wraith89

Some Bishop from long ago decided to replace the pagan Yuletides holiday with the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Despite when it is celebrated, I think that has no issues with faith.

Erm... Fighting is NEUTRAL on Fire/Fighting. And I don't care about one on one battles. If it's stuff like Gyarados vs Heracross, it is obvious who should win (Gyarados). My point of this battle is to prove that Heracross isn't a useless blue bug like everyone thinks it is. But if you want me to show you that Hera can indeed destroy Blaziken on a one on one, I'd gladly take part on that. I don't get what your point is...

Er... Relaxed reduces speed... and this Blaziken is completely overspecialized for beating up Heracross/Breloom or something. But even the, that speed isn't going to help and Heracross could probably hurt a lot with a Banded Close Combat anyhow, if not OHKOing (banded Close Combat already does 91% to a max HP Scizor, who has superior defenses than Blaziken). Why in the world would you want to do that? To be honest ANYTHING can overspecialize themselves to take down one Pokemon... (for example, Gengar with Choice Band and Adamant 252 Atk with Sucker Punch to beat Alakazam), but that leaves them not so great against anything else. Blaziken, who would be normally be able to take Skarmory no problem, is going to have a whole load of trouble against it now, who can just phaze all your boosts away or simply destroy Blaziken with its OWN Brave Bird.

Nobody knows when Jesus was born. Jesus was NOT born in December 25th, contrary to what people say... nor is it in the Bible. Hypocrisy is the result of a bad Christian. And what exactly are these contradictions in the Bible? Care to explain that part in bold?

Peck is for Shedinja I think... but you can run Knock Off over Peck and you can annoy some people who depend on items (like Trick Rotom who would be glad to switch into Seaking) and it also hits Shedinja as well. Not that Shedinja shows its face a lot, but still... there are those JUST IN CASE situations. Knock Off is a move tutor in Platinum and also in HGSS's Battle Frontier I think. But then again, Peck would hurt stuff like Heracross more... although to be fair Waterfall in the rain is a lot stronger than Peck on Heracross. Or if you run out of filler move ideas you can always put Toxic on that slot... which is weird but it still works... although I wouldn't since Toxic slows down the momentum of a rain sweep team.

1) Hera is faster than Blaziken and quickly put an end to the chicken with a single Earthquake... although to be fair Earthquake is rarely used. A Banded Close Combat would OHKO it too, so that's a lost cause. If Blaziken was Scarfed and had a fire move it would destroy Hera, but then again most Heras as Scarfed too... and being locked into Superpower would be a big no no. But that's not to say Hera can directly switch into Blaziken... as Fire moves or Brave Bird would spell doom to Heracross. But neither should Blaziken be used to reliably destroy Hera... but it does not. 2) Hera has other moves to deal with poisons, like Earthquake, although it is rarely used. That being said, you can't get Heracross to beat EVERYTHING (Nidoqueen is one of its greatest counters)... but it is still dangerous nonetheless. 3) Better is as in usefulness. I hate Infernape to the guts and I like Blaziken, but Infernape is actually more useful thanks to that speed and better movepool. For example we know that a Meganium could destroy Swampert easily one on one, but who is better overall for walling and utility? Just because one can beat another doesn't mean it is better... in RBY Geodude can easily destroy Zapdos, but does that mean Geodude is better?

