Illithian

I agree with Enkidu. On a plethora of other forums (want links?), there are entire sections dedicated to running sig threads and often there are tens to hundreds depending on the size of the forum. P.s. Don't misspell my name on the sig please (lol!)

I'm highly impressed with the smudging on the first example sig, and I could go on about why the other ones are good, but you know they are, so why bother. Anyway, I'll steal dibs on the first sig. Text: Illithian Stock: http://www.planetrenders.net/renders/displayimage.php?pos=-27967 Also, if you could try to incorporate this as part of the background, that would be interesting. http://www.planetrenders.net/renders/displayimage.php?pos=-14248 In any case, I'm confident you'll do something fun. P.S. I like smudge. A lot.

Hello indeed. You may have noticed the team name, inspired by some smartass on Shoddy who had a field day after I sweeped someone 5-0 twice in a row. This team is designed to be very offensive and to keep pressure at all times. I've refined it and refined it, switching out pokemon from my original team and refining movesets. The original team can be found here if you wish to see it. Anyway, here's the lineup: [sprite]376[/sprite] [sprite]212[/sprite] [sprite]373[/sprite] [sprite]380[/sprite] --- Metagross @ Lum Berry Ability: Clear Body EVs: 252 HP/170 Atk/80 Def/8 Spd Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Bullet Punch - Explosion - Stealth Rock - Earthquake / Meteor Mash Metagross is my favorite lead so far, and he has yet to fail me in a big way. His incredible bulk almost guarantees setting up stealth rock. Considering the small batch of common OU leads, its extremely easy to predict what one will do; for example, for an Aero, its obviously a starting taunt, which makes for an excellent opportunity to switch in, say, Celebi, or Latias, to kill it. Not only that, but with proper prediction, Metagross can suck up a ton of damage in the early and midgame, while returning from his 382 attack. Bullet Punch is a clear choice. Not only does it make up for his pathetic base speed, but its brilliantly useful for taking out the lead sashers. And with STAB, it ends up being Meta's attack of choice against many opponents over EQ; considering the amount of resistances and immunities to EQ there are in the leads. I personally would prefer Meteor Mash over Earthquake. However, I ran Meteor Mash to start with, and it ended mostly in disaster whenever I faced fellow Metagross leads. The unfortunate thing is that generally, it was extremely useful against most all other leads. For example, Gengar are OHKOed by it, Swampert take heavy damage, Azelf are 2HKOed with Metoer Mash + Bullet Punch. However, against fellow Metagross's, Earthquake is a clear choice, and it can be useful. Stealth Rock is fairly obvious. Explosion is the prediction move of choice here, and is the reason Metagross is so effective; most suicide leads can't really do much aside from set up rocks then explode in your face. However, Metagross can take an Explosion from pretty much anything in its stride, taking less then 60% from the average Azelf and less then 50 from the average Metagross lead. Not only that, but once a sweeper switches in, Metagross does a fantastic job of taking them out with Explosion; or, if its something like Infernape or Heatran, I can switch out to something safer. Lum Berry is what allows this set to function with no hindrances. The reason for it over the obvious Occa berry is because: A. for most experienced players, they won't use a fire attack because occa berry is so expected. and B. for players who don't predict much, its easy to switch out of the predicted fire attack. Secondly, Lum Berry enables Metagross to eat status that would normally cause big problems for other members, and simply eat up status like sleep that often comes towards leads. Scizor (M) @ Life Orb Ability: Technician EVs: 252 HP/252 Atk/6 Def Adamant nature (+Atk, -SAtk) - Bullet Punch - X-Scissor / U-turn - Swords Dance - Brick Break / Superpower Scizor. The incarnation of overused. The definition of a revenge killer. This classic set perfectly suits my great enjoyment of prediction. I do not like choice; I feel it ruins the point of predicting. Scizor is already powerful enough to do his job as a revenge killer to near perfection without a +1 boost to attack from a Choice Band; a x1.3 boost from Life Orb is plenty good enough, and considering how many switches he causes and his plentiful defenses, getting off a Swords Dance isn't the most difficult thing in the world. Bullet Punch is totally self explanatory and is the key move in this entire set. Swords Dance enables Scizor to make full use of the freedom of moves, along with the ability to elevate his already high attack (394) to broken levels, and allows Scizor to use Superpower with impunity. U-turn is the lategame move that barely ever gets any use. The coverage provided by Bullet Punch and Superpower rarely requires its use, but in the lategame, it can sometimes get used. Finally, Superpower. Brick Break is what I was using for a long time, and frankly, I got tired of the lack of power. Superpower allows him to score so many more OHKOes such as Tyranitar, and with Swords Dance, its quite usable. Life Orb is an absolute must. The rest is self explanatory. Rotom (Rotom-h) @ Leftovers Ability: Levitate EVs: 252 HP/168 Def/88 Spd Bold nature (+Def, -Atk) - Thunderbolt - Hidden Power [Grass] - Overheat - Will-o-wisp / Shadow Ball The toaster. I used to hate that horrible orange blob with oven gloves, but I fell in love with