Choose your own Adventure: 1: Stop -- To colloborate and listen, turn to 26. To hammer time, turn to 31.

Alright, time for the tourney wrap-up post by Pete. If Vlade uploads the videos, my shameless plug will hopefully catch more viewers, especially since he agreed with my shameless plug. All hail the power of free advertising!

So, as you may or may not know, last Sunday was We're Starfox 3 - Katina. Though a few regulars couldn't turn up (Ric in particular, as well as Glenn, Alex and Elton), the hatches were most definitely open for relatively new faces. Technodeath turned up to his second tournament to pledge allegiance to the dark lord Ganon, and Dax, Jesusface and Fractal all showed up as well. Doubles started things off with a bang, since Team Godot was no more complete, and Sam instead teaming up with Mic to make the mighty Corpsewang. The finals ended up with Jupz and Vlade playing against Corpsewang, with Corpsewang coming from the loser's bracket after being defeated by Masked Love Bandits. They took MLB down in the loser's finals, bringing Sam back for a chance to win doubles. They won the first set, but alas, Vlade and Jupz won the day and took doubles, eluding to a possible dethroning of the great Sam today.

After a lunch break in which Corey revealed to the SQUAT crew he'd be joining them there (causing a particularly hype lunch break), singles kicked off, with Alzi, Ghnaschnakoff, Trill and Corey entering, having been too cheap to enter doubles. First round was particularly uneventful, because everyone and their dog got byes, but second round lead to a clash of godlike proportions, one that has yet to happen so far. After Sam created a corpse out of Trill, he played against the mighty Level 9 Luigi, who'd defeated Bye easily in the first round. Luigi put up a huge effort in game 1, barely losing, before counterpicking Pirate Ship in game 2. Sam, however, accidentally took the match to Luigi's Mansion. He quit the game, but as Luigi was okay with the stage, it was considered a forfeit of game 2, ending in the Pirate Ship game 3. Luigi put up in a good effort, but in the end, fell into the loser's bracket. While I didn't get to see much else in round 2, due to losing my voice while commentating Weegee's game and needing to go get a drink, I'm sure Alzi vs Jupz and Corey vs Trav were also high caliber games.

Round 3 came in instantly after Weegee's game, as Andy sat down, knuckles cracked, ready for the epic game ahead. First game resolved to stage striking, ending on Smashville, and while Weegee put up a good fight against the King of Evil, including a mighty Shin Shoryuken to Dorf's head to punish a whiffed dash attack, he fell eventually. Game 2 went to Rainbow Cruise, after Pirate Ship got banned, and Luigi took a massive dent in Andy's life as he did a 70% combo to Andy's first stock. He was ahead by a stock as the stage reset, but decided to throw it away in an act of overconfidence and SDd, and Andy pulled the game back and won from there.

Round 4, I didn't get to see much, due to having a long clash against Bob (good games, by the way, but I don't want to write about them since it'll seem selfish of me. Pity my Ivysaur sucks so much) but, by Andy's body language ('I beat Jupz!' with a huge smile on his face, caught by Kane's response of 'really?!' indicates it was hard fought). Since I then got eliminated, all the games on TV 1 I saw as part of the commentary team in our booth (there totally was a booth). By the way, I'd like to thank whoever called out for me to commentate Muzga vs Vlade, makes me feel like I'm special :D.

I managed to catch the end of Muzga vs Vlade, as Kane went off to play a game (how disrespectful to the commentary booth, actually playing in the tournament. Pffft). It was hard fought by Andre, but alas, Vlade showed why he's in the Falco backroom, and why he's one of our three chances at dethroning the Great King Sam, owner of Marteh. I'm sure you'll do a fine job at representation for WA at squat, Andre, especially if you get a bit more practice in beforehand. Preferably from someone who isn't Sam so you don't get read like a book.

Also round 4 was a disappointed Trav telling me of his heart-wrenching loss to Mar...I mean MFZB. He had a nice lead, he told me, until he SD'd and brought his run through the loser's bracket to an end, also letting me feel better about my loss to Marty, considering Ivysaur is pretty much an SD.

Next game I got to watch as Vlade vs Corpsecreate, in winner's semifinals. Really, there's not much I can say about this match now. Its happened a billion times before, you all know what happens. Lasers, arrows, bombs, gimp attempts, Sam avoiding death like he's a highlander. No offence intended to Vlade, since he's an infinitely better player than me, but there can only be one.

Kane vs Sam was up next, as winner's finals. Kane was clearly not playing at his full potential, initially because of being hungover and then because his anger at his own mistakes seemed to get the better of him and do rash mistakes. Sam took the match easily, and went into the grand finals. Kane vs Vlade was the next commentary game, with Kane seemingly still angry at himself, and, despite his knowledge of playing against Falco and Vlade in particular, he lost the game. Disappointing result for Kane, as he has defeated Vlade on prior occasions.

So, grand final was yet again Vlade vs Sam. My theory, that Vlade and Ric will alternate grand finals until one defeats Sam, is still completely intact. Same thing as every other time they play, yet again, with all the counterpicks being done as if they were second nature. I'm sure it'll be uploaded soon enough, anyway. Next time, I'll bring a video camera and do things with it, promise.