No one says you will be convinced by a few words. You would have to be convinced in other ways. And new creatures being found? How about the term rediscovery? Ever heard of that? It's not like we know everything around the world. Have we discovered EVERYWHERE? Lost worlds are being found every time... meaning not every part of the world has been discovered. We are FAR from knowing everything there is to know about this world. It would be simply arrogant to say "we know all this". If you simply don't believe it, then you simply don't believe it. But please don't pretend that there are evidences to show that everything was caused by random chances. If you actually believe Darwinian evolution as a fact, then you pretty much believe in a god (or rather a goddess) too if you think about it. Natural selection... mother nature anyone? She simply selects who is most fit and who is not? Oh right, throw in a bit of time and in a million years our little froggy will become a prince. Yeah that makes sense. I mean, sure, you do not believe, but what reason is there? For some, it's just for the sake of not believing because they just don't want to... in spite of what is already there. Don't tell me that's you. I don't know if you are accepting Darwinian evolution out of the evidences they provide or for the sake of having an alternative to the "ridiculous" special creation. Microevolution DOES happen... stuff can CHANGE with slight variation. It is called ADAPTATION right there... we humans do adapt. There is no denying that. But the lie comes within macroevolution. One specimen cannot change into another specimen. For example, you will never find a dragon turning into a chicken (which is preposterous but that is the common belief nowadays by evolutionists, hence VelociRAPTORs). And as for crocodile/jellyfish being the same... how do you know? Likewise how do you know other creatures are not the same then? Is it up to use to just pick and choose what we think are same and what isn't? Fossil records show NOTHING. If you have done your research you will know that the fossil records only exists in ones' textbook. No such layer dating fossils at certain given time has ever been found in real life. In fact, visit a museum or somewhere, and they will tell you they date fossils by the rock layer they were found... so how do they know the rock layers are certain epochs? By the very same fossils that use the rock layers for dating them! Circular reasoning anyone? Oh, as for a Darwinian puzzle... ever heard of the coelacanth? You know, the thing Relicanth is based on? The scientists wonder how they stayed the same for millions of years (the answer? The earth isn't even that old)... so yes, some creatures can stay the same for a LONG time.You also have the idea that it takes a LONG time to fossilize a creature (like couple of thousands/millions of years?). That is not true. Given the right circumstances, anything can fossilize relatively quick. Lol @ the bolded one. You are reaffirming what we believe: we were made out of sand/clay/dirt. Cloning is bringing an offspring via reproduction, which is already a natural process. We are NOT creating life... we are merely intervening with an already natural process but making the pre-supposed offspring into a CLONE. Is that clear? Sorry if I am sounding a bit mean... I do have a bit of a short temper

Use the Image tags. Grab some pictures of Pokemon and upload them to tinypic.com or something and use [noparse][/noparse]. I would have suggested Gliscor to take everything Empoleon is weak to (and vice versa) but you have Rotom and Celebi to complement all that... so it is all fine.

Locked by original poster's request.

I think my Gyarados can take care of SD Luke/Scizor quite readily... I haven't fallen to them yet, but overly relying on Gyarados isn't a good idea anyhow. And I absolutely NEED to run Protect on Mamoswine because of Infernape. The only ghost with Spikes is Froslass, and although I really love that thing I do not know if it belongs in this team. I had Explosion on Forretress before but I'll adjust to what I need. But it sounds like a good idea. The only two that I know runs Flying moves are Skarmory and Togekiss. Skarmory can be dealt with Latias and perhaps Blissey, and Togekiss the same. Gyarados can Taunt Skarmory and have fun with it. Gyarados with Bounce is also another "Flying" user... and those rare Aerial Ace Gliscor and Dugtrio, but I have yet to see them. I suppose Gyara still beats the latter two but has nothing on enemy Gyarados. I can TWave that Gyara to cripple it at least. Blissey always needs work... because its role is usually too generic. Without Seismic Toss I am screwed over by Raikou or Jolteon... so that might work? I'm running Toxic so that Zapdos does not outstall me. The biggest threat is probably a DD Gyara with Taunt. So far, that has always been my biggest problem. Why is it that Scarf Tyranitar is so common nowadays? It's like everyone runs a Skarmory lead along with a Scarftar together... I think Gyara can handle Tar but not if it Stone Edges. Heracross scares Tyranitar out anyhow. I think my biggest weakness is overly relying on Gyarados to take hits. I haven't faced stall yet so I do not know exactly how that works.

I thought that color was called purple, not red? That aside commentaries are usually needed... however lame they can be.

