orb makes it a sweeper after the Speed boost, and each time it gets a kill it’s Sp Atk is boosted. Air Slash and Flash Cannon for STAB, Giga Drain to offensively heal. This build is undone by truly powerful Wall Breaker, but with its great typing celesteela really only fears Electric and Fire types.
If we want to embrace stalling, this is something I’d like to try:
Celesteela @ Leftovers
Ability: Beast Boost
EVs: 248 HP / 8 Def / 252 SpD
Careful Nature
- Leech Seed
- Skull Bash
- Protect
- Iron Head
Basically, you max out HP and SpDef. To raise your Def to invincible levels, you use Skull Bash, which should also do a decent amont of damage, even with your Atk at base. Though you’ll probably want to start by throwing out Leech Seed. Not only does it limit your opponent’s time in the ring, it will combine with Leftovers to heal 1/8 of your HP each turn. Protect allows you to stall for heal, and Iron Head is used as STAB to do real damage once properly boosted by Skull Bash.
So: kind of a more rounded Ferrothorn with better typing. You’re taken down by burn or a powerful Fire 'mon–but that’s a pretty narrow and predictable window.