Shout-out time (copied from Andre, blame him if you're missing):

Jesusface: Good games in our matches, next time I see you, I'll give you tips on Falcon. As an ex-main and current secondary, I hope I can show you a thing or two.
Technodeath: Good games in doubles, disappointed in the effort I put in there. Good friendlies, as well. I'd probably play DK more than Ganon, if I were you, as it looks fairly good from the bits I saw against Bob.
Fractal: Didn't actually see you. No offence intended, but I have nothing to say.
Jesse: I'm sure I played against you at Kane's smashfest. Oh well, good friendlies, you'll be making t8 in no time.
Lvl 9 Luigi: King as always. Good luck at SQUAT, I'm sure you'll represent us well.
Trav: Didn't get to see you play, but you seemed heartbroken about that loss to Marty. Also, nice discovery for Brawl+ :P.
Mic: Didn't play you, only got to saw you in Corpsewang. You've got a nice looking Ganon on Pirate Ship, and your Ivysaur is pretty good for an Ivysaur. :P
Jason: We made a pretty good commentary team, eh :D? Although I didn't see it, I'm sure you didn't lose to Andy without a damn good fight, so better luck next time.
Bob: We have one real Shiek main, and two Pokemon Trainers, and you complain about lack of matchup experience :P? Doesn't seem fair to me, but eh. Good games, and hopefully you got all the knowledge you need from my laptop.
Marty: I'll get you next time! :P
Graeme: Didn't really speak to you much, but you seemed funny as usual.
Dax: Good games in doubles, you gave me a ton of trouble in game 2. Keep working on the Ike and you'll be spiking everyone like a boss.
Alan: Didn't see you except when you were watching the finals, so got nothing to say. :(
Andy: Like you need a shout-out from me.
Luke: I got to see a bit of the ROB mirror, and didn't see enough spot dodge -> down smashes. It disappointed me greatly. :P
Corey: Good work on getting 4th at Brawl and SF4. Soon enough you'll be a fighting game king :P. Good luck at SQUAT.
Kane: Same as above, but drop the part about placing SF4 and change 4th to 3rd. :P
Alister: Pew pew lasers. Thanks for the recording equipment and letting me take Weegee's matches. Hope you enjoy Yugioh. If you had practice in between now and last tournament, I feel you would've done pretty damn well against Sam.
Samuel: All hail the great lord Sam, for when he doth descend from the heavens to win Brawl, thou shalt know his name.
Andre: Man, I'm retarded for forgetting you. Course you wouldn't be on your own list. :/ Anyway, I didn't play against you, and I didn't get to talk to you much before you left the commentary booth tired. Judging by your placing, you did fairly well for that state of awakeness, though.

EDIT: By the way, this little edit is almost entirely for Jupz. Remember that video of the black guy talking about maining the best you linked? I should've posted this then, but I lost the opportunity, so let's go now. That guy's Santhrax, one of the best in the world in MvC2, SF4 and Tekken. In none of those games he plays the best. In MvC2, the best team is Magneto/Storm/Sentinel. He plays Storm/Sentinel/Captain Commando. In SF4, Sagat is the best. He beat Daigo, the best in the world, with Cammy, a solid mid-tier character. In Tekken 6, the best is Bob. He plays Ganryu, a nearly bottom tier character. So, basically, regardless of what he says, he's a perfect case you don't need to play the best.

And Youtube lives!

First video has been uploaded, you guys should feel proud to be here for this moment:




Enjoy. Bang Bang by Weegee (actually Trav) should be up soon.

Stop, Youtube Time

Alright, so, although there may be nothing on it now, my Youtube account is PetesCappucino, because some prick took PetesCoffee. Soon, videos of me vs Nasch (better known as Ganondorf, king of evil itself), will be uploaded, as well as some (hopefully) interviews (take that, Bob. guess you got one-upped :P) and other useful stuff. Here's a link:

http://www.youtube.com/user/PetesCappucino

Enjoy.

Let's get a few things straight

For those of you who are unaware (you poor, poor people), this is a Blue-Eyes White Dragon (or Blue-Eyes for short):

Its the signature card of a rich, arrogant, absurdly badass Seto Kaiba, and has the highest attack of any normal monster card. It, the Red Eyes and the Dark Magician are all signature cards of players on the original anime, but aren't really that good (especially the Red Eyes). Therefore, when the anime watchers slowly caught on to how to play the game and realised this, the cards got dropped and the several different alternate arts got wasted. Complaints would be made about the contents of themed starter decks (despite the fact they're designed for new players), and thus, the only logical conclusion was to make them better.

However, you can't make a card 'better' in Yugioh, strictly. You can't buff its attacks, you can't make its dodge better or improve its projectiles. Once the card is printed, its printed. On the flipside, cards can't be nerfed either, and thus some cards have to banned (all hail Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End). But, on the other hand, you have 37 more cards in your deck, and thus they can be made better to support the card in question. Eventually, you end up with this:

And this:

And this:

(Incidentally, the life cycle of a Blue Eyes goes White Stone of Legend (its an egg), Paladin of White Dragon, Blue Eyes)

This still leads to a question, 'But Pete, surely running all this support for one card would be harder than just running better cards'. On the other hand, these cards, given you're running Blue Eyes, -are quite powerful-. White Stone of Legend is an absurd card advantage engine, using Future Fusion to get out a Five-Headed Dragon and give you three Blue Eyes in hand. The Paladin's effect, while not as good in this metagame, is still potent against the right decks. Burst Stream is Raigeki, one of the first cards to be banned. However, you can't rely on getting Blue Eyes out all the time, which leads to my first deck getting back into Yugioh: a Dragon deck supported by the mighty Blue Eyes.

Obviously, with all the support cards, the deck is based around Blue Eyes, but its not entirely built on it. For instance, Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, while capable of powering out massive dragons on its own, can also power out a Blue Eyes to hit with a Burst Stream and let the Red Eyes kill. Dragon Totems can power out a Blue Eyes, or they can power out a Tyrant Dragon and laugh at the enemy's trap cards. White Stone of Legend, while capable of tutoring Blue Eyes, can also tune for a Trident Dragon (I suppose, though there's probably better for it). Stamping Destruction works just fine with any dragon, with a Blue-Eyes 'surfeiting'.

So, while I haven't actually started the deck yet (I'm still researching the current metagame, since I left when Cyber Dragon was unrestricted and everyone had 3 in every deck), I have a good idea where the deck is going to go, based around the dragon of legend.