Samson Agonistes Introduction: This is some old team I made from a while ago, but I decided to post up an RMT for this. It has been going through heavy modifications for a while. I am sure there are still many holes in this team but I just want to make sure. I do not really battle anymore but I hope a very competent battler will be able to make this team shine. Objective of this team: This team was designed to help Heracross, a vastly underrated bug Pokemon (although I beg to differ and say Pinsir/Scyther/Butterfree/Venomoth are), to sweep through the Standard metagame. Other Notes: This team was designed for Shoddy Battle, a battle simulator for Generation IV Pokemon metagame. Since I do not possess a Latias in game, I cannot use this team in Wifi. Nor do I have perfect IVs on my anyone and I do not possess a Blissey capable of Wishing. Therefore, assume IVs are all 31 unless otherwise stated. Also assume they are all level 100. This team used to have a Scizor in place of Forretress. The name is taken from John Milton's Samson Agonistes, his take on the famous Bible Story, Samson and Delilah. The Roster: "I SERIOUSLY LOVE THIS GUY!" ~ UnderXRay Manoah the Mamoswine (M) @ Focus Sash Jolly Nature Snow Cloak 252 Attack/6 SpDef/252 Speed - Stealth Rock - Protect - Ice Shard - Earthquake/Endeavor Mamoswine has proven to be an effective lead that seems to counter the other leads very well. Sporting the 3rd strongest Earthquake in this metagame (Garchomp ties with Mamo, Rhyperior is 2nd place, and Groudon is the king of all Earthquakers), it can even OHKO a Shuca Berry Heatran lead and severely dent Metagross leads. It also hits Abomasnow for a lot of damage with Earthquake, despite how it resists it. Fake Out Infernapes are easy to predict as they will always Fake Out first (as long as you are not a Ghost) and Mamoswine can use Protect, which works against general Fake Out leads. Then proceed to Earthquake the monkey and Ice Shard to KO it (hope they do not possess Mach Punch/Vaccum Wave). Ice Shard also 2HKOs Aerodactyls and OHKOs those anti-lead Dragonites who do not invest anywhere in HP. Salamence is also no problem. Tyranitar leads get destroyed by EQ + Ice Shard combo and sand will do nothing to Mamoswine. This guy, however, has problems with stuff like Azelf, Swampert, and Weavile. Weavile leads generally accomplish nothing though, but Protect through Fake Out and hope that Weavile either runs Counter to hit your Earthquake and set up Stealth Rocks. If they are going to Taunt, just Earthquake twice for the KO... but Weavile is sneaky and requires prediction to beat. Swampert is just plain annoying as Earthquake barely dents it and it can just Roar Mamoswine out, but it will not stop Mamoswine from setting up Stealth Rocks anyhow. Azelf can Taunt Mamo and just Flamethrower it and set up Rocks in impunity. That is why Endeavor can also be another good choice I believe... as with prediction even the almighty Azelf can go down. But generally I found Earthquake to be more useful. Unfortunately, this guy will not stop anyone from setting up Rocks, which can be detrimental but it can still take down the opposing lead. Manoah is the name of Samson's father... his mother's name is never mentioned I believe. "With someone like this who needs Cresselia?" ~ Every competitive players and their brothers Agonistes the Latias (F) @ Expert Belt Timid Nature Levitate 12 Def/252 SpA/244 Speed IVs: 6 Attack/30 SpA/30 Speed - Dragon Pulse - Hidden Power [Fire] - Surf - Thunderbolt If this thing ever gets banned I will have to find someone else to deal with those dangerous Scizors/Salamences/etc. And no, Latias does not outclass Cresselia, despite what everyone says. Anyhow, this Latias feigns the Choice Scarf variants, although not too well, but she hopes to lure in those pesky Scizors after I keep spamming Dragon Pulses. Hidden Power Fire will destroy them... period. If they start suspecting she is a Choiced version, they will normally Pursuit or U-turn, so I can just burn them with ease. Dragon Pulse takes care of Salamences and to a lesser extent, Dragonite. Surf hits Heatrans and grounders like Hippowdon while Thunderbolt deals with bulky waters (specifically Gyarados). I do not bother maxing out her speed as Hidden Power Fire screws up my speed IV to 30, so I dropped it to 347 Speed which outpaces max speed Infernapes, who are OHKOd by Surf. This gal definitely counters Infernapes and Zapdos very well, except those who like to spam U-turn... which are annoying... VERY annoying. Even with max SpA though I found Latias incredibly weak... no clue why. Agonistes is just taken from the title... "STEROIDS..." ~ Mewtwo EX raging as I sweep him with a Gyarados Regained the Gyarados (F) @ Leftovers Careful Nature Intimidate 248 HP/212 Def/8 Spd/40 SDef - Waterfall - Taunt/Roar - Thunder Wave - Substitute Steroids is the name Mewtwo EX affectionately gave to Gyarados. Anyways, this is a very odd Gyarados set, as it does not intend on sweeping as a normal healthy destructive Gyarados would, but rather a defensive wall. The numbers are quite arbitrary, as it hits 393 HP to round off Stealth Rocks damage, 270 SpDef, 200 Speed, and the remnants dumped into Defense. No Scizor is getting past this thing. Neither is Lucario without Thunderpunch (I barely see that move on it anyhow). I usually bring this thing into stuff that normally do not like Gyarados, which tend to switch out. Then I Substitute to scout what they bring, and if they end up a speedy threat, I paralyze them with Thunder Wave (hopefully it is not Jolteon or Electivire), or if it is the two, I Waterfall them. Waterfall from this set, though, will not OHKO Infernape, dealing 97% damage or something crazy... but with Stealth Rocks, that isn't a problem. Thunder Wave really helps out Heracross to sweep so that it is not outsped by