it the moment I used it. Quite possibly one of my favorite pokemon I've ever used on Shoddy, behind Porygon2. His fabulous typing and utility cannot be ignored. Not only can he switch in from Metagross on virtually every lead in the game, he can also counter them, all, with moderate effectiveness. Azelf is almost guaranteed to explode after having set up rocks and taken some damage, so with prediction (my favorite word) this guy can eat it easily. Same goes for Metagross, Snorlax, and all other exploders. Thunderbolt is the bread-n-butter STAB move that eats away at opponents and can quickly check Gyarados, Starmie, and more. HP Grass seems an odd choice over HP Fighting. However, with a little bit of testing, the only person I use HP Fighting on is Tyranitar, whom I probably wouldn't keep Rotom in on anyway. Blissey is a quick switch-out since HP Fighting does pitiful damage to it anyway, so I have yet to find a threat that HP Fighting covers that HP Grass couldn't do as well. And, HP Grass enables him to switch in on Swampert and literally kill them. Overheat is the reason Rotom-h exists, and why my friendly toaster oven is so unbearably useful. It checks so many threats, its ridiculous. And, it enables a quick switchin to RS Forretres and OHKO them if they're stupid enough to stay in. Finally, Will-o-wisp. I'm extremely dissapointed in its use as of late; I simply don't have a turn to waste to set it up, and most of the time, I can be far more effective by using that turn to switch to an appropriate counter. As such, I've opened a consideration for Shadow Ball. Not only does it allow Rotom to deal considerable damage to both stall pokemon that ruin my team into little pieces (Cresselia and Dusknoir), but it would also provide some STAB coverage against stray Azelfs that havn't exploded yet. In any case, discussion is open. I am considering a more offensive EV/nature spread to better take advantage of his attacks, but I'm worried it will stop him from checking Gyarados. Salamence (M) @ Life Orb Ability: Intimidate EVs: 2 HP/252 Atk/220 Spd/36 SAtk Naive nature (+Spd, -SDef) - Dragon Dance - Outrage / Dragon Claw - Fire Blast - Earthquake The most basic, most obvious, most classic DDmence. The simple perfection offered by this set is that 95% of the time, I don't ever switch him in. He is my lategame everything. Not only does he effectively counter pretty much anything, but with Rotom-h to take care of steels, I don't actually need him to do all that much in the midgame. This enables me to easily setup a DD for a lategame sweep. Dragon Dance is the essence of the set. Fire Blast enables Salamence to preform an excellent job in ridding me of irritating Bronzong, Skarmory, and Scizor. Next, we get to Dragon Claw. Outrage is the obvious better choice for the lategame, but the freedom to switch moves in Dragon Claw is exceedingly useful. However, the base power difference is extremely difficult to overlook. I've been effectively using Dragon Claw for some time, and I'm reluctant to use Outrage. Still, it may be a better choice. I'll need time to test it. Finally, Earthquake. Simply, it allows Salamence to complete his lategame sweep quite sucessfully and if he comes out in the midgame, rid me of quite a few different threats. Suicune @ Leftovers Ability: Pressure EVs: 252 HP/252 Def/6 SAtk Calm nature (+SpD, -Atk) - Calm Mind - Ice Beam - Surf - Roar CM Suicune is my replacement for Celebi. Whilst it takes out my best Swampert counter, I believe he will work better then Celebi did. His purpose is do shuffle pokemon around as much as possible to inflict SR damage; use Calm Mind to form a reliable special wall; and proceed to deal as much damage as possible with Surf and Ice Beam. Latias (F) @ Life Orb Ability: Levitate EVs: 6 HP/252 Spd/252 SAtk Modest nature (+SAtk, -Atk) - Surf - Recover - Draco Meteor - Thunderbolt Finally, Latias. Ironically, Latias serves as my most powerful early game sweeper. I love Latias beyond measure; I have used her to full effect in almost all my battles. Her natural bulk is incredibly abusable and enables her to easily take fire attacks directed towards Metagross or Celebi, along with levitate past Earthquakes and Earth Power (heatran). She simply fills a niche role in my team thats invaluable. Surf is the bread'n'butter move for Latias, scoring SE on a suprisingly large batch of pokemon and dealing pleasing damage to everything that doesnt resist it. Recover enables Latias to stay in even longer, and considering how early I bring her out, its extremely useful. Draco Meteor is the reason this set is just so effective. Yes, it hinders her ability to stay in. However, STAB brings it to a jaw dropping 210 base power, coupled by her above average special attack, enables it to deal fatal damage to a great majority of the threats in OU, and if not fatal, deal extremely heavy damage. Because of stealth rocks, Latias can guarantee an OHKO on the standard Zapdos with Draco Meteor. Thunderbolt rarely gets used for me, but it does occasionally get some anti-Gyarados action. The most dangerous foes for Latias are Mamoswine and Tyranitar by an extreme far. Both are easily checked by Scizor, although pursuit-tar is an issue. DDmence is a big problem, as modest Latias gets outsped by it even without a DD, but Rotom and Celebi can quickly take care of him. --- Please, rate. Suicune offers a needed water type, but Tyranitar would be extremely helpful in this team, aside from the fact that he would hurt half the pokemon in it and would cause big problems for Mence (SR + LO + Sandstorm = dead fairly quickly).