I'm on the net

This really deserves its own post, even if I hate to double post in a day:

Doctor Cosmo Kramer, proctology. says:

having a blog, doing analyses and shit

Andeh says:

surfing in'ernet, getting everybody all wet

Doctor Cosmo Kramer, proctology. says:

this ain't aol, this is real as it gets

Andeh says:

im nerd bitch, dont you ever forget!

ima *

Doctor Cosmo Kramer, proctology. says:

I'm on the net and, downloading fast and, I've got a neon blue backlit keyboard

Andeh says:

im the king of web, on the 'tube like leeroy, if youre having a life then you sure not me-o

Doctor Cosmo Kramer, proctology. says:

get the fuck up, this pic is real

Andeh says:

fuck rl i got a raid motherfucker!

Doctor Cosmo Kramer, proctology. says:

hitting 'sauron with my boys motherfucker!

Andeh says:

computer cooler make noise motherfucker!!

Doctor Cosmo Kramer, proctology. says:

oh ma if you could see me now, yelling on vent with my bros so loud

Andeh says:

gonna lead this raid to the end somehow

Doctor Cosmo Kramer, proctology. says:

like John Carmack, anything is possible!

Andeh says:

yeah, never thought id be a big pro, its big white binary road

Doctor Cosmo Kramer, proctology. says:

Bowser, look at me, oh, all hands on 'keys

Andeh says:

never thought id see the day, with a big finals coming my way, believe me when i say, i beat SK!!!

Doctor Cosmo Kramer, proctology. says:

I'm on the net, I'm on the net, don't nobody message me, cause I'm raidin' on the net

Andeh says:

im on the net, im on the net, got my motherfucking rig to be pwning on the net

Are we the coolest kids ever?

Woohoo!

So, here we have the new trailer for the new SSF4 characters: Guy, Cody and Adon. The first two are originally from Final Fight, while Adon is originally from Street Fighter 1 as Sagat's student, making this even more of an 'old' update than even the SF2 characters being brought back. Admittadly, Cody's playstyle is a tad unlike his original in FF, and he's now a criminal on the run as of Alpha 3, because really, original Cody was the blandest character ever.

First off in the video, we have the fallen hero Cody. His knife is returning, as shown by the video, and will probably use the same old pick up mechanics as it had in Alpha 3 (as in, if you get holding it, you drop it, and you pick it up with down + pp.) His rocks aren't shown in the video, but its hardly a large wager to bet if he's criminal Cody and has his knife, the rocks will be returning. His ultra looks fairly bland, which ironically makes it stand out, due to Cody being the only actual street fighter in the game. I like how it really is just him smacking the crap out of someone.

Next up, we have Guy, the bushin ninja. He's joining fellow ninjas Vega and Ibuki (her kunai is shown clearly in one of his magazine shots, with the text even saying 'I WONDER WHO USES KUNAIS'. Bit of a giveaway, really). He's fast, has a super jump, wall jumps, air throws, command runs, in the Alpha series, and hopefully he'll be the same to spice up the relatively slow SF4. Not much of him is shown besides high hitting corner combos, and he can still go under regular sized fireballs (damn Sakura and DJ). His ultra looks fairly swish, if a bit reminiscent of Vega's (though alot less creepy).

Lastly (of the new 3), we have Adon, the muay thai specialist who's out for revenge against Ryu and Sagat. Jaguar Kick and Rising Jaguar are looking just as good, and Jaguar Tooth looks like it'll still be up for punishing fireballs well (even if only EX is shown, the mind games will still probably be there). His ultra is my favourite of the new ones, since it just looks utterly brutal as he slams that last knee into Sagat's head. EDIT: If you watch Adon's section closely, it appears he can do j.mk > Jaguar Kick > c.lk, which is where it becomes hard to tell if the combo then links into the Rising Jaguar, or if it cuts away. I'm resting on the second one for the moment.

There you have it, a brief wrap up of the nothing that really happened besides aesthetics summarized by someone you don't care about.