something like Ape or Mence. Defensive Pokemon who employ non-attacking moves and stuff are Taunted, like Swampert. Sometimes I like to be a sinister villain and run Roar to rack up Stealth Rock damage. It is really odd, as this team was meant to help Heracross sweep, but sometimes, contrary to this Gyarados's nature, it ends up sweeping by itself. I have no clue why though. This Gyarados suffers from the lack of damage recovery and its weakness to Stealth Rocks, but fortunately, I have that covered with two other Pokemon. Regained is taken off "Paradise Regained", another work from John Milton (we all know of Paradise Lost more but I don't like to name someone "Lost"). "I... NEED... YOU." ~ Wraith89 Paradise the Forretress (M) @ Shed Shell Sassy Nature Sturdy 252 HP/44 Atk/212 SpDef 0 Speed IVs - Spikes - Rapid Spin - Gyro Ball - Payback Yeah... I usually cannot play through a team without this guy. I had Scizor in place of this before, but due to the problem of Stealth Rocks, I REALLY REALLY needed this thing to spin them away. Now, he comes with a new trick: Payback. Payback will severely injure Rotoms who think they can come in and block my spin (hopefully without Overheat/Will-o-Wisp). I hear 44 Attack EVs will do a minimum of 50% to Latias without any defensive EVs, so that is also good news. Gyro Ball is there for STAB and it still hurts stuff a lot. It does not take much physical attacks like the physically defensive variants, but it still takes them fairly well. I was thinking of a physically defensive one with Counter, but I feel it is overspecialized and it is a one time use utility Pokemon then, which is not a good thing. This guy also lays down Spikes, which is ideal for an offensive team like this. Paradise is taken from "Paradise Lost/Regained"... another one of Milton's work. "WHHHYYYY?????!!!!!!!!!" ~ Everyone who gets their Alakazam sweep ruined by Blissey Dalila the Blissey (F) @ Leftovers Bold Nature Natural Cure 252 Defense/80 SpA/32 SpDef/144 Speed - Wish - Protect - Toxic/Thunder Wave - Flamethrower/Seismic Toss To ease up your eyes I made the font red now. Flamethrower really eats Scizors alive and outspeeds most variants. This is my normal Special Wall, but it's very cliched... but I really love this gal, not because she is the most effective special wall, but she is just one of my personal favorites. Hey, don't look at me like that, don't blame me for Gamefreak making her effective at what she does. Anyhow, Dalila (alternate spelling found in Milton's poem) is the deceptive woman Samson loved... who got him caught by the Philistines in the end. She is very deceptive, as people readily switching in their Steel Pokes get fried by Flamethrower, and taking physical damage much better than one would think. She also casts status on the enemy by either Poisoning or Paralyzing them (I have to decide which one works), and passes Wishes to injured teammates. Taunt Gliscor is a problem, but I have others to deal with that. I might want Aromatherapy but I am not so sure. I already have Scizor checks everywhere however, so I am not entirely sure what to do with this Blissey. I know she will be Wishpassing, because that is what this team desperately needs. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha that thing? How is it going to beat up my shiny red Sci-" ~ A battler before getting his Scizor eaten by a Choice Band Close Combat from Heracross Samson the Heracross (M) @ Leftovers Adamant Nature Guts 252 Attack/80 Defense/176 Speed - Swords Dance - Night Slash/Facade/Stone Edge (can't decide) - Close Combat - Megahorn Question... if Heracross has wings, how come it cannot Roost? Mhh, I can't help it but I get a huge smile in my face whenever a Scizor gets eaten by Heracross... but it does not always happen. This is a more offensively geared Heracross, and it switches into a Will-o-Wisp from a Rotom and then proceeds to eat it up with Night Slash or something. The goal was to get stuff paralyzed since everyone complains about Heracross's 85 Speed. 85 is okay actually, and Heracross's stat distribution could not have been any better, and it has just the right moves to eat stuff alive. I don't know what people are complaining about then. Anyhow, the dual STAB hurts a lot of stuff, even though it is resisted by Salamence and Gyarados, those two can be handled by Latias and even my own Gyarados. I bring this guy in late game, much like how one brings Scizor in to clean up. Heracross has at least superior speed (this one hits 250 Speed though) and has much harder hitting moves. Yes, Lucario is even scarier thanks to Extremespeed but unlike Scizor and Lucario, Heracross resists Earthquake and Fighting moves and can live through multiple special assaults with its base 95 SpDef. Also, it benefits from Will-o-Wisp instead of getting crippled by it (although burn still hurts mind you) and special Lucarios do not mind burn as much. The other two resist Dragon moves though but like I said, Gyarados can handle Salamence to a certain extent or even cripple it with Thunder Wave (I must watch out for other Taunting Gyarados however). Samson is the main protagonist of the story Samson and Delilah. He is a physically powerful man who was able to destroy armies with a jaw of a donkey at one point. His strength was within his hair. However, he is deceived by the beautiful Delilah, who hands him over to the Philistines and cutting off his hair, his only weakness. Mhh... I guess there is no parallel to having Heracross usurped by Lucario/Scizor... but that's the closest I can get... having been in a high position for a long time but has fallen down ever since. So what happens to Samson in the end? A big fundamental problem with this team is that I tend to forget that I was supposed to sweep with Heracross and end up sweeping with some other Pokemon instead. Whoops