Thats too bad. Were you using the team in your first post or any of the suggested sets? By the way, we should have small scale similar gimmick tournaments on our forums.

Sorry, I absolutely could not resist showing off a bit. I hope you understand. Anyway, I still think Narwhal's is better, but thats up to you. I almost put Flamme-de-Gloire on it, just because. Anyway, tomorrow, I'm going to rework it to try to get more black out of the bottom flames. I spent more then 15 minutes working with that stupid part, and its killing me.

Here's mine: [sprite]065[/sprite] Imani the Alakazam @Choice Specs Level 86 Male - Modest Synchronize - Psychic - Focus Blast - Energy Ball - Trick [sprite]373[/sprite] Accendare the Salamence @Life Orb Level 81 Female Intimidate - Fire Blast - Roost - Dragon Claw - Earthquake [sprite]426[/sprite] Felix the Drifblim @Leftovers Level 67 Male - Modest Aftermath - Hypnosis - Will-o-Wisp - Shadow Ball - Dream Eater [sprite]392[/sprite] Demetri the Infernape @Shell Bell Level 74 Male - Adamant - Swords Dance - Close Combat - Flare Blitz - Stone Edge [sprite]169[/sprite] Crobat @Leftovers Level 70 Male - Brave Bird - U-Turn - Hypnosis - Roost [sprite]473[/sprite] Scot the Mamoswine @Choice Band Level 79 Male - Earthquake - Ice Shard - Stone Edge - Superpower