EDIT:

~~~~~Michael?!~~~~~Tampa Bay officially suck, they lost to Carolina and Toronto...WTF! says:

man

you know too much about things

There you have it. That's why I deserve a blog, and you regular people don't. :D

Shoddy 2

When Shoddy 2 comes out, it'll allow doubles games. However, it doesn't just allow that. It will have a toggle feature, allowing from 1v1 to 6v6. I predict that the most played metagames will be 1v1 (obviously), 2v2 (since the games allow it) and the mighty 6v6, with all 6 pokemon out at once. Thus, as me and Trav have already begun discussing this metagame, I believe a few rules should be made about it, and we're beginning the refining of it.

First of all, rules. I doubt Evasion Clause should really be on in 6v6, since its easy enough to just focus on a Double Teamer and take it down. Also, due to the fact there's no switching, entry hazards mean nothing, and the word 'lead' means nothing as well. Lastly, Perish Song Clause would also have to be invented, to prevent all 6v6 games going a mere 3 turns into draw. Thus, I present, what we believe will be the lords and masters of 6v6.

First of all, Earthquake becomes insane because of its ability to hit all Pokemon at once, which, in turn, forces levitaters and fliers to move up, causing Rotom, Gengar, Latias and Gyarados to move up in usage. It does become useless if your team doesn't have anything immune to it, though. Explosion, as well, hits all enemy pokemon, causing it to be default on all Pokemon that could get it, really, causing Gengar, Rotom and Dusknoir to be more powerful. While phazing is impossible, Haze now stops all stat changers, and its also easy enough to focus one stat changer. In turn, however, its easy to focus a Hazer, so statupping remains possible, but risky and dangerous, and more likely something to leave later on so your hapless statupper doesn't get targetted. Lastly, the two Screens and Safeguard affect all your pokemon, so if you can set them up quickly, it'll let the game last longer and stop nasty burns.

Certain abilities become even better, as well. Intimidate, in particular, hits all enemies, causing a Gyara-Salamence combo to really hinder enemy physical sweeping. Bad Dreams hits all sleeping pokemon, as well, which gives Darkrai alot of power in potential Uber 6v6s. Trace randomly takes an enemy ability out of all 6, making it risky, but potentially powerful, and as alot of powerful abilities are possible, Porygon2 used to get an extra Intimidate is possible. Lightningrod and Storm Drain actually become useful, potentially to cover for fragile water/fire pokemon and give pokemon like Rhyperior a few more uses. Pressure is also on enough high stat pokemon to have 6 Pressures and just PP drain the enemy so much they Struggle.

In Uber 6v6, Kyogre remains in his position of god tier, due to Water Spout hitting all enemy pokemon for huge damage if it can survive the first turn. Wailord can do the same thing, and with its higher health, it'll stay at a high enough base power. In addition, if you see a Wailord, you're probably not going to focus it over something else like, say, a Salamence, really? Eruption on Typhlosion and Entei also lets them see more use, as does the lack of Stealth Rocks to take off 1/4 of their health every time they switch in. Alas, Charizard and Moltres, despite not being afraid of SR anymore, only have Heat Wave as their potential 'hit everything' move.

Potential strategies include having a team of Scarfers, for one. Being able to outrun the enemy team and see their types at first makes for good Scarf decisions, so you aren't left with hitting on a 4x Resistance. In addition, Scarfed Rotoms and Gengars are immune to EQ and Explosion, and thus having those on a Scarf team make it more possible for it to deal large amounts of damage in a short few turns.

Good 6v6 Scarfers:

Counters to 6v6 Scarfers:

And anything else with good priority moves and/or nice defences.

Garchomp stands out, as shown by the power of Chain Chomp, as he can be a great mixed attacker, hitting hard with his mighty STAB EQ, even more powerful in this metagame. Slaking can do the same, as Truant doesn't really affect it much when you're in such a quick game. If he can OHKO a Pokemon first turn, he's done his job fine. In addition, Skill Swap can put Levitate or something else on him, taking the Truant to someone that doesn't really care and letting him hit for his full effect. Gengar and Rotom can Trick nicely if the opponent has a setup, and still hit with brilliant coverage on three moves. Rotom gets Heat Wave as well, if necessary. Latias and Porygon-Z gets the coverage they have, but alas not the Trick. Porygon-Z especially hits hard with Tri-Attack. Flygon gets the same EQ as Garchomp, but lacks the ability to go mixed. However, he makes up for it with faster speed, allowing it to hit the faster fire/electric types before they can go, as well as Levitate, dodging your own EQs and the enemies to boot. Lastly, Aerodactyl, Salamence and Weavile all get nice speed and nice attack to boot, though Salamence gets mixed and both it and Aerodactyl dodge the mighty EQ. Weavile, though, gets STAB Ice, which is useful, but Salamence does get the powerful Intimidate.

For counters, obviously priority works. Sucker Punch, Bullet Punch and Shadow Sneak were the first ones that came to mind, mostly due to their powerful users, as shown above. Scizor obviously hits harder than Metagross with Bullet Punch, but 4x Weaknesses probably aren't useful in this format. Honchkrow's massive Sucker Punch damage also hits very hard, at its great +2 Priority, letting it hurt the other priority users on the list. Dusknoir's nice defences and Will-o-Wisp do great, as well, and Spiritomb's lack of weaknesses let it prevent itself getting OHKOd and hit back with its own Sucker Punch.

The problem with a few standard OU Scarfers like, say, Heatran, will be worried by the likes of Flygon using massive Earthquakes. Really, the ability to OHKO Heatran without even having to target him should scare him away. Same thing with Electivire. However, I believe Jolteon should be fast enough to focus a hit in on any EQ users before they can kill him, although Flygon is still a worry.

Tune in next 6v6 Tuesday for the next potential strategy, and more on the interesting hypothetical metagame. (Its also great for thought experiments!)

Breaking News!

Skymin in Random Battles is overpowered if you get Headbutt. Also, Psych Up is a great counter to Double Team, and Swords Dance + Double Team isn't as good as it sounds.

Skymin (N/A) @ Who cares!

Ability: Serene Grace

EVs: God knows

Some sort of nature

- Headbutt

- Zen Headbutt

- Grasswhistle

- Aromatherapy

Today in the life of a Brawler

