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Thursday, December 31, 2009

VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE

I have found a website that has EVERY EPISODE OF JAPANESE YUGIOH EVER. All 5 Seasons, in Japanese, subbed. Admittadly, subbed by a Hong Kong man illegally, translated from Japanese to Chinese to English, but still, you get the gist of it. So, next tournament/Timezone run/whenever I see you regular people, I can give you EVERY EPISODE OF JAPANESE YUGIOH EVER. Take note that, alas, there's no GX or 5D, but still, it'll do, its cool. I'm not going to complain.

EDIT:

(referring to my newest post) Trav: I think you made a typo. What's a 'Vs'?
Me: Oh, crap, I missed-a-t.
Trav: You Mr. T, you say?

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Future Content May Exist!

So, as you may have noticed, the quality of my blog posts has been going down. This is due to NOTHING HAPPENING. I can't post about stuff unless something happens! So, I'm working on a trailer for stuff that may or may not happen over the next year! I'll be asking a few of my friends if they want to work on content, so when you read this Trav go on msn so I can ask you. :P Oh, wait, you're on Skype, let's just hope you're not AFK.

Anyway, so, on my birthday, this blog will probably be on bulletpunch.com, as opposed to bulletpunch.blogspot.com, so if the blog goes 404, don't fret! Just check the possible new url. Projects of stuff I'll be posting about will include the current Pokemon and Brawl, but will be updated to include SF4 more regularly, maybe Magic the Gathering (best card game ever), Tekken, MvC2 and HDR. It will also get whatever flavour of the week game I happen to be playing at the time. So, its only now I realise I totally should have named this blog King of Games and capitalized on the hilarious Yugioh reference. My Youtube channel will obviously continue to be used, and may or may not get a psuedo-podcast sometime. I don't really know yet. Anyway, the trailer will be on my youtube account with some catchy music and cool footage of whatever I have on me at the time. It may just be random footage of pros I'm abusing to make the game look more interesting than how ever well I can play it, or it may be footage of Me vs Andy or Me vs Weng/Coolz, whichever. You won't know unless you watch it.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Woo, Fightan Games!

So, I downloaded MvC2 and HDR, so I've taken my first step to one day being the King of Games. Then I'll be able to wield the full power of the Supreme King, once united with Yubel! Then nobody will be able to stop me and my motorbike! Ahahahaha! Anyway, so, I'm maining Devil Jin/Dragunov (haven't decided yet) in Tekken 6, Venom/Doctor Doom/Sentinel (Doom and Sentinel make all low tier characters good) and I haven't really decided HDR yet. Vega, maybe? I'm not sure yet. Of the three, my focus will probably be on Tekken, because I haven't got a regular opponent for the other two. If anyone else wants to pick them up, I can tell them up how to play with my librarian skillz.

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Woo, Micmas!

So, for Micmas this year, I got a PS3, with Tekken and Infamous, plus Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky and a pre-order on TvC. Then, I bought HDR and MvC2 on PSN. This is a brief little update to remind you guys I still exist, and I have lots of fightan games now. I'll upload some videos of me being utterly terrible at them later, when I can be bothered to be bad at them. Also, Weng, when you read this: give me a tutorial on Tekken, if you can.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

The Best Things Ever

  1. Sliced Bread - You know how everyone always says 'the best thing since sliced bread'? Yeah. You can't beat this shit. Its pretty damn insane.
  2. Captain Falcon riding Charizard - Come on, really. Its Captain Falcon, one of the manliest men ever, riding the manliest dragon ever. Shit goes without questioning. Flamethrower on you while you're getting Pawnched.
  3. Transformers - As the saying goes, Transformers were designed by a man stuck in traffic thinking 'man, I wouldn't be in this problem if my car were also a bipedal robot'. They walk, they fight each other in titanic battles with laser swords, they're pretty fucking awesome. Plus, my favourite is an mp3 player. A working mp3 player.
  4. Saikyo-Ryu - The school of martial arts for real men, invented by none other than the manliest man, Dan Hibiki. Legend has it Dan taught Captain Falcon how to fight, including empowering the 'Show me your moves!' with Saikyo taunting strength! Truly, saikyo-ryu wa saikyo da naa.
  5. Bohemian Rhapsody by The Muppets - Watch the video. Really, enough said. Mama...Mama? Mama!
  6. The Ork Stompa - Just when you thought the Orks couldn't get any manlier, the model for one of the Orkiest things ever is made. Basically several hundred sheets of metal encasing several billion bullets rigged up on a belt to several fully automatic guns, empowered by the will of several thousand Orks who believe it works when it doesn't, the Stompa is sheer manliness in the form of a moving weapon battery. Oh, and it can have a chainsaw. Yeah.
  7. Charts and Graphs - Where would you be right now without charts and graphs? Probably out of a job, without an industrial revolution and watching the economy fall to pieces as nobody knows what's going on. Don't underestimate the awesomeness that is charts and graphs.
  8. Garchomp - Second non-legendary banned (the first being the almighty WOBUUFFEET!), and its a fucking landshark. Just when you thought your fear of sharks was dumb, because hey, I'm not going in the water, bam. Sharks evolve legs to go eat everyone, ever. Just imagine if this fucker beat up and intimidated a Celebi. You'd get a time travelling landshark, who's going to kill everything.
  9. Mic128 - You really shouldn't need an explanation, the guy is awesome enough to make the list.
  10. Ret-specced pallys - What's that? You play WoW so you can do things?! No way, man, you play WoW so I can stun you for four fucking years and kill you.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Pokemon Laddering!

Sorry for the low volume, by the way, because I wasn't aware HyperCam would do it so quietly. Oh well, can't be helped, just use some speakers or a headset, it'll be fine. For those of you who've forgotten/never read it, my youtube account is: http://www.youtube.com/user/PetesCappucino. Remember, I enjoy comments/ratings on my videos, since they make me look popular!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Nothing really new today, except now I can infinite sword fairly damn easily, thanks to the practice from the sign. This is totally worth a post, just to tell you guys there'll be more videos up tomorrow, and you should keep paying attention to my youtube account.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Looks like a Legend of Zelda update

Well, Vlade and Marty inspired me to try, and in my book, 'try' means obsess. Check out my youtube channel for the videos. I'm not really too happy with my run, so I'll try again later, and get some bomb hover practice up soon. Pokemon ladder video should happen on Monday, as well. :D

Friday, December 18, 2009

Random News!

