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It looks like the Eevee Collection event will be returning to Pokemon Centers in December of this year. It was also in December last year, if you forgot. No word yet on whether this will be simply merchandising, or if there will be an Eevee distribution like last year. Also, it seems there may be a focus on Espeon and Umbreon of the 2nd generation because in the marketing materials and logo, they are facing each other, rather than forward as the rest are (and how they all were last year).

The Top Ten Disappointing Pokemon of 2009 So I have decided to compile a list of the top 10 disappointing Pokemon for competitive battling. I do not know why... I just felt like doing it. Without further ado, here goes... Number 10: Heracross What do you mean I cannot fly?? What about him? Sets I use: Offensive Hippolyta the Heracross (F) @ Choice Scarf Guts Jolly Nature 8 HP/252 Atk/56 Def/192 Speed - Megahorn - Close Combat - Night Slash - Stone Edge Defensive Atalanta the Heracross (F) @ Leftovers Guts Careful Nature 252 HP/40 Def/216 SpDef - Megahorn - Bulk Up - Rest - Sleep Talk Heracross, undoubtedly the strongest bug in the game, sports huge advantages over its fellow fighters. I remember back in GSC it was amazing, even bulky enough to survive an Alakazam's Psychic and OHKO back with its own unique STAB Megahorn. Of course, Megahorn is no longer its own, but Heracross is STILL the ONLY Pokemon with STAB Megahorn, hence being its best user. Once RSE came in, it added Swarm and Guts as its two abilities. I found a Jolly Heracross in the Safari Zone with Guts, and the cool thing about Guts is that Burn, which would normally cut one's attack power in half, actually negates that effect and only makes Heracross stronger! Then Gen IV comes in and in comes STAB Close Combat to rip Steels apart (Guts + Choice Band CC will OHKO Scizor). Heracross's Achilles's Heel, the Flying Pokemon, now fear switching in because Heracross now gets a powerful Rock move in the form of Stone Edge. Ghosts are more loath to switch in thanks to Night Slash, get punished from powerful Pursuits, and Weezing and Dusknoir still need to watch out for burning the wrong Pokemon thanks to the presence of Heracross. If played properly, this thing can sweep a weakened team, or puncture many holes in it. If EV'd defensively, it can survive two Heat Waves from a defensive Zapdos and may beat it one on one. This bug just so happens to be Tyranitar's worst nightmare, for both of its STAB moves can OHKO it (it usually will unless something strange happens). So why would this crazy beast fall down to the bottom of the OU tier? If anything, Heracross would still be useful in this metagame that is widely infested with Rotom-A's burning everything with Will-o-Wisp and the Latias running rampart. Toxic Spikes are making more appearances thanks to the fewer appearances of this blue bug. But... think of it this way. With Scizor running rampant and taking his crown as #1 used Pokemon, who needs another bug? Scizor can Bullet Punch everything, U-turn to scout for its counters, and does everything Heracross wishes to do. Before it got Bullet Punch, this red mantis was able to Swords Dance/Agility/Iron Defense and Baton Pass to its teammates one of those, Roost off its damages (70/100/80 defenses are still decent), has resistance to Dragon and many other types, AND its only weakness (albeit a HUGE Achilles's Heel) is Fire, which is quite easily predicted. Wait, doesn't Heracross get Roost? Apparently not... because Scizor can fly right? And priority move? Seems like Gamefreak decided to be kind to Heracross and gave it STAB Vacuum Wave in compensation for that Technician STAB Bullet Punch... which runs off Heracross's Special Attack of... 40. So there we go, Scizor soundly has more reasons to be used than Heracross. And as a fighter... Lucario does everything better than Heracross... resists everything Heracross resists and more... has Bullet Punch/Vacuum Wave/Extremespeed as priority moves (and it CAN actually use Vacuum Wave), has a larger movepool, and is overall just scarier than Heracross. Is everything lost for Heracross? I do not think so... but it is just that people don't see Heracross anymore, it can be quite an unexpected threat. Just recently I swept with Scarf Heracross 5 times already... and took down two people with bulky Heracross. Ok, so Dugtrio traps it and OHKOs with Aerial Ace... but do we see much of that thing anymore? It isn't to be underestimated, but it just isn't used enough. But let's face it... with all those advantages Scizor and Lucario have over Heracross, why use the blue bug anyways? Although, it does take the best of the two... and combine it together... somehow. So it only ends up being number 10 in my list. Personal score: |||||||||| Heracross has always been my favorite bug and not