So, today was the Smashfest at Andre's, with an amazing three TVs in a tiny room. Quite a few people turned up, probably more than the last one but I didn't actually count. Probably the biggest event to start things off was the re-challenge between Marty and Travis for Marty's name, an amazing Marth ditto. As per the ruling of name challenges, all stages are legal, although bans are still done as usual. Starting off on WarioWare, Trav took an early lead and finished the game off easily without even needing the minigame invulnerability much. Marty counterpicked Big Blue, but failed to abuse the tracks while Trav took easy advantage of them and won 2-0, Marty complaining about the loss of his name again and the fact that he didn't think of counterpicking Green Hill Zone.

Next, I challenged Trav for the name, despite being horrible with Marth. I got two-stocked on Rumble Falls due to me being fairly bad at spacing and the stage needing it, then counterpicked the greatest stage of all after Trav banned 'Random': Port Town Aero Dive. I took an early lead, before slowly falling behind due to the stage's random momentum change as it goes up the vertical hill. I was reeling it back to a 5% difference on the last stock before Marty's phone rang, causing him to stand up, taking the Wii's cables with him and causing the game to crash as he pulled the entire Wii off the table onto the ground. After Andre reset the Wii up onto the table, Trill decided to move, tripping over Trav's controller and bringing the Wii down again as it was on the Brawl menu screen. After we moved the Wii to the ground so it couldn't fall, we redid the Aero Dive match, with it being fairly close until the last stock where Trav took a nice stock to seal the deal 2-0.

Then Trill, Destroyer of Wiis, challenged Trav for the name, with the rule that no tournament-legal stages were allowed. First game was 75m, with some very nice spacing and abuse of the point system to get a very large high score. The Flamey's and the springs failed to do much damage, though, with the ladders being the real star of the match to cancel Dolphin Slash for a nice recovery. Trill pulled off some nice combos to take that game, as Trav revealed his master counterpick: Temple. Via using his teching skills from Duelist, he managed to reach absurd percentages off the bottom of the stage, and claimed the game as Trill couldn't claim any easy kills. Trill's counterpick was Mushroomy Kingdom, at 1-1. This one went for a while, as the blocks kept blocking deaths, but after a long, hard-fought fight, Trav kept the name.

He wouldn't hold it for long, though. The next challenger was the mighty Corpsecreate, or 'Sam', the god of WA. First game was on Smashville, due to a bug in the random system not saving and leave us with neutrals as Random. Sam cleaned face easily, two-stocking Trav. Trav again pulled out Temple, and this one was alot closer. However, despite some nice teching at the bottom and aerial manuerving to get to the bottom, Sam won the game, and claimed the name 'Marty'. Being Sam, nobody wanted to challenge him for it, and Glenn, who was going to play Trav for it, backed out, leaving Sam as 'Marty' by the end of the day.

Next on the day in importance was the best of 9 set with Sam playing against Trav, Marty and Jesse/Ian/MTGod. TMJ was playing a might combination of Ness, Lucas and Game and Watch to fill buckets, heal teammates and take names. Sam was, of course, playing Toon Link to even the odds. The maps varied from Battlefield, to Spear Pillar, to a Duelist varient called 'YOU~FUCKED' finally ending on a massive counterpick by Trav and co. to change it to actual teams and remove team damage. An interesting counterpick, but it worked when two of them went Dedede and they went to Bridge of Eldin to finally seal the set 5-3.

A bit later in the night, we had a doubles Home Run Contest with Marteh and Andeh going double Ganondorf and smashing away at the sand bag. After a long, heartwrenching attempts, they finally got the sandbag to 280% and double Murder Fisted it, hitting it 1600m. However, the pair decided that wasn't good enough, and got the bag to 304%, hitting it 2010.9m to claim the home run contest record on Andre's Wii. A video of this will be posted if I can get around to bringing an SD card and putting the replay on it, and if I can, it'll be editted in here, so watch this space.

Next up was a set between me and Andre in a MK ditto. First we went on FD, and while I had a nice start, I eventually got two-stocked. Since I'm an emotional man, this angered me and caused me to not even get the nice start on the next game, after Andy gave away my counterpick, and so I ragequitted after getting killed and only doing 37% to Andre. I played another MK ditto later against him, though, this time he let me pick Port Town, and I won that game, but he showed his knowledge of Delphino and it played pretty much the same as the first game on FD: nice start, poor finish.

That's pretty much all the important matches I saw. If anyone else has anything important they want me to add, just tell me and I'll write about it here for all to see. And I really will try to get that replay of the 2009m hit.

So, now, shout-out time. This is my first one, since I dislike doing them on a forum, but I now have a nice place to put them, so yay.

Andre:

Props for hosting yet another great smashfest. Good thing your Wii survived the day, and I got some nice experience from the MK dittos.

Richard:

I didn't really talk to you much this time, since all your games were on the TV behind me, but I'm sure you played well. Hope to go with you guys to squat.
Samuel:
I can't believe you lost to Trav, Marty and Jesse! Sure, it was simultaneously, but still. Beyond godlike skills as usual.
Travis:
God I hate Game and Watch. I think that sums up the entirety of my games with you, really. On the social side, you're still a hilarity to talk to, and hopefully at the next tournament, to commentate with.
Marty:
I don't think I played against you in a 1v1 once, although the free-for-alls and 2v2s (and 3v1s) were great fun. And you didn't even take on the Chimera!

Jesse:

I also don't think I played against you 1v1, so same thing as above. Thanks for not attacking me while I charged the Chimera.

Alan:

I didn't even hear you leave, so you're more silent than I thought. Have you ever considered a career in special forces?

Trill:

Truly, you are the Destroyer of Wiis, empowered with the Triforce of Power for that explicit purpose. I didn't play against you, but I liked your stage picks in the Name Challenge.
Glenn:
Your Falcon isn't really up to par with mine, but I'm sure that could change. Nice chaingrabbing skills on IC, its the first time I've properly seen them in action.
Alex:
I didn't interact with you at all this time, so I have nothing to say here.

EDIT:

And to finish it off, a nice msn quote:

Jesse (Doctor Loxor) says:

Ike's like that one retarded kid in class that no one can really figure out why he's good at art

There you have it.

EDIT.2:

We have a new quote from Andre to go along with this:

Andre Maujean: Ike is like Ralph Wiggum.

Fun Facts About Snorlax

The most important thing you should know about Snorlax is that, even though the invention of Close Combat, the rise of mix attackers and Scizor's Superpower have decreased Snorlax from the best special sponge/late-game sweep in the game to a mere regular Pokemon, he's still very, very powerful. If he's let alone to set up, he will destroy entire teams by looking at them. I can't count the number of times my new team has 5-0'd teams (I run Aerodactyl lead, I can't 6-0 someone). So, as part of my attempt to claim the title 'The Snorlax Guy', I'm starting off with this post.

Snorlax has always been one of my most favourite Pokemon, up there with Heracross, Rotom, Dusclops (now Dusknoir) and Deoxys. Snorlax is the oldest of those, and was the kingpin of my RBY team (which wasn't competitive, admittadly). When some time passed and I realised the fun of competitive Pokemon, I'd downloaded Netbattle, and carried my team with Curselax. Admittadly, my team was built mostly of my favourites and was fairly useless. Shuckle and Wobbuffet (before Shadow Tag) were also on the team, but I was fairly good at prediction, so the team still did fairly well in tournaments because Snorlax had so much sheer power.

I missed the RSE era, but now I'm back in DPP, and so the first thing I did was rebuild a Curselax team, this time slightly more competitive. So, skip ahead to now, and we've got my current Curselax team. Although I was using my Rock Polish Aggron team in the tournament to get some good testing on it, I'll probably be using the Curselax team to carry me through loser's bracket. I won't reveal the team just yet, that can get its own post later. For now, let's focus on the mighty Snorlax himself.

First of all, although Curselax is the set everyone sees Snorlax by, because of its sheer defensive -and- offensive power, it takes time to set up. Some people have had success with a CBLax set, although as should be obvious by his base speed, Scarf is completely useless on Lax. For more defensive sets than CB, Snorlax can also do (what really should by synonymous with the name 'Snorlax'), Sleep Talk Lax works as well. Although you can't expect it to last long against a physical sweeper, special sweepers from Gengar to Heatran get walled by Lax, and so once you've got rid of their physical sweepers, Lax can just stand there and Rest. You could also just drop Curse and Rest for Self-Destruct and another attacking move, and not worry about setting up or predicting.

Another possible set Smogon doesn't even discuss is a SubPunch. High health, nice resistances and special defence, as well as the attack to back up Focus Punch makes it quite possible and unexpected to boot. Focus Punch can also be useful on 'normal' Lax teams for predicting switch-ins, although you probably won't have room for the moveslot on Curselax.

On the subject of abilities, Immunity is utterly useless on Curselax and obviously useless on Sleep Talk, as Thick Fat provides great elemental resistances and let's Lax take no damage from Heatran's Fire Blast. It also let's it work well with dragons, as the two options to counteract Salamence is Ice Beam or Dragon-type moves. Snorlax can switch in on Ice Beams easily, as well. If Heatran's Fire Blast can't hurt him, there aren't any Ice Beam users in OU that will be able to dent him, getting you at least a Curse or a nice Pursuit from a CB Lax (I don't understand how Snorlax can chase anything with its laziness, but that's beside the point). Immunity, however, can be useful if you're playing against alot of Toxic Spikes users and you're using a Banded Lax, but in the majority of situations, Thick Fat is far too good to ignore.

Focusing on the moveset for Curselax now, the only slot you definitely have to fill is Curse. Rest, although normally used since most Laxes go for late-game, can also be Self-Destruct, hitting at 300 base (with STAB) with a few nice Curses will take anything out. Next, while a few people like Return for the STAB slot, I prefer Body Slam, because the slight difference in damage is made up for with the potential parahax, which is infinitely better for team support. This leaves you with one slot for move coverage, of which there are a few options.

First of all, we have what I call 'the big 4'. Earthquake is the most obvious, hitting for the highest damage on the most types, but leaves you unable to hit a few Pokemon like Gengar and Rotom. Brick Break/Superpower also helps there, but leaves you unable to hit any ghosts, relegating your Curselax to the end of the game. Fire Punch will give you the ability to hit almost anything for neutral except Rock, but it has the lowest base power, while Crunch prevents you from hitting Steels for anything higher than 0.5x damage but has higher base power than Fire Punch. Ice Punch is also possible, hitting Dragons for nice, but Outrage is almost always superior than Ice Punch if you've got enough Curses to survive a Steel switch-in. Rock Slide is also possible if you're weak to a few fliers, but I'd not recommend it.

Pursuit is useless on Curselax for obvious reasons, as by the time you're setup you'll have nothing to pursue as they'll have had plenty of time to switch to a wall/counter. Focus Punch is too risky to use a slot on on Curselax in my opinion, but if you have absurd prediction skills it'll be a very nice hit. You could potentially use Zen Headbutt, Thunderpunch or Gunk Shot, but their coverage doesn't really add to anything over the previous moves listed, although Gunk Shot could be potentially use to poison something, obviously using Return over Body Slam if you do.

That's it for now, but expect another 'Fun Facts About Snorlax' or, potentially, one of my other favourite pokemon soonish.

Hey Guys, there's actually a poll

If you have noticed, look down on the sidebar and vote on seagull the poll. I need to know how seagull many of you are actually reading this seagull blog, so I can gauge interest in it. So, seagull really, vote on it.

So it turns out

I'm actually pretty damn bad at Brawl. Well, I'm alright at Brawl, but bad at each and every individual character. I can play the game, but I can't pick up spacing and ATs and matchups and whatnot. As proof, today I was practicing against Andy's Dorf (also his new Kirby, but that's irrelevant). I did exactly the same in terms of victory with Metaknight as I did with Falcon. Whether or not this means Falcon is better or I'm bad, I'm not really sure, but I'd bet on the second. It doesn't help Andy knows my Brawl thought pattern, letting him get easy dair spikes with Victorydorf, but ah well, can't be helped. I should be better with Metaknight and Falcon in time for Katina, though.