So, when Christmas comes, I'll have a bunch of new toys to play with, thus more things to post about. Until then, I have a few things I could do for posts. All of them involving a video camera, since I now know how to play around with it. Basically, I can just upload more matches of Me vs Andy in Brawl+ or regular Brawl, if that's your thing. Or, I could do a vlog entry (because you all love my beautiful face). It'll be done unscripted, so as to improve my commentary skills. I could add commentary to some of me and Andy's games, but that'll make them take longer and thus you'll get less but more bang. Lastly, I could record about 10 minutes of me laddering on Shoddy, so you can see all my rage. That one will have commentary built in, because I talk to myself due to schizophrenia. :P

So, no point putting a poll up as there's only a week left until Christmas, just tell me on msn.

EDIT: Oh, also, I'm making a religion based around Arceus for funs. It'll be called the Church of Arceus, because I'm original like that.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Pokemon Creation Background

So, I've been working on this for about a day now, and still haven't really gotten anywhere. I may as well post it so far, though.

So, first of all, we have the dawn of existance. An empty universe with nothing in it except a single egg. And from that egg, hatches the creator: Arceus. Arceus supposedly created the universe with its thousand arms, and so, it uses them to craft a reality. But before it needs inhabitants, it needs controllers to stop reality falling out of balance, so it creates Palkia to control space, Dialga to control time and Giratina to control the parallel world of negativity that would form and go out of control without Giratina there.

Now that the fabric of existance is under control, he can get to work on the life. At this point, there are two things he could make, Ho-oh or Mew, or both. Mew is supposed to be the ancestor to all Pokemon, so presumably, its pretty old. It can't predate Arceus, however, and likely doesn't predate the Dragon Trio above. Ho-Oh is the phoenix, and is seen by the humans as a creator, having resurrected the Dog Trio. However, it doesn't particularly matter in this case,Ho-Oh is immortal, and thus ancient regardless of when it was made. I'd assume Mew was made here first, however.

Next up, he's going to need somewhere for his new universal inhabitants to live. Whether or not this part happens before or after Palkia, Dialga and Giratina, I wouldn't be particularly sure. Heatran was made with the planet, when volcanic lava melded together into sentient form, so he could be the first non-Arceus Pokemon. Random knowledge here, Heatran is the only Legendary that can be female or male. Anyway, after the planet is made, Arceus decides he's made it incorrectly, so he makes the weather trio: Kyogre to raise the oceans, Groudon to craft the land and Rayquaza to go off and protect the skies (totally infringing on Ho-oh's territory). Then Regigigas pulls the freshly molded continents into their correct places through the oceans raised by Kyogre for Arceus. Lugia would've been made sometime around here, and gone to sleep on the ocean floor to guard it, while Ho-oh takes up its residence of guardian of the sky.

So, now, we have a god busy at work, the three dragons are off in their two parallel universes making sure the fabric of reality remains stable, Mew is off being the ancestor to all Pokemon, Groudon and Kyogre have had their fight and gone to sleep, and Ho-oh, Lugia, Rayquaza, Regigigas and Heatran are busy building/defending Arceus' planet. Now he'd probably make the first human, but before he can, he makes the Lake Guardians, Azelf, Uxie and Mesprit. Since they represent emotion, knowledge and willpower, they're kind of necessary for humanity to be more than blank slates. Celebi would be around now, but due its status as a time traveller, its impossible to discern Celebi's creation point, thus, its better to ignore Celebi. Presumably the moon is active now, and with humans ready to go about existing, Darkrai and Cresselia would be brought into existance, to control the moon's orbit and to give power to the nightmares and dreams of humans.

By this point, the only legendaries left not created by another legendary that would have impact on the elements are Zapdos, Moltres and Articuno. So, I'd put them in here, with Lugia ready to control them if they break out in fighting. Regigigas' job is done, so he goes to sleep, but before he does, he creates Regice, Registeel and Regirock from the glaciers, iron deposits and mountains, and sends them off to guard various things, like the Tree of Beginning and the prison of an unknown Pokemon/human. Last of all, Lati@s are born, to guard the humans with their illusionary skills.

Manaphy/Phione are kind of irrelevant due to their massive power of doing nothing practical, Shaymin are an awfully common species for a legendary, so I believe they would have evolved in the normal way and the Dogs are made by Ho-oh after the Tin Tower is burnt down during the time of humans, so they're a bit off. Jirachi is also ambiguous, due to living in space, so it doesn't even fit into the timeline. Last, we come to the two rival psychic Pokemon: Deoxys, and Mewtwo. Both are made in modern times, Mewtwo via science and Deoxys via the mutation of a virus entering the Earth's atmosphere, so they're also not 'Arceus-made', per se.

And that brings us to the end. Thanks for reading this mostly useless post.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Alas, there's not much for me to say in this 6v6 Tuesday, due to no discussions with Trav, so I think I'll just put this blog on hiatus until, y'know, there's something to talk about. So, when the SQUAT guys get back, I'll get some experiences from them to post, and I'll do the recollection of the smashfest, and other stuff, but until then, there's not much new stuff to talk about. Sorry guys.

Monday, December 14, 2009

And Now For Something Somewhat Different

So, I was reading through the HG/SS Pokemon card sets, because I can, and there's two new replacements for Pokemon Lv. X (basically an evolution for the highest evolution, so Garchomp Lv. X is an evolution of Garchomp), Pokemon LEGEND which look freaking awesome, Exhibit a:


And Pokemon Prime, which are no different to regular Pokemon but they're pretty powerful and they have pretty sweet art and card design, exhibit b:


Basically, Pokemon LEGEND are two cards played as one, because Lugia (for example) doesn't have anything to evolve from, so it can't be too powerful or it'd be overpowered. However, its freaking Lugia, and should be damn powerful. So, here's your compromise: two cards to make one hideously powerful (if you play it) Lugia.

