DP Doubles, 137 wins
- -
Rain offence team
Starmie @ Focus Sash ** Mersenne
Timid, Natural Cure
6 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
Rain Dance/Surf/Thunder/Ice Beam
- Rain setup, sweeper
Toxicroak @ Expert Belt ** Cerenkov
Adamant, Dry Skin
116 HP, 252 Atk, 140 Spe
Fake Out/Helping Hand/Low Kick/Sucker Punch
- support, physical coverage
Kingdra @ Life Orb ** Vela
Modest, Swift Swim
200 HP, 252 SpA, 56 Spe
Rain Dance/Surf/Draco Meteor/Ice Beam
- sweeper, secondary Rain setup
Ludicolo @ Leftovers ** Zeeman
Bold, Swift Swim
134 HP, 252 SpA, 124 Spe
Leech Seed/Surf/Grass Knot/Ice Beam
- sweeper
Not a great run, but on the leaderboard at least. I lost due to a bad first turn: I should have flinched Lapras, since Heracross couldn't kill Starmie due to its Sash.
1
Flinch Hera, RD
Lapras: Psy Croak, KO
2 Me: Kingdra
Kingdra Surf, Starmie Surf: Hera KO, Lapras 45%
Lapras TBolt Starmie KO
3 Me: Ludi. AI: Scizor
Kingdra Surf: Scizor 65%
Ludi GK Lapras KO
4 AI: Tyranitar
TTar SE, crit Kingdra KO
TTar was the killer: Kingdra can deal with so much in the Rain, but SS removed that advantage.
The TTar was probably the Choice Scarf one, so it outsped Kingdra outside the Rain. The crit Stone Edge didn't matter all that much: Kingdra would have needed to hit TTar twice for the kill, taking out Scizor in the process. Two LO hits plus Sandstream takes off 26%; it had lost 20% to LO already plus residual Surf damage. So TTar would have had to miss completely and not had a Scarf, or missed twice; unlikely.
This loss, like many before, was due mostly to lack of attention. Pearl is so slow that I don't just play the game, I play while watching TV or whatever. So much time in battle is spent watching the slow-ass animations for pokeballs etc, or for messages to appear and disappear, that it feels like I spend most of the time waiting - and I might as well be watching Lost while I do. So many times, I've made a move selection and turned to the TV, then looked back and wondered what the AI did during its turn. This obviously leads to losses, and getting on tilt without realising it. This time around, I was aware that one Lapras had Psychic, but I flinched Heracross anyway.
Recent comments from Bozo and Jump have helped me decide to rock Platinum:
I suspect that with increased speed, I could 'play the game' more. I'd probably still watch TV at the same time, but that would be my 'background' activity instead of BT (multishirking FTW).
After I lost, with the usual feeling of irritation, I played some other DS games I hadn't played in a while. GTA:CW surprised me with how quickly it started (no Game Freak message, immediately skippable title screen), and how quickly I was into the game. Pretty sure that's a much bigger game than Pearl too. I even saved it in less than ten seconds!
I switched to Advance Wars DS after that. Turn-based, but so much faster - you can tap through anything, menus are faster and more responsive. The game is as fast as you want it to be, whereas Pearl feels like it's stuck in first the whole time.
So goodbye to 2006. Time to get up-to-date: it's 2009 now!
That was all kind of tangential to the BT. I have actually made a small change to my team, giving Croak 140 Spe EVs to beat the 170 Spe EV Metagross, which is Meta 1 in DP. (140 Spe EV/31 IV Adamant Croak at lv.50: 123 speed. 170 Spe EV/31 IV +Spe nature Meta at lv.50: 122 speed.) This Meta is only used by Collector Kelton (set 1 pokes), but Kelton is the only trainer to use Blissey 1 in the game. Bliss 1 is Counter/Toxic/DT/Softboiled @ Leftovers, HP/Def: goddamn Kryptonite to my team. Without Croak, I lose to it every time, so I gave Croak the speed to beat his Meta, so it if leads, Croak and Starmie can focus fire that bitch off my screen (thanks to Jump for suggesting a method to do this: Fake Out/Surf, Surf/Low Kick kills all Metagross).
In Platinum, none of the Metas have any speed, so Croak's going right back to 252 HP/6 Spe. And better still, none of the Blisseys have any Def EVs! In DP, all of them do, and three of them have Counter. In Platinum, Croak's Expert Belt Low Kick OHKOs every one of them, every time. More Signal Beams all round, which are bad for Starmie and Ludi, but we'll see how it pans out. I have to get to the damn Frontier first...
When I get around to putting together a singles team, I have the nicknames already lined up:
Season 6 FTW. Good luck, pokemon trainers...