out of favoritism, I still think it is quite possibly the best bug out there. Ok, there's Scizor... I concede, but Hera can still do stuff that Scizor cannot do, remember that. You are NOT letting your Scizor stay in on my Scizor-slaying Blissey, now are ya? Heh heh... Number 9: Charizard If only this were the anime... if only... Sets I Use: Belly Drum Lizardon the Charizard (F) @ Salac Berry 30 HP IVs Jolly 252 Atk/6 Def/252 Speed - Belly Drum - Substitute - Fire Punch - Earthquake Sunnyzard (Read: Worse than Moltres) Char the Charizard (F) @ Petaya Berry Timid 6 Def/252 SpA/252 Speed - Sunny Day - Flamethrower - Solarbeam - Dragon Pulse Dragon Dancer Cinder the Charizard (F) @ Lum Berry Adamant 128 HP/252 Atk/128 Speed - Dragon Dance - Roost - Flare Blitz - Earthquake <wraith89> Ah, the almighty Charizard... the one every kid fanboys about. Let's see, 100 base speed, 109 SpA, what could possibly be bad about this thing? I mean, the kids must love it for a reason, right? It slays, even Ash says so! FINISH IT OFF WITH SEISMIC TOSS! Yeah, every kids and their brothers selected Charizard as their starter... I mean, it was just awesome. But what could be so disappointing about Charizard? I guess the one thing that gets me here is... the overhype. <Kids> WHAT?!!! You're saying Charizard is bad?! HOW DARE YOU! *wraith89 gets beaten up by Kids* <wraith89> Well, I'm not saying Charizard is bad and all, but I'm- *wraith89 is continually beaten up by Kids* <wraith89> Look, can you just let me fin- *wraith89 gets torn apart by the kids, limb from limb* <wraith89> OKAY OKAY Charizard is uber w00t pwnage! Now let me rest in peace! *wraith89 watches as the kids leave* <wraith89> Okay, now where was I? What I meant to say is that while Charizard is an okay Pokemon and serves its use fairly well, it is certainly not the best and many of the other fire Pokemon seriously outclass it. Let's see, that evil junk monkey Infernape and its perfectly distributed stats and wide movepool made it make a name for itself so it is in OU. Moltres is more powerful than Charizard in terms of special sweeping and has an actual movepool to abuse it with and can play defensive as well. Arcanine does the physical sweeping quite well AND it can take hits. Ninetales has amazing support movepool to go along with her regular attacks which allow her to take down even Rock/Ground/Water Pokemon. Houndoom is just menacing with its Nasty Plot. Heatran of course is the best Fire Pokemon out there not named Ho-oh. Magmortar has an insanely wicked movepool to abuse with its SpA of 125 and has just enough speed to Thunderbolt a Gyarados down before it can set up or attack. Typhlosion, who has the SAME EXACT BST as Charizard, can abuse its speed and special attack and use Eruption to hurt so many things. Ok, Typhlosion is probably on par or even worse than Charizard, but you get my point. What can Charizard do that the other Fire Pokemon cannot? <Kids> MY CHARIZARD OWNS! HE HAS FIRE BLAST, FLAMETHROWER, EMBER, and FIRE SPIN! <The Other Kids> MY CHARIZARD IS EVEN BETTER! HE HAS OVERHEAT, FLARE BLITZ, HEAT WAVE, and FIRE BLAST! <The Other Other Kids> OH YEAH?! MY CHARIZARD HAS EMBER, EMBER, EMBER, and EMBER. BEAT THAT. <The Other Kids> YOUR CHARIZARD IS HAX! <wraith89> ... see what I mean? Charizard is actually quite limited in that department. Aside from fire moves, it really cannot do much else. Well, there are some improvements in DP like Air Slash and Focus Blast and Solarbeam and Dragon Pulse and Shadow Claw and Thunderpunch and stuff... but aside from that, can it really make much use out of them? So what am I suggesting here? What can Charizard do that the other fires cannot do? How about Belly Drum? <Kids> EWWW BUT BELLY DRUM DOES NO DAMAGE! <wraith89> Well kids, the thing is, Charizard really needs to use the Belly Drum set or else it will end up outclassed by the other fires. Just stare at Infernape... and stare at it for all its glory and realize it is indeed what Charizard could have been. However, Belly Drum is a VERY risky move that cuts off half of its users HP but raises the user's attack level up to max (which is + 6). Then from there Charizard can start sweeping, and with Substitute, he will be at 25% HP, with Salac Berry activating, which raises its speed, Blaze activating, therefore making Fire Punch uber powerful against things not named Ninetales or other Flash Fire users, and a secondary move that is useful for coverage, like Thunderpunch or Earthquake. But... since when was Charizard physical? 