He can't change pokemon (as stated in the OP). Anyway, that combination seems a little (very) biased, seeing as Octillery is NU and has extremely below average stats. Okay so knowing that Spiritomb and Octillery both have pathetically horrible speed, Trick Room is an extremely viable set, except neither pokemon learn it. What horrible luck. Anyway, for Spiritomb, that set is all messed up. First of all, I'd like to point out that all your usable moves have less then 100% accuracy, which isn't good to start with. Secondly, even with two speed drops, Spiritomb is not going to outspeed much, so using a base 55 move with only 95% accuracy without even STAB is not the best idea in the world. As a lead set, trick in 2v2 is very effective, so you might consider this instead: Trick / Pursuit / Pain Split / Sucker Punch would work nicely. The utility of the set is fairly obvious and effective; Trick your choice item, then if a switch is obvious, pursuit. Follow up with using and abusing Sucker Punch and Pain Split to the fullest to annoy your opponent as much as possible. There's less synergy, but as a standalone, it will be much more effective. Moving on to Octillery. I think, honestly, that to use Thunder Wave, you almost need to have 252 speed EVs. This will allow you to outspeed quite a few more threats after they are paralyzed. Past that, its a fine set. As a final note, BE CAREFUL OF LANTURN. Extremely dangerous for your team, as nothing you have can effectively do anything to it. Except maybe Spiritomb.

Actually, that is true. Lategame, Empoleon can be a beast.

Just a small point, sub petaya never really works because of the omnipresence of priority moves such as bullet punch, ice shard, vacuum wave, mach punch, aqua jet, extremespeed, quick attack, etc.

It was entirely from scratch other then the Mew, but it was pretty easy to make with the brushes I used.

Just a tip, you'll want to put longer and more meaningful comments on what your thought process was.

I envy you, damnit. Lol. (I want to be an adult...)

Heres a link to where Bear got his lugia picture. Oh and I posted this before, but no one really looked at it.

I think it very much depends on the parents. For me, my parents split when I was about 6. My mom is super easy going and lets me stay up and go out with friends and do pretty much whatever I want. My dad is strict, doesn't believe in staying up late (hypocrite), and has anger issues (not violent, more just yelling). From my own experience, its made me very easygoing and I very much like people who are also easygoing. It also makes me avoid people who yell even the slightest bit. In my opinion, parents should not get any credit for the achievements of their children. Probably 90% of the time, the achievements of the children had nothing to do with how the parents affected them, and even further, if a parent tried to influence a child's development, it probably backfired during the teenage rebel stage. Regardless, the parents of children have huge influences on them, but not in intentional ways. I knew someone in middle school who was a total loser but didn't really mind. He went to an all boy, highly sporty and competitive high school. He was really excited because he loved sports. Unfortunately, his strict religious upbringing and the way he looked (always slouched, glasses, bracers, playing games on the computer, no enthusiasm during school) caused him to be hazed significantly more then the usual for that school. He committed suicide in middle sophomore year at age 16, without ever having a girlfriend. I'm fairly certain the parents didn't intend that to happen, but it did. And its entirely their fault. If they hadn't been so strict and religious, he wouldn't have been as hazed. If they hadn't pushed him so hard to do sports when he was younger and ignored all his grades, he might have been more motivated in school. If they had given him more opportunities to play on a computer at home, maybe he wouldn't have done it so much during school. Thats my story. Not very scientific, but its late. Tomorrow I'll write some more thats not based on experiences.

I think you need to elaborate a little more. I have yet to find a single aspect of smogon's tiers and clauses that is nonfunctional or obviously unfair. Yes, there are some people who obviously haven't had their entire team spored by a Breloom and still argue sleep clause, but they aren't going to win and Sleep Clause will always remain standard. And I don't see how spending time testing for our own tiers just so we can have one or two differences from smogon's tiers helps us become a better community as a whole aside from bragging rights saying we're different. Which is rather useless imho.

I don't think differing from Smogon's tier list and standard rules is a good idea at all. Although their suspect process is complete crap at this point, they have done extensive research that a forum the size of ours couldn't do; we don't have the dedicated researchers that Smogon has to seriously test pokemon to the point of developing our own tier list. And if we did, whats the point? Just to say that we're different? Why change what works?

They're both really cool. The first one works well by itself, but the second one could be turned into a sig or an avatar a lot easier.

