wraith89

Let's not post opinionated posts without basis guys.... all three starters have some kind of merits over the others. But from what I gather, water starter (the one everyone has been bashing) turns out to be the easiest to play in game with many offensive options while the grass one turned out to be the hardest owing to its low offensive movepool. Fire one... well... it's stuck with Arm Thrust as its only STAB Fighting move. Still, it is pretty good but quite slow. I may just end up picking the grass one, not just because it is the hardest but because two of my friends already picked the water and another one picked fire... may as well try something different. Well, that is, IF I do end up playing the game.

Agreed with Gin. If one Pokemon [Ditto] completely stops people from setting up, it is definitely broken. Though it depends on who it transforms into, that is almost quite controllable. I made it my policy to never use Ditto (I only did it once for fun against Mewtwo EX... but he can forgive me because I let him set up ) and I'm leaning towards just not using Shandera. She's just too useful... Doco... Tbird, I must borrow Naked Tom for a while... I don't want an SD Broken Armor Balloon Kabutops to sweep me again with 100% accurate Stone Edges... and THOR IS HERE must die... By the way people, it has been confirmed that Mean Look + Baton Pass doesn't work. So much for Umbreon's prime strategy...

Sorry for not looking at this board for a while. I've finally found this thread and decided to approve it for more open discussions regarding the B/W metagame. Been playing a few games in BW mode for a while. Now I don't know enough about this metagame as I've only seen around half the Pokemon of BW, and the thing you stated "throw 6 Pokemon out in hyper offensive mode until the other guy is gone" is pretty much how I've been playing. I couldn't truly stall in this metagame and I had some scary encounters with dangerous Pokemon like Roobushin (I'm still annoyed at that guy) and all sorts of things that were quite unfamiliar. Since I was unfamiliar with this metagame, I opened up with Mamoswine as a lead, with Stealth Rocks/Protect/Ice Shard/Earthquake as usual. Mamoswine had some good traits, as he was immune to Thunder Wave and Protect can protect him against Fake Outs. Also, his Earthquake is amazing and Ice Shard picks off weakened leads. So Mamoswine was quite a sturdy lead in the past, but status inducers and random burns are quite annoying. Other than that, Mamoswine is serving me really well, but I may try other leads. I've tried Metagross as well, which turned out pretty okay too. I'm not too sure what would make greater leads however, but I plan on trying Swampert and her new tool Boiling Water, but the only times I've been using Swampert was not as lead but as a bulky water switch in. I run Boiling Water/Ice Beam/Earthquake/Roar, as Stealth Rocks usually goes on someone else. What I'm upset about is Damp coming in one generation too late. She would have made a great use of it in Gen IV with Metagross leads exploding in her face... but now Explosion even got nerfed and you cannot have Stealth Rocks and Damp in the same moveset! Trolled. [sprite]473[/sprite] [sprite]376[/sprite] [sprite]260[/sprite] One thing I have noticed is that I really did not have time to set up Stealth Rocks as often as I used to in Gen IV. I'm not sure what it is, but it's either KO or get KOd thing so it gets quite tense. Maybe in a bit the game will stable up and more stealth rock usage will be seen, but usually, I found very little time to waste that one turn to set rocks up. I'm not sure if that's happened to you, but it's been that case for many of my games. [hgsssprite]073[/hgsssprite] [hgsssprite]205[/hgsssprite] [hgsssprite]208[/hgsssprite] While I am still thoroughly annoyed at some of these new Pokemon seemingly outclassing the old and whatnot (ERUFUUN!!!), I have found a lot of use for some of the old Pokemon. One Pokemon is Tentacruel. Tentacruel is still as useful as it was as a spinner, TS absorber from those annoying Pendoras, TS set upper, and basically a great utility Pokemon. Now I had to EV it differently to adjust to this offensive metagame by pumping more EVs into its surprisingly fast base 100 speed and putting the rest into bulk, and it was still able to take hits. New tools like Boiling Water is a true boon to it, as it is a pseudo defense boost if that 30% burn chance works. And because ghosts tend to switch into Tentacruel, I gave it a new Ghost move Evil Eye, which doubles its base power if the opponent is status'd. It has helped me in many occasions and allowed