84 Attack power? Really? The even worse part is that... Charizard can be easily revenge killed after all that. Let's see... after losing 75% of its health, + 6 Earthquake did... 79% to that opposing Swampert while it eats Charizard up with a Surf. WHAT?! So all that was meant for nothing? And get this... hi priority attacks! Scizor, who would normally fear Charizard, can eat through a 25% HP Charizard (without a SUB of course) and Bullet Punch it for a KO... EVEN if resisted! And even if it had a sub, Bullet Punch would break it (not that you would switch Scizor in against a Charizard, mind you, but this is just to show you how fragile Charizard is). Charizard does not look so pretty now, now does it? Oh, and it is 50% weak to Stealth Rocks, so you pretty much have to clear out those rocks, or prepare to lose 50% of its HP and render Belly Drum useless. Now what? <Kids> We rip you apart! <wraith89> NO NO NO KIDS. We must now discuss what we can do to improve Charizard! <Kids> GIVE IT HYPER BEAM! <The Other Kids> GIVE IT JUDGMENT!!!! <The Other Other Kids> GIVE IT 999 STATS EVERYWHERE!!!! <The Other Other Other Kids> EVOLVE IT!! <wraith89> What have I done? Anyways, as a side note, Charizard is not even so great in-game either. In RBY it was even worse thanks to its middling special of 85! In FRLG it was just too weak to do anything and Metal Claw was nothing much to offer against Brock anyhow. At least Squirtle and Bulbasaur had many great options to use in-game. Hey, I am not saying Charizard is the worst starter. If anything, Blastoise is the worst Kanto starter (happens to be my favorite, so Blastoise fans, do not flame me)... although now he has received better upgrades in the form of Water Spout and Aqua Jet, but Charizard is nothing special either. Kids seem to overexaggerate the power of Charizard, and I blame it all on this guy. Anyhow, Charizard, while disappointing, is not so bad as the others that will soon to come, so I will only rate him number 9 out of the disappointments here. To improve him... is to improve his base stats... which cannot happen, unfortunately =( <Kids> HEY HE SAID CHARIZARD SUCKS! GET HIM!! <wraith89> Uh oh! *wraith89 runs* Personal score: |||||||||| Don't get me wrong. I do like Charizard, but it is more overhyped than it deserves to be... at least to the younger audiences. He is all right, but just not too spectacular. There are better Fire Pokemon to choose from... although as you can see, I do use one myself. If it is your favorite Pokemon, don't let that stop you from using one, but if you expect to win with it... think about what it can offer what the other fires cannot. Since the number of Fire Pokemon is scarce... I'm sure there is something Charizard can do for you. It is just that he requires a lot of support... like a rapid spinner or something to get rid of priority users and bulky waters and grounds. If you can do that, Charizard can easily scare something away and set up and prepare to sweep (I have swept with Bellyzard a few times by now and it felt quite rewarding... just make sure your opponent does not have a Focus Sash Aqua Jet Sharpedo ) Number 8: Luxray Huh? Why are you staring at me? Look at this guy! He has more problems than I do! Sets I Use: Physically Offensive Richard the Luxray (M) @ Choice Band Intimidate Adamant Nature 72 HP/252 Atk/184 Speed - Ice Fang - Spark - Superpower - Crunch But the thing is, Electivire has Earthquake, which you don't, Mister Electric Lion with 70 base speed. You are even slower than THIS! Usually, I would think Gamefreak would make their electric Pokemon broken and whatnot, like they usually do, but good thing they did not here. Anyways, for an early game to mid game Pokemon, he is quite useful, but what is the big let down here? Aside from being a weaker Electivire without Earthquake or being the slower yet bulkier physical version of Manectric, the biggest letdown is that his strongest physical STAB Attack would be SPARK or THUNDER FANG, which only have base 65 power! Now what do you expect to do with that? The even greater let down, as stated above, is his less than average speed. As cool as Luxray's name sounds, and as cool as he looks, he is nothing more than an overhyped lion. The only good thing is, he is slightly more defensive than your average electrics with 80/79/79 defenses, so it can actually survive non-STABd Earthquakes, and with Intimidate, what can go wrong? However, Ampharos does the defensive act better (with the right stats and movepool), and Electivire does the physical electric sweeper job better. Luxray's only hope? If they made some electric priority move (I really hope they do not), then he can see some uses so that a 6 DD Gyarados finally has some answer (but you would not being Luxray into OU just to beat Gyarados, now would you?). Aside from that, the cure for this lion is a bigger movepool. Yeah... things on four legs tend to suffer from a scarce movepool, take a look at Manectric, Ninetales, and everyone else in Luxray's group. Luxray can also go mixed like how Electivires do it, I mean, 95 SpA isn't so bad, now is it? That is Articuno's Special Attack... so something like Thunderbolt should work alongside something like... Crunch, Ice