Cool. Did you use spherize? You can make lots of cool stuff with it like:

Zigzagoon decided to swarm for me in a rather convenient location, so I couldn't resist heading over there. The shiny gods decided to be nice to me, and I chained 15 of them before I got bored. None of them were any good though... =|

You have issues with bumping weeks old threads... Okay, what are you TALKING about? Unless Latias is scarfed, even 0 EV 0 IV neutral speed natured Salamence with 1 DD will outspeed ALL Latias variants. And since almost all DDmence variants run max speed with a beneficial nature, thats 492 speed with +1 DD, with Latias having a max of 350. To take that even further, Rock Polish Rhyperior always runs Jolly max speed. Thats 392 speed with a single Rock Polish. Incase you havn't noticed, Latias can hit a max of 350. Unless its scarfed, which if it is, ignore all those numbers and next time be more specific. Six choice teams are weak. Setting up entry hazards is impossible, making switches risk free and easy. Not only that, but there are so many free turns associated with 6 choice teams that its pathetically easy for any team to take down. It just takes a little bit of skill.

Metagross: Totally standard. You may want to consider Lum Berry over Occa Berry, but it depends how much you fear fire moves. If you expect Metagross to do damage in the mid-late game instead of exploding early on, keep the Occa berry as it could be very useful. Umbreon: Be sure to taunt any pseudo-hazers that come in, as all phazing moves have -5 priority. Gengar ruins that set with Focus Blast, as does special Lucario. Wish is useful if you want Umbreon to be more of a wishpasser, but Moonlight will be better if you want him to be more of a standalone sweeper. Gengar: Firstly, kamikaze, not kamakazy. Instead of Destiny Bond, put Explosion or HP Fire, then use Focus Blast. Basically... nothing to say Rhyperior: I have issues with that set. Firstly, use Jolly, as you will outspeed SO much more stuff with it. Second, those IVs dont work. Just use a basic 252 Atk / 252 Spe spread. Use Aqua Tail instead of Megahorn and Life Orb over Liechi Berry. Salamence: Mixmence says hi. Scizor: Scizor should be your revenge killer, not Gengar. Unless you scarf Gengar, Priority is way more useful. Anyway, I reccomend Superpower as it will 2HKO Skarmory after a swords dance, and OHKO Heatran with minimal HP/Def investments. For switching in a special sweeper, take out Umbreon. Hes basically useless and he won't really find any niche to set up Curse. Not only that but his coverage is minimal and redundant, and any fighting type can actually wall him and even with multiple curses, physical fighting types can get 3HKOs on him. Options for a special sweeper, in my opinion, that would fit well with this team, don't actually need to be that quick, but need to be bulky and have the ability to take people down. I think Rotom-W might fit well with this team, as a water type move is rather needed. Offensive Suicune or Empoleon might work as well. As an overall, I think your team has too many repeat types and weaknesses. Your team has a ton of physical moves, and a lot of repeat moves. Three Earthquakes. Two bullet punches. Fighting type moves, Dragon type moves, Bug type moves, but then it stops. Gengar and Salamence are the only ones with any versatility beyond that, and they add fire, ghost, and electric; you're still blatently missing any traces of grass, psychic, water, dark (if you take out umbreon), etc. I don't think Rhyperior is really needed with Scizor and Metagross, but thats to be seen. Offensive Celebi might be a good replacement for him.

120x120

Theres lots of potential. I never really liked trainers cards, but the orbs are cool. Experiment more with them and use the Distort -> Spherize filter, you'll enjoy it.

when I vanish, I miss a lot. I need a new avatar for myself. Maybe I'll make one right now. =| Apparently I did make one. I made the background too.

My turn. Gliscor @Lum Berry Jolly | Hyper Cutter 40 HP / 252 Atk / 216 Spe - Stealth Rock - Taunt - U-Turn - Earthquake / X-Scissor / Aqua Tail This Gliscor lead is designed to be extremely versatile. Firstly, it can set up Stealth Rocks, which can seriously assist many teams. Taunt is also extremely useful because it can shut down many common leads and set up pokemon. Secondly, U-Turn can really help as a scouting utility because as Gliscor is defensively very powerful, in the midgame, if Gliscor can find a niche place to switch in against someone it easily resists. Earthquake and X-Scissor really depends on who you fear and who you want to actually have power against. U-Turn is just as powerful as X-Scissor. The main reason to run X-Scissor instead of Earthquake is if you fear Cresselia. Aqua Tail is notable, but it just depends who you fear. Of all of those, Earthquake is the most powerful and most accurate, so is probably the best choice.