Pokemon Prime, though, have no special rules. They're considered regular whatever Stage Pokemon.

Anyway, for those of you who can't read Japanese, on Feraligatr Prime there, his Pokemon Power is a bit familiar:

Rain Dance
As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may attach 1 Water Energy card to 1 of your Water Pokémon. This power can't be used if Feraligatr is affected by a Special Condition.

Now, for those of you who never played Pokemon TCG competitively, this may seem a bit unspecial. For those of you who have, you'll recognize it as the first overpowered ability in the game's history, with an entire archetype formed around it. Its not nerfed down, not on Feraligatr Lv. X, just a regular old Feraligatr. Whether or not this current era can abuse it, I don't know, but it looks fairly powerful. In addition, his attack hits for a bunch if you can get 4 water energy on him, which you can with Rain Dance going.

That's all for now, sorry for another cop-out of a post. Least this one had awesome art.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

WOOOOOO!

So, for those of you who don't read Smashboards, but do read my blog and are interested in Smash (i.e. none of you), WA got 3 people in the top 8 of SQUAT, solidifying our position as number 1 state at Brawl. All 8 made it out of pools (including Level 9 Luigi), though a few (i.e. Bob) appear to be vaguely annoyed at how they played. Great cheers out to Trav for keeping the boys still in Perth updated, and to Richard, Kane and Andre for repping WA.

Back in WA, props to Marty for hosting an epic BBBQ and Jesse for giving me a lift. You're both champs.


On that note, will there be a celebratory fest next weekend?

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Wooooo!

I'd like to post something, since I haven't since Monday, but really, I'm too absorbed with hype for the SQUAT boys. I'll try and get some videos of games up or whatever to make up for it, though.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Full On Analysis Part 3

Time to finish the analysis, let's go UU!

1. Venusaur: 18.09%

Venusaur taking number 1 in UU should be no surprise to anyone who plays it, as the Fire-Grass-Water trinity is awfully important in UU, and there's slim pickings for Grass in UU. Roserade going up into OU helped pave the way for Venusaur, but it would've been high up anyway. Sleep Powder was the most used move, on 80% of Venusaurs, which shouldn't be a surprise since every Venusaur set has a use for it. Sludge Bomb is next, due to all the Steels busy being OU, followed by Earthquake, which hits the pesky Registeel. Venusaur also showed how many possibilities it has, with Synthesis at 35%, Swords Dance at 19%, and Leech Seed at 35% as well. Some ran bulky with max HP and Special Defense and others ran offensive with max Attack. At least the most run Pokemon in the least centralized metagame of the lot has more than two sets *coughScizorcoughcough*.

2. Arcanine: 15.83%

Arcanine is Vermy's favourite Pokemon from what I gathered in my game against him. Random facts out of the way, Arcanine is a pretty beast sweeper in UU. The two most used moves were Extremespeed at 83% and Flare Blitz at 82.3%, which should be no surprise, as the strongest normal priority move in the game and the best STAB move Arcanine has access to. 70% had Intimidate, 30% had Flash Fire, the uses of which should be obvious. If you have a Fire weakness, Arcanine solves that. Physical sweeper weakness? Arcanine solves that! Arcanine is also part of the Fire-Grass-Water trinity that I said was oh so important above, so Arcanine also serves as support with Toxic at 31%, and Will-o-Wisp at 22%.

3. Honchkrow: 15.37%

The Big Boss pokemon was a much needed evolution of Murkrow, and he's certainly up to UU's standard. 85.6% used Insomnia for the more robust option, with the rest using the mighty Super Luck, raising Night Slash to a crit an eighth of the time for the hax option. Superpower was the most used option, letting Honchkrow break through Registeel, who it otherwise has problems with, at 97%. Sucker Punch was next, as a pretty damn powerful STAB priority move, even if it does have problems with prediction, at 83%. The majority of Honchkrows were Life Orb, choosing to mix it up rather than be locked in, at 75%, with the rest being Scarfed. Although Honchkrow doesn't possess the diversity of the above two, he makes up for it with sheer power and powerful STAB moves.

4. Uxie: 15.25%

Uxie is the defensive counterpart to Azelf, and though it isn't the dominant lead due to the sheer power of Ambipom in the UU format, its still the third most common lead. Uxie was shown to be a pretty common set up of just about everything, with a fifth holding Light Clay or Damp Rock, and 3% holding Heat Rock, showing it can set up Sunny Day, Screens or Rain Dance. Stealth Rock was most common, however, on 74%, followed by U-Turn, so that once its done setting up, it can get right into the action, at 61%. Reflect was on 30%, Light Screen on 23%, Rain Dance on 19% and Memento on 22%, so Uxie was definitely up there in usage via its ability to support just about every team in UU, regardless of what they're doing. Trick was at 16% usage, as well, letting Uxie play shenanigans with enemy items and lock down enemy setup.

5. Mismagius: 15.14%

First of all, this and the 3 Pokemon above it (not including Venusaur) have such amazingly close percentages, at such low numbers, to show UU is truly a balanced metagame. Mismagius getting Nasty Plot in HeartGold/SoulSilver certainly helped it as a sweeper, letting it skip the unnecessary special defence buff. However, Mismagius does have a fairly decent special defence, so Calm Mind makes it awfully bulky. 51% used Nasty Plot, and 22% used Calm Mind, though, showing the people prefer a Mismagius who kills faster. The most used moves were Shadow Ball at 97% and HP-Fighting at 54%, presumably to give nice type coverage and hit the annoying Registeel, who still hasn't appeared yet, somewhat ironically. Pain Split and Taunt appeared on 10.8% of sets, showing that Mismagius can both counter phazers and kill sweepers, so don't think you're out of the water once you get her down to lower health.