Fang? Oh, there still isn't enough options to work around Luxray's pitiful movepool. But still... Luxray isn't THAT bad, but still nothing to write home about (Fire Fang refuses to deal much damage to Steelix...), so it only stands as number 8. I mean, that is what you expect for a Pokemon you get in the wild so early, now isn't it? In fact, I feel like this beast should have taken this spot over Luxray, but I would not really have enough room to say how bad that thing is. But the humiliation part comes from the fact this is a LION... and the other thing I pointed out to is... well... the same thing that fell under Mufasa's mercy... meh, I don't know. Personal score: |||||||||| Luxray had some appeal on me from the beginning, but not enough to get me ranting about it for a long time. In the end, I felt as if it were just a weaker Electivire, nothing else. But still, a cool concept to be ruined by Gamefreak... it's happened a lot before as we know, and this is the fourth generation. Come on, how much worse will it get? But at least it isn't as extreme as this, whom I will cover later. Number 7: Flareon For the last time Satoshi-kun, I did NOT burn down your house! Sets I Use: Defensive Ember the Flareon (F) @ Leftovers Calm/Careful Nature 248 HP/8 SpA (or Atk)/252 SpDef - Wish - Protect - Lava Plume/Superpower - Toxic/Quick Attack Mixed Attacker Poppea the Flareon (F) @ Life Orb Lonely/Naughty Nature 192 Atk/92 SpA/224 Speed - Fire Blast - Superpower - HP Grass/Shadow Ball - Return Oh my poor dear Flareon! When will Gamefreak ever believe in your pleas? After all these years, they STILL think you were the one who burned down Monsieur Satoshi's house? And they think he was your partner-in-crime? If only I can talk some sense into them... Anyways, here is my beloved Flareon. You can all pretty much imagine why Flareon is here with the disappointments. She is arguably the worst of the Eeveelutions. Okay, so we know that no Jolteon sets are able to scratch Flareon at all while a 0 Atk neutral Superpower from Flareon will OHKO her spiky sister, but we still know Jolteon is a LOT more useful than Flareon will ever be. While all her other sisters (at least her Kanto sisters she started off with) are vaunted so much thanks to their superior support options and stats and typing, this one was often forgotten by the others. I mean, if you have Charizard as your premier Fire Pokemon (I'm sure all of the kids do as I stated above) and Jolteon as your #1 Eeveelution for your team (actually I believe Vaporeon is the best one, but you can argue with me about that), who needs a pyromaniacal Eevee? I mean, something like that would just be a danger to society... and to competitive battling! Like... WHOA, you brought in Flareon? Who uses THAT?! *watches as their Tyranitar eats a Superpower* But I digress. Flareon has a low movepool, nothing useful to Baton Pass aside from Curse (which all Eeveelutions can do), has a powerful 130 Attack power which is only gone to waste because her strongest physical Fire STAB is NOT the vaunted Flare Blitz (which would screw up her longevity more even if she had it), but the amazing, 65 base power attack (you guessed it), FIRE FANG! Not even Flame Wheel which has 100% accuracy? Nope, Fire Fang... and seems like she has the same problem as her friend Luxray up there does... only without the defenses and with even lower speed! Oh where can I start? Not to mention Flareon looks the closest to Eevee out of all her sisters, meaning she must have retained poor Eevee's weakness (and for some bizarre reason, Flareon's Special Defense is quite high just like her younger sister Eevee's)... and her shiny form resembles Eevee A LOT. Hm... I wonder if they did that on purpose. Poor Flareon... give her something amazing next time Gamefreak... once I clear out her name. So what can we do? I don't know... just hope that she gets something like Agility or a movepool boost. I mean, aside from Superpower, which already has an evil drawback, she needs something like a Fire STAB move to abuse... and with Flare Blitz, wouldn't it be just cool? Or give her something like Crunch and just widen her overall movepool... it would be interesting. I mean, back in GSC, she even had the gimmicky Zap Cannon, which made me believe Flareon was just amazing because she can learn an electric attack! At least Thunder Fang for good measures? :3 Okay... it's worse than Fire Fang on Flareon, but still, Thunder Fang is wasted on Jolteon. U_U Once I clear Flareon's name out from the guilty list, then I can proceed to clear Farfetch'd name and the two will be unstoppable! UNSTOPPABLE I TELL YOU, UNSTOPPABLE! MUHAHAHAH! Personal score: |||||||||| You can honestly tell I just love Flareon. I'm still guilty though for the fact Vaporeon is my favorite Eeveelution, but Flareon is just awesome for me. She is neglected by Gamefreak and unlike