For now, random useless fact: thunder stomping with Falcon is a good way to counter a Dorf thunder stomping.

We may have a new king of NU - Part 2

So, instead of studying for the math exam tomorrow, I'm here finishing the write-up for my NU team. Its onto my three 'mainstays' now, entitled that because their efficiency has shown to beyond question. Admittedly, they get countered easily if my mindgames fail and I switch in baddly and such, but the only Pokemon who can switch in without question is Arceus, and last I checked, Arceus is banned in NU.

So, first of all, let's talk about the true god of NU. Ubers has Arceus (or will, when he's made legal), OU has Scizor and Salamence, UU had Yanmega and still has Registeel. By 'god', I mean the pokemon with the amazing movepool and the amazing stats to back it. I use the title god because the best example of it is Arceus, with the best stats, best movepool and best STAB. You can keep it normal with a LOrb and run STAB ExtremeSpeed and fill it with bulky EVs. You can make it Ice and run Calm Mind to counter all the Dragon Types with Judgment and Ice Beam. You can run a Draco Plate and Swords Dance your way to a STAB Dragon Claw sweep. Clearly, its impossible to predict what Arceus will do, and you can't just throw a meaty STAB at it because it still has the stats to beat you.

Now, we get to NU's god. Obviously, NU pokemon don't have stats entirely upto par with Arceus, but relative to the format, this guy has great stats. In other formats, Charizard is destroyed by SR, but NU's SR users are unreliable at best. Plus, with Rapid Spin usage having gone down, Pokemon who were efficient at spinning but not much else have slowly gone down, allowing quite useful spinner/spikers to be run, like Cloyster. Also, with Toxic Spikes and Spikes being more possible due to spinner/spikers being run, Charizard's ability to fly right out over them is useful.

Next, we get to his movesets. The most famous is probably BellyZard, using the might Belly Drum to trigger a Salac Berry and Blaze to get a +6 2x STAB Fire Punch at +1 speed. Its a rather daunting prospect, but if they do get SR up, Zard's already down to half health and can't afford to Belly Drum in my opinion. So, I discarded that one because, despite its power, it wasn't reliable enough with my rather poor switch in guesses. Sunny Day went out the picture next straight away, due to me not wanting to use weather that wouldn't help the rest of my team and potentially help them.

SpecsZard would be the next-most hard hitting, as Zard's SAttack is higher than his physical Attack, and at 109, certainly is a nice prospect for Speccing. However, at this point, Primeape wasn't on the team, and with Gligar being a huge glass cannon, I didn't like resting my physical prospects on something without much sweep ability. So, I slammed a LOrb on him and ran a MixZard, with this set:

Charizard (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Blaze
EVs: 60 Atk/196 Spd/252 SAtk
Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Fire Blast
- Brick Break
- Air Slash
- Rock Slide

Fire Blast is obvious huge STAB, especially since its off Zard's Sattack, rather than Fire Punch off his lesser Attack. Brick Break covers potential normal/dark types (although there aren't many worrying dark types in NU) like Munchlax. Air Slash is again, massive STAB damage, since people often forget Charizard does actually get flying STAB. Rock Slide covers other Charizards well, hitting for 4x effective damage.

Next we get to my spikes/spinner to defend Charizard. I'm not paticularly fond of the time it takes to set up spikes, even in a relatively slow format like NU, so I decided to just make it a generic support rather than a spiker. Cloyster's typing isn't something I really like in a format without Dragons, as STAB Ice only really has that as a use. Plus, taking 25% from SR defeats the purpose of spinning with such a poor SDef, leaving it liable to get OHKO'd on switch from a Fire Blast causing neutral damage to Cloyster's measily 45 SDef. I'd always liked the two fossils in D/P, although they aren't really as effective as Aerodactyl. While Cradily can't spin (it did used to be my lead initially, though), Armaldo can, and also learns the mighty Stealth Rock itself, reducing the three turns setup to a measly one. Multi-hit STAB moves are also effective against the multitude of effective sub users in the format (including hitting sub Zard sets for 4x), so I went with this set:

Armaldo (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Battle Armor
EVs: 248 HP/8 Atk/252 Def
Impish nature (+Def, -SAtk)
- Rock Blast
- Toxic
- Stealth Rock
- Rapid Spin

Toxic is used for the great stalling ability, as well as for very useful draining in the late game.

Lastly, we get to the last slot. I was feeling a bit low on my sweeping possibilities on both special and physical, so I decided for another mixed attacker, leaving either it or Zard for the late-game and using the other to get early game damage in as an effective switcheroo (not the move, Switcheroo). I limited the list down to Cacturne, Camerupt, Octillery and Seviper. Cacturne went first of the four, due to being too slow and fragile for me to be really able to hit with it. I could've rebuilt my team to start with a Hippo, but decided it wasn't worth it for a 30% chance to evade and possibly do some damage. Camerupt was relatively bulky compared to Cacturne, but its typing was alot worse, weaknesses to EQ and Waterfall is never good when you've got a speed of 40. Both Octillery and Seviper had good abilities, but Octillery had a good typing while Seviper had a better speed and only slightly worse defences. While it was a hard choice, in the end I went for Seviper, with this set:

Seviper (M) @ Life Orb
Ability: Shed Skin
EVs: 56 HP/220 Atk/135 Spd/96 SAtk
Naughty nature (+Atk, -SDef)
- Earthquake
- Giga Drain
- Flamethrower
- Poison Jab

Poison Jab is the obligatory STAB on every non-Uber sweeper, with a fairly nice poison chance as well. Earthquake is also obligatory on physical sweepers, while the remaining two moves are interesting choices. Giga Drain is a nice grass moves to use on the switch to Gastrodon or Quagsire, and heals nicely against just other EQ users not named Zard. Flamethrower is mostly there just for coverage, although since it doesn't actually add much, I think I may drop it soon and try out either Sucker Punch or Aqua Tail.

If they manage to set up Toxic Spikes on the lead, I'd like to be able to just switch in and sweep on the second turn and Seviper can do that while also absorbing the Toxic Spikes, leaving Charizard hidden away in the ranks to pull a late game sweep. With Seviper looking more and more early game sweep, I may change Charizard to a SD or a DD Charizard for a late-game smash without the unreliability of Belly Drum. Still, all will be done in further testing.