6. Raikou: 14.37%

One of the more feared special sweepers of UU comes out to play, with its feared STAB Thunderbolt at most used move at 95%. Calm Mind was next most used at 81%, showing that Raikou isn't so different to his OU brother, Suicune. Note, however, they're both quite different from their NU brother, Entei, who's a wall who gets killed by SR. Not a good place to be. Substitute was the third most used at 47%, to prevent Raikou's CM sweep being brought to an early end by status. 58% ran Leftovers, while the next largest group was more ballsy, running Life Orb (26%). Sleep Talk was on 5.5% of sets, but Rest didn't make the list, so I'm assuming something went wrong there or people are predicting Venusaur to try and counter Raikou.

7. Ambipom: 14.07%

The most feared lead in UU shows up, with 11% of his usage being as a lead, the rest abusing his speed, powerful Fake Out and moderate attack to use him to sweep. No prizes for guessing what the most used move was, at 93%, its Fake Out. When powered up with the Silk Scarf 42% were running, Fake Out hits an effective base power of 108. Return and U-Turn were next, at 56% and 55% respectively, the first for sheer STAB power, especially with Silk Scarf, and the second to laugh off Ambipom's typical counters, and to also switch out to a better counter to whatever lead they're running. Taunt was disappointingly low at 42%, as Taunt is really one of the best moves in the game, countering leads at Ambipom's speed like its nobody's business. Nasty Plot Pass didn't make the list this time, alas, as its a fairly easy thing to Baton Pass with Taunt and Ambipom's speed.

8. Gallade: 14.01%

Raikou, Ambipom and Gallade are all also absurdly close in usage, and yet nobody is dominant to the extreme Scizor is in OU. Gallade is the manly version of Gardevoir, though you can still get a male Gardevoir if you don't evolve it to Gallade, which is creepy enough. Gallade's most used move at 85% was Close Combat, which should be no surprise, as its top of every fighting type that can learn it (except Machamp, who gets something better anyway). Shadow Sneak was next most used, which kinda makes sense, I guess, even though priority moves without STAB or Technician seems like a bad idea, but I guess its working for its users. Swords Dance was next up at 52%, with Bulk Up barely being used at all this month. Taunt was also in obscurity, so it should be fairly easy to Roar him away if you do let him set up.

9. Registeel: 13.90%

Registeel, known by some as Nazisteel (just look at his hand in the sprite!), is infamous in UU, walling a good portion of the format with its great defence and special defence, and, of course, its typing. Most used move was Iron Head at 82%, followed by Stealth Rocks, which it sets up like nobody's business. Thunder Wave is more popular than Toxic at the moment, at 59% and 19% respectively. Cursesteel was down to 12% this month, so you don't have to worry about any potential aggression from it, and its Rain Dancing was practically non-existant, probably more in favour of Uxie above.

10. Frosslass: 12.82%

Frosslass is one of the best Suicide leads in the metagame, laughing at Ambipom's Fake Out and Return, as well as resisting U-Turn. Initially, it was thought that Abomasnow was the reason for Frosslass' usage, but she's certainly putting up a good fight without the Yeti. Most common moves are Spikes (92%), Ice Beam (69%), Taunt (58%) and Destiny Bond (50%), the last of which bringing new meaning to the term 'suicide'. Trick is still on 10% with a Choice item, so its still possible for Frosslass to cripple two Pokemon with Trick and Destiny Bond. Thunder Wave is also hanging in there, at 14%, but its not too likely that you'll get Tricked or Thunder Waved by Frosslass.

11. Hitmontop: 12.78%

Spinning away into the future is the most used Hitmon, the top. Close Combat makes it second appearance as most used move in UU, at 69%, followed by Hitmontop's signature Rapid Spin at 64%. 52% had Technician, making Mach Punch feel like a bullet (see what I did there?) at the remaining 48% had Intimidate, showing the first time both abilities have been usable on one Pokemon so far. Hooray! On that note, every December 7th will be Hitmontop Day. I'll hold a party next year, trust me. Mach Punch was on 57% of sets, of which I'm assuming the majority would be Technician rather than Intimidate. Fake Out was on a measly 40%, not even every Technician set. Rather disappointing, guys. Psuedo-STAB on Fake Out with a pretty good attack makes for hilarious fun, and yet its completely overlooked on Hitmontop. Even lets it continue its job of support well, but oh well. Other than Spin, a small amount of Tops supported with Toxic, 6.5% of them.

12. Milotic: 12.71%

Gyarados' passive-aggressive sister comes to play as a bulky water in UU, with 84% holding Leftovers and a weird few trying to sweep with Life Orb. Really guys, there's better for sweeping. Recover was second-most used at 75%, underneath the obvious STAB Surf at 88%. 18.9% were RestTalkers, using Milotic's massive bulk during Rest due to Marvel Scale to do some damage, and Toxic was (unsurprisingly, really) more popular than Hypnosis on the status level, 27.5% to 18%. True Haze was still there, at 14.5%, for those of you people too cheap to use Roar or Whirlwind and abuse entry hazards.

13. Spiritomb: 11.06%

Heralded in the release of DP as the Sableye that's actually good, Spiritomb was a bit of a letdown after the hype wore off, proving walls that only resist Poison aren't really very good walls. If he had Levitate, he'd been insane, however, immune to the two most common attacking types and walling everything like nobody's business then. Will-o-Wisp was his most common move at 52%, followed by Shadow Ball and Pursuit. I don't think Spiritomb is really the best user of Pursuit, but I guess it gets the job done. Sucker Punch was down at a measly 27%, which is a bit low for such a powerful (STAB, may I add) priority move, but I suppose Shadow Sneak (36%). Calm Mind was only at 22%, so most of the time, you won't be worried about a sweeping bulky Spiritomb.