Charizard, no kids actually pay much attention to her. But we can always hope... right? Number 6: Glaceon I have the power to freeze you... if you allow me to. Sets I Use: Revenge Killer Sonata the Glaceon (F) @ Choice Scarf Timid Nature 8 HP/252 SpA/248 Speed - Ice Beam - Shadow Ball - HP Fighting - Water Pulse Support Set (to be used in Hail teams with TS support) Sonnet the Glaceon (F) @ Leftovers Calm Nature 248 HP/44 Def/216 SpDef - Wish - Protect - Roar - Blizzard I really had to debate between Glaceon and Flareon to see which one is the worse Eeveelution, and Flareon still wins there. Glaceon can still do something with that really painful STAB Ice Beam coming off 130 SpA, but Flareon just dies to everything and still can't really do much without a STAB to abuse from that 130 Attack. But in terms of disappointment? Glaceon wins here, hands down. Why is that? Well, all right... here is a beautiful Eeveelution, who seems to look even more feminine than Espeon herself. And just like Espeon we have that amazing 130 Special Attack... and... WOW, STAB ICE BEAM? That's just amazing! Just... beautiful! We can finally slay those dragons at last without any worries! And oh look! 110 Defense? 95 Special Defense? Golly gee whiz! This is like a dream come true! She even has Shadow Ball to take care of those Ghosts and Psychics and Water Pulse for those pesky Fire and Rock Pokemon thinking they can crash the party. So... where did she go wrong? How could you possibly screw up a 130 SpA Ice Pokemon? Well, it was not her fault at the very least, but those who made her. Hey wait a minute... do I see... a 65 base Speed?! Oh noes! Well, at least she can outpace Tyranitar if she wanted to, but Tyranitar would win anyways. As for those armor like defenses? They go down the drain thanks to her base HP of 65. WHAT?! I mean, come on! That isn't fair... not to mention how Ice is not exactly the best defensive type (I blame them again for that)... AND they are weak to Stealth Rocks. Seriously, why? And get this... Glaceon and Flareon are the only Eeveelutions weak to Stealth Rocks, hmmm... So what can they do here? Well, there is no way to rectify those base stats, and like the rest of her Eeveelution sisters, she has movepool issues. Maybe if they made an Ice type priority that was special, it would help... and hey. Gamefreak at least showed they cared about Glaceon unlike her pyromaniacal counterpart. In Platinum, she received Barrier to actually be of use with Baton Pass, but Vaporeon still does that better with Acid Armor. Mirror Coat was there too in case something felt like using some Fire Attack and with sash, it might not be a bad idea... but Sandstream and Stealth Rocks say no. Ugh... so I suppose if they made her movepool larger, like... give her some electric attack or whatever, it might help. As for the Ice attacking Eeveelution, there's always Vaporeon, and no, stop talking about your HP Ice Jolteon, I don't care about your Hidden Powers (Jolty is better off with HP Grass anyways, although I do not like it -__-). Props to Glaceon for being one of the few Pokemon who can actually OHKO Garchomp with Ice Beam (the other is Abomasnow with Blizzard). Personal score: |||||||||| Yeah, I just fall for the Eeveelutions, what can I say? To be honest, I did manage to surprise kill so many Pokemon with Scarf Glaceon. No joke, she is a beast and can be quite unexpected. Give her a try. Number 5: Rampardos Fear my raw power! Sets I Use: Rock Polish Pachy the Rampardos (M) @ Liechi Berry Adamant Nature 252 Atk/4 Def/252 Speed - Endure - Rock Polish - Earthquake - Rock Slide To tell you the truth, I only used Rampardos once... and it just disappointed. Anyhow... WHOA. 165 Attack power??? Did you see that? That's like UBER strong! Yeah, you can expect that. I mean, when you fought Roark's Cranidos, did you expect that thing to put such a hole on your Pokemon? Did you now? Cranidos has 125 Attack Power... insane! Now come on... you don't mean to tell me this thing is disappointing, now do you? You really cannot go wrong with 165 Attack Power! And Mold Breaker even allows Earthquake to hit Rotoms and Gengars! How much better can this package get? The package is actually shiny on the outside, but on the inside, all you get is a NES when you ordered that PS3 from Ebay. Aside from that base 97 HP (which I think should to THIS Pokemon), look at its other stats. You are staring at Mister I-have-lower-defense-than-Geodude rock type Pokemon... let alone a base 58 Speed which maxes at 215 when neutral... and 236 when positive. Yeah... do you really want to do that? This guy is a glass cannon, more so like a physical version of Alakazam, only stronger but a LOT slower. And also, NEVER EVER Head Smash a Blissey... PERIOD. Sure you will eat her up, but Blissey will only smile in the end because the recoil damage is just too much for Rammy to