1. Neither Fire Blast nor Flamethrower from Salamence will OHKO this Heracross variant without Choice Specs. Besides, your "standard" Salamence usually packs 24 SpA EVs to 2HKO Skarmory with Fire Blast (note standard variants usually run max HP). So how in the world would it beat Heracross (80 HP/95 SpDef... this one being Careful Nature with 252 HP/216 SpDef)? If it burns Heracross it's all the better for raising its attack. Here... standard Salamence with Life Orb does 52.7% - 62.1% with Fire Blast to this Heracross variant. Now consider the LO recoil of 10% and the damage Stealth Rocks can do... yeah I know I did not have SR set up but it still took 75% from + 3 Megahorn, which isn't all that bad. LO with Flamethrower would do 41.2% - 48.9%, which isn't even going to 2HKO at all without Stealth Rocks and even with SR it is not guaranteed. 2. Um, no. Have you actually done calculations? That aside Dugtrio is really weak. If it's a critical hit... then fine. Yes it would OHKO then. Otherwise, it isn't going to happen and is probably 2HKOing or something. 3. I don't see what you mean by luck based. It's true a Skarmory would ruin this and Blissey switch in against Heracross is a bad idea anyhow but if you don't like how it's been done then don't comment.

@ MewtwoEX: Exactly. Creation is by definition ex nihilo... making something out of what is already there is simply rearranging. Say you drew a cat with wings. Is that your own creation... or is it simply taking stuff that was already there but rearranging it? Same concept. @ evandixon: That is one thing I forgot to mention... the Carbon Dating. There is a huge fundamental flaw in it, in which one must assume that the ratio between the C-12 and C-14 in the atmosphere remained steady ever since the creation of this world... and even then it only has a half life of 5730 years... and it is used to date things that are "over millions of years old"...

I don't know... there seems to be so many movies like that, but I don't think it'll happen in real life. Could you imagine how scary it would be then? But the material is not ours... we did not make the DNA itself, we are merely replicating what was already there... so we are not creating life... rather copying it. DNA has life... and we are not making the DNA, hence we cannot create life. Still, the prospect of cloning is interesting. I am against human cloning though, but let's not get there, clone of Mew. :]