14. Donphan: 10.98%

100% ran Earthquake, rounded up, which is the first time all sets of a Pokemon have run one move. Congrats to Donphan. 90% ran Rapid Spin, which is one of Donphan's niches (though I prefer the Top in most cases). Really, Donphan's only ran 7 moves: Earthquake, Rapid Spin, Ice Shard, Stealth Rock, Assurance, Stone Edge and Roar. Roar wasn't on any sets, really, so there's only 6 moves you have to worry about, in descending order. As if predicting ever got hard. In addition, 93% ran Leftovers, so even the item front is decided.

15. Umbreon: 10.63%

Umbreon, the one who's closest to OU out of these Pokemon, hasn't had as large of an impact as you'd expect. Wish is the most common move at 78%, Payback at 70%, and Heal Bell at 42%, the first to let Umbreon abuse its great defences by improving its health, second for good STAB damage off of its low speed and Heal Bell to not only heal your team, but to abuse Synchronize in a great way. As far as hindering the other Pokemon goes, Mean Look was on 20% (Baton Pass or Curse is a great way to abuse that), Yawn (still lets you get Curse up) on 16% and Taunt (Stops those pesky stat-uppers from trying to do it to Umbreon) on 14%. Toxic was the only status in sight, however, on 21%.

16. Alakazam: 10.60%

How the mighty fall. Alakazam, former member of OU (and quite high up, might I add.) Now, however, he doesn't even make top 15 of UU, and doesn't even get 3% in OU. Nonetheless, Alakazam is a force to be reckoned with, possessing his unstoppable special attack and speed. His most used item was Choice Specs, 33.3%, followed by Life Orb, 24%, both of which use his already high speed to dish out damage. Psychic was the most used at 94%, which should be no surprise for an all-out attacker. Trick remains top 4 at 30%, letting Alakazam get some more use out of the Specs once he's done killing things (especially at his speed). Encore also let the Life Orb ones fuck around with Blissey, at 24%. Contrary to popular belief, Alakazam's special defence is high enough, so if all their physical attackers are dead, Alakazam can really just Calm Mind away, and some did, at 16%. Dual Screens were still there, even if Light Clay wasn't, and Taunt was also low down on the list, so some Alakazams do do more than attack, but I wouldn't assume they do in a random game.

17. Rhyperior: 10.51%

Immediately after the former OU special attacker, we have the former physical attacker/wall. When Rhyperior's base stats were first discovered, everyone went crazy with hype. Surely he's broken, with that much health, attack and defence. But alas, the metagame took a nosedive into the fast and furious, with priority and speed everywhere, and someone as slow as Rhyperior fell into UU. 100% after rounding had the mighty STAB Earthquake, which should kill anything it hits for neutral off of his attack, really. 58% had Leftovers, the rest had Life Orb, so more Rhyperiors in UU are going for bulky setup/support/wall, rather than Choice Banded destroyer. For setup, the most common of the two options was Rock Polish at 33%, over Swords Dance at 13%, since people decided he has enough attack already. For support, 39% had Stealth Rock, 13% had Roar, and that's pretty much all he did. Even when he walls, he attacks.

18. Blaziken: 10.32%

Another former OU Pokemon, this one from a different age, though. Infernape came along and ruined its fun, alas. Most of them were Life Orbed wallbreakers at 68%, but a small few had Choice Scarf, trying to make up for the fact Blaziken isn't as fast as Infernape. Superpower, Fire Blast and Vacuum Wave were the most common moves, choosing to use its STAB fire off of Blaziken's slightly worse special attack rather than Flare Blitz off of its better attack. 18% were using Swords Dance for a setup sweep, while a smaller few used Agility at 8%.

19. Sceptile: 9.97%

Sceptile was rather divided items wise, with roughly equal amounts holding Choice Specs, Leftovers or Life Orb, but all of those are fairly easy to differentiate after one turn, so its a-okay. Most common move was Leaf Storm, what's becoming its signature move, at 69%. A few decided they could break walls, running Earthquake (37%) and Leaf Blade (33%), and others used its less amazing physical attack to run Swords Dance (20%). A small few felt like stalling it out, running Leech Seed (14%) and Substitute (17%), but overall, he was more of a mixed sweeper this time around.

20. Clefable: 9.45%

Clefable's always been an interesting support choice due to Magic Guard letting it absorb any Toxic you want. Softboiled, Seismic Toss and Encore were the three most used moves, making it somewhat reminiscent of Blissey. The Toxic Orb-Facade combo was certainly there, albeit in small numbers, with Toxic Orb at 17% and Facade at 13%, letting Clefable actually hit things for high amounts of physical damage. Thunder Wave had an edge in the status area, sitting on 31%, compared to Toxic's 19%. Other than Facade, Clefable's most common moves were Fire Blast, Flamethrower and Double Edge, though none of them were really in high enough percentages that they'd be common.

Now for interesting usages:

52. Snover: 3.49%

The goal is in sight Snover, and we're all rooting for you. If Snover makes it to UU, he'll be the second NFE with the same type of stat distribution to its evolution to be in UU. The first was Chansey, and Scyther, Porygon2 and Magneton don't count due to different stat distributions (Scyther's faster than Scizor, Porygon2 is completely different to Porygonz and Magneton is slightly faster than Magnezone). Snover is obviously being used as a replacement to the BL Abomasnow, because of its ability to induce the most powerful weather in the UU metagame, Hail. It combines well with Frosslass above to trigger Snow Veil and give 100% accurate Blizzard, but Snover's flaws are greatly evident. Its stats are low, and its 4x weakness to fire on its stats can make it a liability. Still, if Snover makes it, it will be a landmark event.

56. Magneton: 3.20%

You'd think with Registeel remaining up there in usage, Magneton would as well for its ability to trap and kill the pesky wall, but apparantly not. If Snover doesn't make it to UU, its impossible for Magneton to remain in UU, and the only usage it would see in NU is the fact its a Steel type that is better than Mawile.

57. Electrode: 3.19%

You'd think with Ludicolo up so high, the fastest Taunt and Rain Dance in the game, that also gets STAB Thunder would see some more usage, but apparently not. Especially with an ability to prevents Heal Bell from working, but again, apparently not. Still, I'm sure Electrode's usage will pick up in December, and it won't fall away into NU.