handle... hence it is a Death Note =| But isn't Rampardos like the strongest Pokemon in terms of raw strength aside from Deoxys, right? Erm... I think you have forgot about this girl here, who reaches 438 Attack on neutral and 480 when positive, while Rampardos reaches 429 when neutral and 471 on max. Plus Medicham has a better movepool and a much better speed to take advantage of. You want the power of a nuke? Medicham is your girl. Rampardos just looks shiny on the outside, but is quite pointless when you look at something like Medicham. Oh yeah, and you probably don't remember him much, but... this guy defines the power of a nuke. Hello Thick Club! Is there any way to make this troubled dinosaur any better? If Pokemon were real, the big bully in the playground would have Rampardos (reminiscent on how Dex from Megaman Battle Network has GutsMan as his Navi)... but too bad... because all the kindergarteners have Choice Banded Scizors ready to eat it up. Yeah, forget Rampardos for OU... with Scizor waiting around the bend, ready to OHKO with a single lethal Bullet Punch, I don't know what we should do with Rampardos. Yeah, let's give him an item to make his attack power double so it will be overkill! I suppose NO ONE would ever want to switch in aside from flyers when it starts to Earthquake, but... I don't know. There isn't really much to say how he can be improved. Maybe he should just stick with bullying Plusles and Minuns as usual =/ Personal score: |||||||||| I mean, a Pachycephalosaurus Pokemon is just too cool... I have been waiting for something like this... but you know where it disappoints... its lack of speed and defenses... and really no way of getting around the ever so common Scizor. However, if you have Scizor out of the way, you can always try Ninjask + Rampardos combo... I mean, if Ninjask worked for Marowak, it should also work for Rampardos as well... and then, you can have a wonderful time sweeping through... Scizor free... oh yeah, and clear the rocks while you're at it... Ninjask HATES Stealth Rocks. Number 4: Regice It was all fun and games until she came along... Sets I Use: Resttalk Melchoir the Regice @ Leftovers Calm Nature 248 HP/252 Def/8 SpDef - Ice Beam - Thunderbolt - Rest - Sleep Talk Take it from someone who KNOWS he is outclassed, Regice is that amazing special wall you saw back in RSE walling everything in sight. No Salamence ever dared go against it. Even the almighty Zapdos feared it. This thing was just so amazing with its 480 SpDef, it could easily survive 3 Fire Blasts from NON STAB sources and rest it all off once the damage has been done. Not to mention there is no way to even reduce his defenses thanks to Clear Body. And he was no slouch in Special Attacks either. His Special Attack is base 100... which is very decent for a wall... TOO decent. And he has the amazing Boltbeam combo to take advantage of. This was everything a special wall could ask for... and more... but once Diamond/Pearl came in, Regice, who was not Richard Corey, all of a sudden faced depression, and decided to jump out the window, trying to commit suicide, as so... [sprite]378[/sprite] What happened? Well, many things. First off, FRLG was where the fall began to take place... when that harlot Blissey came over and asked Regice "Can I take all your screentime? K. Thx. Bai." and just pushed Regice off the curb as so. And Zapdos, unpleased about how Regice was walling him and how he just wasn't too powerful enough to distinguish himself from his sisters, asked Gamefreak to create something SO GAMEBREAKING so many Pokemon all of a sudden went from viable to not so viable. This included Regice, who just so happened to be weak to Rocks. And of course, Ice is one of the WORST defensive typing ever, only to resist Ice and to be weak to Fire/Fighting/Rock/Steel, which are actually quite common in this metagame. Not to mention it had no real way of recovery aside from the universal Rest + Sleep Talk... and with the outburst of massive Choice Band and Choice Specs user, things were hitting harder than ever while Regice's defenses... remained the same. Now can you see why the poor Iceberg is depressed? When will Regice ever recover from his depression? Actually, the damage has already been done. He suicided, as you can see, and his pieces have fallen all over Nabata Desert, so get your Thieves ready if you want to find his parts, but don't hope so much for it. Now, if Regice had something like Recover, or even Calm Mind instead of depending on Psych Up to boost its stats (it still loses to CM Entei one on one), there may still be a chance... oh wait, not with the Crimson Flash lurking. Sigh... poor Regice, what can we do with you? Personal score: |||||||||| Let's find a way to cheer this guy up. Yeah sure, he is nowhere near the beast he was in RSE, but you know, when that annoying thunderbird comes down to ruin