Thanks for reading through this post and I hope to keep you upto date with my NU team and, once the tournament ends, you'll get to see my mighty tournament team.

We may have a new king of NU

Alright, so today I decided to make my NU team serious business and do some research into the metagame. While I formerly had a lead Gligar, due to my love of his older brother Gliscor and he has seen some play in NU well, I realized that it was too slow and fragile for it to work well as a lead. In addition, as much as I loved Vespiquen as a tank, which it worked brilliantly as if Rocks isn't up, it didn't actually -do- anything, and against a team with anything that can stall better, its just dead weight. Lastly, I had Probopass as a physical wall, but its huge weakness to EG was also making it dead weight since it didn't wall anything actually attacking physically and didn't do enough damage to make up for it. The lack of Steels in the format also made its ability worthless.

So, first of all, I dropped Probopass for a bulky water. The choice was easy, really, since bulky waters are always brilliant and the metagame has access to some particularly good ones (relatively speaking). The format limits it the Wailord, Gastrodon, Whiscash and Quagsire. Since Quagsire had seen some play in UU and its so damn cute, I could hardly resist it. Plus, with the new HG/SS moves, Recover makes him quite an effective bulky water. I did briefly consider Gastrodon, but its physical defence made it too weak as a wall, and its special defence wasn't much higher when it could be hit by alot of things for at least neutral. So, here's my new Quagsire set:

Quagsire (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: 252 HP/96 Atk/160 Def
Relaxed nature (+Def, -Spd)
- Earthquake
- Toxic
- Recover
- Protect

Earthquake for mad stab points, Toxic for the huge potential damage, more so with Recover. Recover because it makes Quagsire so much more effective at tanking damage, even when you don't predict water moves and switch in. Protect is useful I feel for scouting Choice and accelerating Toxic damage. I'm considering Waterfall over Protect possibly, as my mindgames may be getting better and I'll require Protect less.

Next we move to the lead. Gligar is, despite being cute, absurdly fragile and can't afford to take hits, but unlike Gliscor doesn't have a high enough base speed to get away with that. As a former primarily Ubers player, I recognised a former champion falling down to NU, in the form of Primeape. Primeape, in Ubers, serves primarily as a Darkrai counter, due to being able to fall asleep, hitting for super-effective with STAB. However, in NU terms, its a relatively fast lead and learns Taunt and U-Turn, both useful for scouting and preventing spikes, and his ability of not being able to sleep is still very effective. Thus, I present my Primeape set:

Primeape (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Vital Spirit
EVs: 32 HP/226 Atk/252 Spd
Jolly nature (+Spd, -SAtk)
- U-turn
- Taunt
- Close Combat
- Punishment

Close Combat is obvious STAB, hitting for huge damage. Punishment isn't necessary, but I feel it makes him a nice counter for potential stat boosters.

Lastly, we get to Vespiquen. Vespiquen's slot wasn't entirely necessary, as all it did was defend and failed to defend anything properly without Wish. While it defends really, really well for a bug/flying type (commonly seen as useless, next to bug/poison), it couldn't do anything with its powerful defensive position. Thus, I chose to drop it for my most interesting choice, I feel. Behold, the wrath of Cursing Bibarel:

Bibarel (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Simple
EVs: 252 HP/160 Def/96 SDef
Careful nature (+SDef, -SAtk)
- Taunt
- Thunder Wave
- Return
- Curse

Taunt makes other stat boosters ineffective, TWave makes you outrun regardless of Curse, Return is a powerful STAB move, and Curse is utterly insane combined with Simple. +2 Atk and +2 Def in a single move (albeit with -2 speed)is insane on an already slow pokemon.

I'll write up the other three pokemon who already had their slots sometime later, since this post is probably getting a bit long and I can't be bothered at the moment. If you're unaware, they're a support Armaldo and a mixed Seviper and Charizard to fill out my attacking slots.

The Actual First Post

Bullet Punch [bool-it puhnch]
-noun
1. A powerful steel attack with priority, commonly used by Scizor. His Scizor swept late-game with Bullet Punch
-verb
1. To strike quickly with the strength and speed of a bullet, commonly done by Scizor.
The Scizor Bullet Punched his way through the CBTar.

So, now that the definition is out of the way, Bullet Punch is the move that made Scizor the reigning deity of OU and one of the members of the court of Ubers (even though Heracross is better in Ubers), and as such, seemed awfully appropriate for a blog name, being the defining move of 1/5th of a metagame (according to current Scizor usage stats). I'm sorry to those who wanted Mach Tornado as a name, but I just think Bullet Punch works better.

So, if you didn't guess from the name and definition, this blog will involve pokemon. I'll probably post up teams every now and again, logs from the epic war between my Vespiquen and Trav's Shuckle, and complaints about Heracross' lack of usage and Charizard's terminal allergy to Stealth Rock. That's not all, though, folks. This blog will also keep you upto date on the happenings in the Perth Brawl scene, as well as the Perth Melee scene (as in, Vlade continually saying he wants to play Falcon in Melee but never actually doing it). Updates on EI3/ECI (whatever you want to call it) will also probably be here when shit starts to happen.

Because of the frequency of Brawl tournaments relative to Pokemon games, this'll probably have more Pokemon posts than Brawl posts, but to make up for it, the Brawl ones will be longer, also probably including my shout-outs, complaints of my utter failure yet again, and asking for ways to improve my commentary (let's be honest, its the only thing I add to the Perth scene at all).

And, uh, that's pretty much it for the moment. Enjoy, bookmark this page, or I'll CB Pursuit you.

Starting Up

Okay, so this is probably go to end and die very quickly, but you know what? I don't even care. This is Pete's blog for my quite clearly omniscient and not narcissistic view of the Perth scene, my Pokemon life and other, clearly important, needing of my opinion topics. Shout outs to all the guys who voted on the name, you added alot to my empty and obsessive existence. Thanks.