me to beat those annoying Desukans or even Gengars after poisoning them with TS (note: not on Gengar but paralysis or even Boiling Water burn support helps). Unfortunately, I compromised Knock Off for Evil Eye. However, I don't think there's time to Knock Off in this metagame... stuff seems to do too much damage even still. Another utility Pokemon that improved is Forretress, as Sturdy allows it to survive a fatal special Fire move if it is at 100% health. A really good bonus in my opinion. Another Pokemon benefiting from Sturdy is Steelix. Leftovers cancels out SR, the guy is very physically defensive, and can epically wall physical attackers, making them cry, or phaze out those who see it as set up fodder. With Sturdy, Special Fire moves won't OHKO, but its STAB EQ will definitely take a bite out of that Houndoom. Speaking of EQ, what about the new move Knock Down? Yeah, Steelix is weak, but with this move, you don't have to care, as you're knocking down fliers to the ground, and the best part is, many are weak to Ground without that Flying/Levitate! Then smack them down with a STAB EQ and if you get the opportunity to, Curse up. Meh, I don't know... I feel like I'm the only person using Steelix, and he's proven to be such an awesome wall. [hgsssprite]091[/hgsssprite] As for the offensive... CLOYSTER is a monster. It is easily stopped but it's like a pseudo Belly-zard; set up a Shell Break and watch it tear through its opponents team. Now accuracy problems do bite me in the end when Hydro Pump or Rock Blast starts missing, but its STAB Icicle Spear along with Skill Link allows it to eat through Subs and destroy Yache Landorosu or something. Cloyster looks like those high risk high reward Pokemon, as it has the offensive stats and the speed (fastest of the Shell Breakers) to abuse it. I've had some fun with this type of Cloyster, though I prefer the spinning utility spiking type. But this thing is really fun and gives a completely different perspective of Cloyster than before. It is still physically defensive like crazy with 180 defense, the highest defense in RBY (even with - 1 Adamant CB 252 Attack Scizor's Bullet Punch manages 55-64% on it), but low HP and especially that low Special Defense (unsalvagable in the offensive Cloyster) is a huge Achilles's heel. Not to mention it is SR weak. But everything needs a weakness right? I equipped a Lum Berry because of those annoying Mischievous Heart status inflicters always trying to do something like WoW or TWave or Toxic or sleep. New Pokemon I like... hmm. Okay, it's cheap, but Perversity Smuglord (Jaroda) is quite the beast. I feign Subseeding by substituting on the switch, and continue to pump up its Special Attack through Leaf Storms (though costly misses can and DO happen). It still has the bulk to subseed, great amount of speed, and can be an offensive monster if played right. Fun stuff happens as Shadow Ball raises its Special Defense instead of lowering it, Intimidate raises its attack, and all sorts of mess. It is epically walled by steels if you are running Hidden Power Ice, and walled by Dragons if you use Hidden Power Fire, and walled by Fires and Heatran either way, but Smuglord can do all sorts of other things (but don't run Perversity on those other sets), such as Snake Coil boosts, Glare, physical attacker, etc. I have yet to test Daikenki and Emboar (I hope to get the former to work, as I love waters). Burungel is another Pokemon I love. The Water/Ghost Pokemon is an answer to many of the old stuff that were in Gen IV, such as Infernape. Boiling Water/WoW is a charm on this thing, and with its incredible bulk and access to Recover, I've found Burungel to be a very important asset to any team who needs a wall. It can even survive Shandera's Shadow Ball (non Spec'd) and OHKO with Boiling Water (the latter requires SR though). Speaking of Shandera, this is one thing Scizor and pals need to watch out for. I have a feeling Scizor won't be as dominant in this metagame... at all. With stuff like Roobushin around (why do I keep bringing this guy up?) who needs Scizor? Yeah, I hate Roobushin... though I've always managed to beat it. Shandera is a monster though, especially with Shadow Tag. There are times I've felt it was underwhelming, and can turn out to be a Tyranitar bait in the end, but there were many times it has saved me in battles by revenging stuff that... just needed to be revenged. I don't believe it is broken, but I found it too useful, so I'm not too sure about this evil chandelier. [sprite]302[/sprite] The Leopard makes a great anti lead as Tbird has repeatedly proved to me. Fake Out + Mischievous Heart