- -
Rain offence team
Starmie @ Focus Sash ** Mersenne
Timid, Natural Cure
6 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe
Rain Dance/Surf/Thunder/Ice Beam
- Rain setup, sweeper
Toxicroak @ Expert Belt ** Cerenkov
Adamant, Dry Skin
116 HP, 252 Atk, 140 Spe
Fake Out/Helping Hand/Low Kick/Sucker Punch
- support, physical coverage
Kingdra @ Life Orb ** Vela
Modest, Swift Swim
200 HP, 252 SpA, 56 Spe
Rain Dance/Surf/Draco Meteor/Ice Beam
- sweeper, secondary Rain setup
Ludicolo @ Leftovers ** Zeeman
Bold, Swift Swim
134 HP, 252 SpA, 124 Spe
Leech Seed/Surf/Grass Knot/Ice Beam
- sweeper
Not a great run, but on the leaderboard at least. I lost due to a bad first turn: I should have flinched Lapras, since Heracross couldn't kill Starmie due to its Sash.
1
Flinch Hera, RD
Lapras: Psy Croak, KO
2 Me: Kingdra
Kingdra Surf, Starmie Surf: Hera KO, Lapras 45%
Lapras TBolt Starmie KO
3 Me: Ludi. AI: Scizor
Kingdra Surf: Scizor 65%
Ludi GK Lapras KO
4 AI: Tyranitar
TTar SE, crit Kingdra KO
TTar was the killer: Kingdra can deal with so much in the Rain, but SS removed that advantage.
The TTar was probably the Choice Scarf one, so it outsped Kingdra outside the Rain. The crit Stone Edge didn't matter all that much: Kingdra would have needed to hit TTar twice for the kill, taking out Scizor in the process. Two LO hits plus Sandstream takes off 26%; it had lost 20% to LO already plus residual Surf damage. So TTar would have had to miss completely and not had a Scarf, or missed twice; unlikely.
This loss, like many before, was due mostly to lack of attention. Pearl is so slow that I don't just play the game, I play while watching TV or whatever. So much time in battle is spent watching the slow-ass animations for pokeballs etc, or for messages to appear and disappear, that it feels like I spend most of the time waiting - and I might as well be watching Lost while I do. So many times, I've made a move selection and turned to the TV, then looked back and wondered what the AI did during its turn. This obviously leads to losses, and getting on tilt without realising it. This time around, I was aware that one Lapras had Psychic, but I flinched Heracross anyway.
Recent comments from Bozo and Jump have helped me decide to rock Platinum:
yeah i fell in love with platinum all over against after my run to "lol 499", every single move selection takes a full second longer to kick in than in plat
and when you use curse it takes aaaaaaaaages to go through all the messages. but on plat if youre hitting the screen with the stylus, its faster than even d/p amnesia.
I suspect that with increased speed, I could 'play the game' more. I'd probably still watch TV at the same time, but that would be my 'background' activity instead of BT (multishirking FTW).
After I lost, with the usual feeling of irritation, I played some other DS games I hadn't played in a while. GTA:CW surprised me with how quickly it started (no Game Freak message, immediately skippable title screen), and how quickly I was into the game. Pretty sure that's a much bigger game than Pearl too. I even saved it in less than ten seconds!
I switched to Advance Wars DS after that. Turn-based, but so much faster - you can tap through anything, menus are faster and more responsive. The game is as fast as you want it to be, whereas Pearl feels like it's stuck in first the whole time.
So goodbye to 2006. Time to get up-to-date: it's 2009 now!
That was all kind of tangential to the BT. I have actually made a small change to my team, giving Croak 140 Spe EVs to beat the 170 Spe EV Metagross, which is Meta 1 in DP. (140 Spe EV/31 IV Adamant Croak at lv.50: 123 speed. 170 Spe EV/31 IV +Spe nature Meta at lv.50: 122 speed.) This Meta is only used by Collector Kelton (set 1 pokes), but Kelton is the only trainer to use Blissey 1 in the game. Bliss 1 is Counter/Toxic/DT/Softboiled @ Leftovers, HP/Def: goddamn Kryptonite to my team. Without Croak, I lose to it every time, so I gave Croak the speed to beat his Meta, so it if leads, Croak and Starmie can focus fire that bitch off my screen (thanks to Jump for suggesting a method to do this: Fake Out/Surf, Surf/Low Kick kills all Metagross).
In Platinum, none of the Metas have any speed, so Croak's going right back to 252 HP/6 Spe. And better still, none of the Blisseys have any Def EVs! In DP, all of them do, and three of them have Counter. In Platinum, Croak's Expert Belt Low Kick OHKOs every one of them, every time. More Signal Beams all round, which are bad for Starmie and Ludi, but we'll see how it pans out. I have to get to the damn Frontier first...
When I get around to putting together a singles team, I have the nicknames already lined up:
- Flocke - a Glenscarfer, exploiting the AI's 'loophole'
- Smokey - Smeargle with Transform and Judgment
- Jacob - leave unrevealed for as long as possible, then use Destiny Bond
Season 6 FTW. Good luck, pokemon trainers...