And that's it for the moment. Now remember, I'm doing this again for December, which is even more important due to being the end of the tier list revision period, so pay more attention then. You lot better be grateful! :P

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Full On Analysis Part 2

OU:

1. Scizor: 30.81%

Scizor remains the most used Pokemon in OU, due to its combination of powerful priority, good typing, and huge attack stat. It was about 50/50 ratio of CB Scizor's to Swords Dance Scizors, with 55% of Scizors using Choice Band, 23% using Life Orb and 13% using Leftovers. 98% used Bullet Punch, 71% used Superpower and 62% used U-Turn, moves which you should all know are fairly common to Scizor's by now. Pursuit came in at 58%, with its psuedo-STAB via Technician and Swords Dance at 38%. A small amount, at 5.3%, ran Swarm over Technician, and those contributed to the 7.1% who ran X-Scissor. PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU RUN TECHNICIAN, BUG BITE HAS A BASE POWER OF 135, AND X-SCISSOR ONLY HAS 120. ALWAYS RUN BUG BITE OVER X-SCISSOR WITH TECHNICIAN. THANK YOU.

2. Salamence: 20.95%

Salamence comes in next, a staggering 10% underneath Scizor, having risen up by 1% to claim Gyarados' spot. For those of you who wanted to ban Salamence a while ago, this is proof why he shouldn't be. 61% ran Life Orb, 11.2% ran Leftovers for some more bulky. Funnily enough, his most used move wasn't Outrage, but Earthquake, probably due to more and more running Dragon Claw, since being locked into Outrage in a format saturated with Steel is a bad idea. Dragon Dance was on 51% of them, showing the diminishing usage of MixMence in favour of DDMence. However, Fire Blast was still up there at 45%, showing Levitating Steels still aren't safe, and Draco Meteor was at 41%, to blast a hole in non-Steel physical walls. Roost came up to 21.6% usage this time, showing that bulky Mences still aren't dead yet, even though Dragonite does them better.

3. Latias: 20.36%

Latias shows the power of dragon types, coming in at third barely under Salamence. Latias was third in October as well, barely increasing usage by .3% this month, showing the relative stability of the OU usages. Most Latias ran Leftovers this month, at 34%, closely followed by the trio of Life Orb, Choice Specs and Choice Scarf, all at around 20%. Surf was the most used move, at 62%, followed by Dragon Pulse and Draco Meteor both at around 50%. Calm Mind didn't come up until 32% usage, showing that even if Latias goes bulky, it still wants to be on the attack, rather than getting hit by an Outrage. Reflect barely came into it at 6%, showing the decreasing Screens in OU as well.

4. Tyranitar: 19.39%

Tyranitar, the physical monstrosity, comes in at 4th, 1% below Latias. Its usage increased by 2% this month, a relatively large amount for the OU ladder. The list of things TTar has done this month is rather large, as well. Most of them were holding Leftovers at 28.5%, but then there's Choice Band, Babiri Berry (countering Scizor like its nobody's business), and Expert Belt. Crunch was his most used move at 78.5%, followed by Stone Edge as the two obligatory STAB moves. Dragon Dance was next at 38.5%. If his third most used move is that low, you know it has a diverse movepool. Earthquake, Pursuit, Fire Punch, Flamethrower (the mighty Mixtar), Superpower... Aqua Tail is rather low at 10%, as a move I used to use quite a bit on my Tars, as it hits alot of things reliably, but the metagame has changed quite a bit, I suppose.

5. Heatran: 19.34%

Barely under Tyranitar (by 0.05%) comes Heatran, who was, at one point, the most used Pokemon in the game, even more than Garchomp. Choice Scarf was on 41% of them, followed by Leftovers on 24%. Torment didn't even appear in the moveset this time, which is disappointing as an avid fan of Tormentran. Three different Hidden Powers (Grass, Electric and Ice) appeared this time, with Grass being the most used. Earth Power was its most used move at 87%, due to indecisiveness between Fire Blast and Flamethrower. Explosion was on 56.6%, followed by the aforementioned Fire Blast. With Lava Plume and Overheat included, however, well over 100% of Heatran's had a fire move on their set, indicating some Heatran use Fire Blast and Flamethrower, or Fire Blast and Lava Plume, and so on, which I found interesting. Magma Storm didn't appear today either, which I found disappointing since its a pretty cool move...if it hits. Oh well.

6. Gyarados: 19.29%

Its interesting that, even though it only dropped usage by 1%, it dropped 4 positions on the ladder. Gyarados is the second physical sweeper so far to have Intimidate, showing just how powerful the ability is for letting things set up with Dragon Dance. Waterfall is most used at 96.7%, followed by Dragon Dance at 87%. Taunt is on 1/3 of Gyarados', as well, making Phazing more difficult, and also making rival setups impossible. RestTalk has been used a neglible amount, just under 9%, and Bounce has barely appeared at all this month, letting Breloom and Heracross reign supreme.

7. Metagross: 16.73%

3% below Gyarados, we have a physical attacker and wall who's ironically immune to Intimidate, Metagross. While diverse on the items side, running Lum Berry, Occa Berry, Leftovers and Life Orb, the movepool isn't as diverse. Earthquake is most used at 82%, followed by its signature Meteor Mash at 73%. Slightly less than half run Bullet Punch, so priority isn't always a worry, and Agigross has dropped down to 23.7% of Metagross, so most of them will either be Leads, or just flat out sweepers. 5.8% do run Trick, however, so watch out, because every now and again you'll face a Scarfed TrickGross.

8. Jirachi: 16.20%

Just beneath Metagross we have the third Steel type in the top 10, Jirachi, who's moved up 3% since October. The Wish Giver is certainly quite diverse movepool wise, with Iron Head being the most used at 73.5% and everything being in the 30s from there. U-Turn sets at 40%, Fire Punch 39%, Trick 31% (what was once the signature Jirachi, Scarfed TrickRachi) and Wish at 23.7%. Scarfs are on 48% of Jirachis, so its a good idea to use priority or something durable to take it out. Thunder Wave is on 12.6% of Jirachis, as well, so there's a small chance of a paraflinch Jirachi making you ragequit.