your parade, and that nurse is busy doing something else, who else can you call to take him down? Ok, so there's Tyranitar, but in case you were bored and you wanted to take a different path rather than use the everyday cliche OUs... who else? Let's give Regice a chance... he isn't Blissey but he's not THAT bad =/ Number 3: Bastiodon I was supposed to be the wall of this century! Sets I Use: Metal Burst Bastille the Bastiodon (M) @ Focus Sash 0 Speed IVs Relaxed Nature 252 HP/228 Def/28 SpDef - Metal Burst - Stealth Rock - Toxic - Earthquake Okay, so if you are looking at that set I use, you can already see something wrong: aside from the fact it was ripped straight from Lord Smogon, WHY would anyone use Focus Sash on something THAT defensive? Better yet, who thought up of a Pokemon whose job was to wall stuff with THAT typing? Rock/Steel? Okay, so it sounds cool because you have a 4x resist to Normal moves... but 4x weakness to Ground and Fighting? NOT cool. This guy is cool and everything, but there has been an error on Gamefreak's part... I cannot really blame them, but Bastiodon has no way of surviving stuff like Hitmonlee anyhow, even with that crazy 168 Defense. Why is that? Take a look at that base HP of 60. How atrocious. They pretty much gave that HP stat to the wrong Pokemon. I suppose the only thing Bastiodon can really do is just sit around and wait to use Metal Burst on something... but in this time and age when Pokemon with crazy offensive stats, decent speed, and good offensive movepool is desired more often than a wallish Pokemon with terrible typing and less than desirable offensive stats, what can one do? Bastiodon is cool... and I like how he was named after the Bastille and how it looks like a Zuniceratops... but could we make it even better? Since base stats are pretty much set in stone... and I do not know what moves aside from Recover would make it better... Bastiodon's job would primarily be to wall those NU bug Pokemon and Pidgeot and set up SR and Metal Burst stuff as its only form of decent offense... the latter being a one time use against fighters and whatnot. Oh poor thing =( Personal score: |||||||||| Concept is just amazing. It really is... but he was assigned the wrong typing and the wrong niche even if Gamefreak actually tried to make it as defensive as possible with this one. I don't know what else to say actually. Number 2: Pidgeot And I really thought I was a bird of prey... not the prey of birds! Sets I Use: Mixed Agility Sweeper Cyclone the Pidgeot (F) @ Liechi Berry Naughty Nature Tangled Feet 36 HP/252 Atk/40 SpA/180 Speed - Agility - Substitute - Heat Wave - Frustration Outclassed by Chatot Passenger the Pidgeot (F) @ Petaya Berry Modest Nature Tangled Feet 72 HP/252 SpA/4 SpDef/180 Speed - Agility - Substitute - Heat Wave/HP Ground - Air Slash Choice Band Kamikaze the Pidgeot (F) @ Choice Band Adamant Nature Tangled Feet 252 Atk/6 Def/252 Speed - Brave Bird - Return - U-turn - Steel Wing Just a few moments before, I have covered two overrated Pokemon (Luxray and Charizard)... and now, I am about to cover one of the BIGGEST Pokemon disappointments Gamefreak has ever created. I suppose... I should have given this slot to Hitmonchan since I have already written in-depth about Pidgeot, but I felt like writing about Pidgeot right now anyways. One of the coolest bird Pokemon ever in my opinion, and probably the first bird I ever caught in my entire life, this thing is big, majestic, and just wonderfully powerful. Or is it? The Pokedex says it swoops down on unwary prey like Magikarp, but how skillful do you have to be to beat Magikarp? Pidgeot is the one bird every kids just seem to use aside from Fearow just because it looks cool I guess. I don't know... that's one of the only reasons why I use one myself... for personal preferences actually. If you are one of the crowds that use Fearow over Pidgeot, then pat yourself on your back. You have made the wiser choice... but smack yourself over 9000 times for not using Dodrio, Swellow, Togekiss, or Staraptor instead. Anyhow, what I was saying? Oh yes... Pidgeot is a disappointment to every birds on the face of this planet. Now WHY do I say that? If that article I linked you to is too long or whatnot, here's just a long story short. Every Normal/Flying birds, and I mean EVERY (except for Flareon's partner in crime) are known to outclass Pidgeot in every way. Yes, Pidgeot's BST is better than Chatot's and Fearow's... but the latter two arguably have them distributed in the right places. Oh, and get this. Pidgeotto's stats are VERY akin to Spearow's aside from its defenses... and it takes only up to level 20 for Spearow to evolve to Fearow, while Pidgey evolved into Pidgeotto at level 18... and into Pidgeot at level 36. To make a long story short, if you see a Pidgey in Viridian Forest, unless you wanted to complete your Pokedex