Taunts and Thunder Waves are quite helpful. Tbird is quite the mischievous man really as he ran another beast called Mischievous Heart Sableye, using annoying Will-o-Wisp/Sub/Torment/Night Shade set to subdue its foes. I've seen Gin run Mischievous Heart Erufuun, which may just turn out into the primary Subseeder. It doesn't really attack, but it is still annoying and has a troll base speed of 116. Though Mischievous Heart is not widespread (thankfully), we can expect many of these types of Pokemon to run rampant in this metagame, as priority support moves are too useful to surpass. As for the Musketeer trio? They're very good, but I'm kind of afraid of Cobalon outclassing Lucario. It does not in terms of movepool, as Lucario's movepool is a lot more diverse and still much powerful, but Cobalon, the Athos of the Musketeer trio, has better speed, a lot more defense, and some pretty good moves like Volt Change (electric U-turn), Thunder Wave, Close Combat, Flash Cannon, and even Metal Burst. The musketeers overall seem to be limited to their own types of moves like many other legendaries. Virizion, the beautiful one (Grass typing), does not get Leech Seed, even with that bloated 129 SpDef, but has offensive movepool in form of X-Scissor, Focus Blast, Close Combat, Leaf Blade, Giga Drain, Swords Dance, Calm Mind, Holy Sword, and not much else. It seems like a defensive monster stuck with an offensive movepool. I'm not sure how to play it now. Now, the one we all said would get owned by the other two due to its typing, Terrakion, actually turned out the best of the three in terms of stats and movepool. He ended up with the 129 attack, while his lowest stat would be that 72 SpA, which he won't even need. Swords Dance + Rock Polish are two amazing moves, and it gets Stone Edge and Close Combat to boot. It is the only one of the three to get Earthquake, which makes this guy even more versatile. His typing is also a blessing at times because sand will raise his SpDef too. I expect Terrakion to see a lot of use as opposed to the other two. All three also have access to Taunt, which is very helpful against annoying status inflicters. Now what about the forgotten one, D'Artagnan, erm I mean Kerudio? He seems to be the opposite of Terrakion: his lowest is Attack, while his highest is SpA. He can Calm Mind to boost that insane SpA up and has one Trump Card the other three does not have: Sword of Mystery. Sword of Mystery is an anti Blissey move, as it calculates the user's SpA but deducts from the foe's Defense. With STAB, no Blissey will like this. Though Burungel walls Kerudio completely, at least there's a form of checks and balances here or else you'd have a total monster in your hands. Kerudio, though its Attack is pitiful, can take advantage of Justice Heart (its ability which allows it to gain + 1 attack if it got attacked by a dark move) and Swords Dance and run its physical movepool, which includes a STAB physical Aqua Jet. Kerudio looks very promising and will probably see a lot of use in many teams. I talk too much about Boiling Water, but that move alone is helping water Pokemon become... more bulky physically. I've been using it a lot on defensive waters, but Surf/Hydro Pump is still better on things like Starmie or fast sweeper types. The lower damage output is kind of bad, but hey, some stuff do settle for base 80 STABs (like Shadow Ball, Crunch, Dark Pulse, etc...), although... these are usually done by things with higher natural attack/special attack than what bulky waters normally carry. [hgsssprite]150[/hgsssprite] I have not used "ubers" but I have played against many ubers... though, there was one time I used a CM Psycho Break Mewtwo... and completely decimated the other team. Good grief, he's tough! Nothing safely counters Mewtwo... even things that resist its moves. I like it > : ) I have other things in my mind, but they are not coming to my head yet. But is the game balanced? Not entirely sure. I did not find room to stall or anything and found using stuff that I like (even with massive support) is a lot harder to pull off than before. We'll have to see though, but old Pokemon aside from a select few are becoming rarer and rarer from the looks of it. Still a bit skeptical about the end result of this, but let's hope it turns out better. I will continue analyzing more Pokemon as I see them and more tactics I've found. I have found many interesting Pokemon and new tactics from even our old favorites, but there's just too much to write at the moment... EDIT: Just got destroyed by a Balloon yielding Swords Dance Breakable Armor Kabutops o_o ... this is just... weird.