9. Lucario: 15.46%

My ex-girlfriend's favourite Pokemon, Lucario, is well known for its diversity, due to having equal attack stats and a nice movepool. However, a large majority of Lucarios are going Swords Dance, so that unpredictability in random ladder matches is mostly non-existance. Close Combat is on 86.3%, Extremespeed 80% and Swords Dance 72%. The first special move in the list is Aura Sphere at 12.6%, so its a fairly safe bet to switch in a physical wall and hope for the best. However, adding Bullet Punch and Vacuum Wave to Extremespeed and you get quite a high percent with priority moves, so a faster sweeper may not always do the job. However, with Bullet Punch's low percent of usage, Gengar with HP-Fire should do the job fairly well, but if it doesn't OHKO, Crunch is up there at 60%. So, really, even without taking special into account, Lucario is a dangerous beast, and you have to remember, once you move up the ladder, you'll face players who know how to better take advantage of him.

10. Infernape: 14.52%

Although Infernape has dropped in usage since October, he's still rounding out the top 10. Infernape remains one of the best wallbreakers in OU, with very little able to wall him consistently. Close Combat is on 85% of Infernapes for huge STAB damage, hitting almost everything in the format, and not really making Infernape too much more frail, since most faster things will already kill him. Grass Knot is second most used at 43%, letting Infernape get past water types, namely arch-nemesis Swampert. Nasty Plot dropped 3%, relegating it to the realm of obscurity in random ladder battles, which is a shame since Nasty Plot plus Close Combat lets Infernape destroy entire teams easily. U-Turn's risen slightly but still remains low at 17.1%, which is also interesting since it lets Infernape get a nice escape and still get damage against some of his counters.

11. Gengar: 13.82%

Once upon a time, when Garchomp was lord of the lands, the only one who could challenge his usage was a little quick ghost named Gengar. Then DPP came out, destroyed Hypnosis and Gengar's usage slowly dropped, leaving him 11th from his undisputed place of second. Most used item is Life Orb at 37.7%, taking Scarf's spot on Gengar. Interesting, Specs is under 'Other', even though Gengar is fast enough and powerful enough to use them to dent things pretty well. Shadow Ball is the most used attack, on 96.3% of Gengar sets, followed by Thunderbolt and Focus Blast. Trick is all the way down at 12.5% (I'm proud to be one of those users), and Destiny Bond is at 18%, despite the fact Gengar is fast enough to use both to cripple sweepers. Hypnosis is on 12.6% of sets still, showing 60% accuracy is still usable. A very weird portion used Sludge Bomb at 6%, but really, don't use Sludge Bomb. Definitely not in OU, because then you'll get Pursuited by a Scizor.

12. Swampert: 12.88%

Now the mudfish comes out to play, with his great typing and base stats. Leftovers was the only item even really considered this time, on 90% of Swamperts, along with Earthquake (also on 90%). Stealth Rock was second most used, at 67%, followed by Ice Beam. Waterfall was interestingly only 32% of sets, and Sleep Talk didn't even make the list, showing Swampert was mostly just an aggressor and not a setup. Curse was on 11.6%, just under Avalanche's 11.7%, showing Cursepert is still alive, even if inferior to Curselax.

13. Rotom-H: 12.68%

Even though the Rotom forms get their tier list placing as if they were one Pokemon, I don't feel it'd be right to analyze them as one. So, here's the most used, and for good reason, the Oven (it was originally going to be a Toaster, but alas, it was not to be). Shadow Ball was the most used at 82.3%, followed by Thunderbolt and Overheat. Overheat only being on 67% intrigues me, as it shows that Rotom-H is the 'go-to' Rotom, as bluffing Overheat is more powerful than bluffing Air Slash. Trick remains high up there at 42%, to go with the 42% with Scarves. 3% had Specs, and 54.7% had Leftovers, however. Sleep Talk was interestingly high at 10%, although I would've thought Rotom-H was too fragile to RestTalk. Will-o-Wisp also remains a threat to physical sweepers, on 40% of Rotom-Hs.

14. Blissey: 12.18%

Blissey is still the most used special wall, as not many Latias are EVd to wall, probably due to its low health and lack of Soul Dew. Softboiled (!) is the most used move at 62%, followed by Seismic Toss and Toxic, which remains more popular than Thunder Wave, which I find interesting due to there being more Steels than Ground. Wish remains more popular than Aromatherapy, by 8%, with Wish sitting at 38%. 5.5% think they can get away with Counter, despite the lack of Focus Sashes, with the only item being Leftovers at 100%. Stealth Rock is also sitting on 15%, even though you all know there's someone on your team who could do it better. 3.8% used Serene Grace, possibly because they forgot to change, possibly to Parahax with Thunderbolt to attack and Thunder Wave, who knows. Not too many people bother statusing Blissey, so it is potentially useful to bluff Natural Cure.

15. Azelf: 11.37%

The first of the 'faeries', and the only OU one, Azelf comes along. Still number 1 lead, the most used moves were Stealth Rock at 65%, Explosion also at 65% and Psychic at 52.6%. People tend to overlook the fact that, not only is Azelf fast and a good lead, it also has bloody good attack and special attack. Nasty Plot saw play on a measly 10% of teams, which really would be better if more teams were running other leads and ran Azelf as a sweeper instead, but oh well. 17% of Azelfs were also Dual Screening with Light Clay, but the majority held a Sash. However, 11.5% had Trick and a Choice Scarf, which was the one thing Alakazam had over Azelf and it just took it away. Damn you Azelf!

16. Starmie: 11.07%

Starmie, though dropped a place, has had fairly stable usage for a while. Natural Cure + fast + high special attack does a good sweeper make. Thunderbolt, Surf and Ice Beam were the most common moves, all at over 60%, with Thunderbolt peaking at 84%. Next up was Rapid Spin at 55%, which is always a useful support move. Recover was there on 43% of Starmies to keep them alive from Life Orb recoil, and Trick was there on a measly 10.4%, so your Blissey probably isn't going to get a new Scarf from Starmie anytime soon. Its interesting that Scarf is more common than Specs on such a fast Pokemon, which would make Starmie's reasonable Special Attack capable of denting anything, but I suppose with more and more Scarfed Pokemon, base speed doesn't mean much.

17. Gliscor: 10.85%

Gliscor, a.k.a. Metaknight, is one of the best leads in OU at the moment in my opinion, but usage disagrees with me, having him down at 12th in Leads usage. 75% had Leftovers, but 10% had a Yache Berry, to counter Gliscor's obvious 4x Ice weakness. Earthquake (86%), Roost (70%), Taunt (51%) and Stealth Rock (35.5%) were his most used moves, which, if you haven't noticed, are all PERFECT MOVES FOR A LEAD. Oh well. Swords Dance appears to be the move of choice for Baton Passing, with Rock Polish down at 10% and SD sitting on 26%, but to be fair, Baton Pass itself is only on 18%, so some of those Swords Dancers are for sweeping with Gliscor. 63% had Sand Veil, which works well due to the large number of TTars, even if you don't have one, and 36% had Hyper Cutter, to prevent actual hazing and Intimidate.

18. Vaporeon: 8.90%

I was there when Wishporeon was barely used, relegated to the UU metagame and nobody liked it for some reason, when I said to a friend of mine named Charles one day, 'why not use Vaporeon with Wish instead of Blissey?' And now everyone uses it, and this saddens me. Well, clearly not everyone, if its only at 8.9%, but still. Surf and Wish are the most common two, at 90% and 85% respectively, then followed by Protect at 70%, both for scouting and the mighty Wish-Protect combo that makes Vaporeon such a great and annoying staller. Vaporeon's use as a Wishpasser and Acid Armor passer is still there, with BP on 13% and Acid Armour on 10%. Aqua Ring was also there on 6%, as a rather odd stall choice, but I suppose it could work.

19. Machamp: 8.56%

The king of the ring comes up next, having lost its 18th spot to Vaporeon. As one of the most brutal physical attackers ever to be in the game with its STAB No-Guard DynamicPunch, with the brutal move on 92% of sets. 66.2% of sets had Leftovers, but 18% had a Lum Berry to prevent Will-o-Wisp doing the only thing Machamp can do, really. Payback was his next most used move at 62%, taking advantage of how slow Machamp is to hit like a truck against Ghosts. 28% of Machamps were also RestTalkers, letting him Dynamicpunch everything, or alternatively take advantage of Guts. 91% had No Guard, while 9% had Guts, showing that at least some of the RestTalkers continued to Dynamicpunch. 13% of the other Machamps were Bulk Up, though I'm not sure Machamp has the Defence to really take advantage of it.

20. Magnezone: 8.46%

Just a touch under Machamp and rounding out the top 20, we have the anti-Steel, Magnezone. Built to switch in on Scizors locked on bullet punch. A small few forgot to change abilities and left it on Sturdy (A HINT FOR THE UPCOMING OHKO CLAUSE TEST?') but every other Magnezone had its Magnet Pull. Thunderbolt was his most used move, on 95% of Magnezone (really, why wouldn't you have it?), followed by Explosion and HP-Fire, both near 50%. Since his target of choice has changed from Metagross and Heatran to Scizor, Magnet Rise has dropped in usage to 27% from back when Metagross and Heatran were the most used Steels and Magnezone feared Earthquake and Earth Power. Charge Beam was a weird buff choice on 6% of Zones, since a Charge Beam and a +1 Charge Beam do less damage than a +1 Thunderbolt, but whatever, it works sometimes, I guess.

Now onto other interesting usages in OU:

48. Heracross: 3.35%

Heracross' usage dropping to 3.35% is a bad sign for the next tier change, since he's been on a downward spiral and showing no signs of recovering. As such, if this continues, by the next tier change, Heracross will hit UU status. If you care, 40% were Scarfed, and 96% had Megahorn on their set. A few were Flame Orb-Guts-Swords Dance, hitting like a truck with Facade, but most were standard Choiceacross.

50. Umbreon: 3.07%

Just under Heracross and Rotom-C (who's at no worry of falling into UU), we have Umbreon, who's been sitting on the precipice of OU for quite some time, but has always been just under it. Umbreon's gone up from 2.87% in October, meaning its getting closer and closer, and may be able to jump in when Heracross falls if it gets another spike in interest. If you care, its main moves are Wish (63%), Baton Pass (52%) and Mean Look (44%). Curse is its most dangerous weapon with Mean Look, however, letting it set up however much it wants on, say, a Blissey.

55. Ludicolo: 2.37%

The guy manages 2.37% WITHOUT Manaphy in the format. If Manaphy does hit the format, Ludicolo is a full proof counter for it, with a 4x resistance to Manaphy's STAB, and neutral to its two other common moves, BoltBeam. Plus, RainRest Manaphy gets outrun by a Swift Swim Ludicolo, who can easily kill Manaphy with a mighty Energy Ball. So, basically, if Manaphy becomes OU, expect Ludicolo to hit OU as well.

360. Kakuna: 0.00% (used 27 times)

For those of you who haven't looked through every NFE page, Kakuna has his own moveset page here: http://www.smogon.com/dp/pokemon/kakuna presumably written by The Kakuna Guy, the greatest of Kakuna users. The most used item was Choice Band this month, at 21%, followed by Metronome and Black Sludge, both at 17.4%. All Kakunas had Poison Shot and Iron Defense, but they really varied after that. with 87% using String Shot, 86.2% using Bug Bite and 30% using Harden. Clearly, Harden's a bit lacking in the defence area. Interestingly, however, no Kakuna ran any SpDef EVs. Interesting choice, but I think it really needs some there.

I'll try to get UU done tonight. If I can't, it'll be up tomorrow.