or something like that, just ignore it; there are better birds out there... Ok, Gamefreak, can you get any worse than this? A final stage bird Pokemon with less than stellar stats and both of its abilities taken over by less than stellar abilities? There is only ONE way to remedy this: the Marowak treatment. The what? You know what I mean... remember that Thick Club? Make something similar for Pidgeot. That is the ONLY thing I can see that can actually fix this thing... the ONLY way. Aside from that, I do not know what else. And that 70 SpA? Why not make two items... one for raising attack while the other raises special attack? It would be an interesting take on that majestic bird... and that bright crest of its would no longer be just an ornament. If Gamefreak can at least agree to this... I don't know. Maybe I will be convinced that Gamefreak CAN do the right thing... Personal score: |||||||||| Pidgeot is a cool bird in its own right. It looks cool, it's everywhere, and even Ash had one that had an epic battle with a Fearow. But those stats are lackluster... but it shouldn't stop you from using one if you really feel like it... yeah. King of Disappointments: Regigigas You cannot even catch me with Dusk Balls while I am level 1, so you are no match for my strength at all! Sets I Use: Parafusion Atlas the Regigigas @ Leftovers Adamant Nature 248 HP/252 Atk/4 Def/4 SpDef - Thunder Wave - Confuse Ray - Return - Fire Punch Could you actually get better than this? 110/110/110 Defenses... 160 Attack... 100 Speed! That is truly a legend, the master of golems... something to behold the wonders of... the ancient power of DEGENERATION! Seriously WHAT?! I go in ALL THE WAY inside the ruins... grab the three Regis from Pal Park... FOR THIS? You see that juicy base 160 Attack power? And that base speed of 100? All thanks to this ability called SLOW START, Gamefreak thought it would be awesome to balance something as cool as this just as they did with Slaking. However... Slaking's Truant looks like LEVITATE in comparison to Slow Start. Why is that? Well, Slaking at least keeps its immediate attacking power and can safely be switched out to cause ruin later, but this guy... Slow Start is TOO much. Your once majestic 160 Attack Power... becomes the pathetic 55 base attack power... and that base 100 speed... all of a sudden Regigigas becomes much slower than Snorlax with its base speed of... 25! And all this is supposed to be legendary... let alone the master of the golems. =( Not even Regice's situation was as dire as his master's! I wonder why this is so? The only way you can actually get this beast to rise is if all 5 turns are up and Regigigas survives... or if Gastro Acid is used on Regigigas (but who uses that move in the first place... let alone on Regigigas?). The only thing that Regigigas still retains is his good defense... but that is about all. Oh yes, and you know how Protect and Detect and Rest are universal for all Pokemon? For some stupid reason, Regigigas does NOT obtain those moves! Who would have thought that? I suppose stalling out all 5 turns can only be attained by miracles... or if the other guy purposely allows you to. I suppose Regigigas was only meant to be used as novelty... nothing more, nothing less. There does not seem to be any way to improve on Regigigas unfortunately, and for that ability Slow Start, Regigigas gets the crown for the KING of DISAPPOINTMENTS. Personal score: |||||||||| This titan does not really appeal to me much, and that speed has absolutely NO hope of being boosted, but I don't know. He seems cool to me, but just isn't usable... ever. I tried, he can be fun to use at times, but most of the time he is just a dead weight. He wins the crown not only because of that ability, but because he is a legendary, and you have to go through so many things just to get to where he is, and to battle him requires three of your party members be the golems. And in Platinum, it becomes so much harder to catch him because he is level 1... and will start struggling eventually once you realize you have no way to weaken it (unless you have a False Swiper). All that trouble... and you get THIS thing? I want my money back! Queen of Disappointments: Articuno It has been a while... do you remember me? Sets I Use: Toxic Stalling (Read: Eats Defensive Zapdos) Freudia the Articuno @ Leftovers Bold Nature 192 HP/80 Def/60 SpDef/176 Speed - Ice Beam - Toxic - Roost - Substitute Sweeper Articuno Mar the Articuno @ Life Orb Modest Nature 24 HP/252 SpA/232 Speed - Agility - Ice Beam - Mimic/Extrasensory/Ancientpower/HP Grass/HP Ground - Roost Salut D'Articuno [sprite]144[/sprite] [sprite]145[/sprite] [sprite]146[/sprite] Now here is my tribute to one of my favorite Pokemon of ALL times. Articuno is a beauty, she really is. One goes into Seaform Islands and solves a bunch of puzzles and finds this marvel... she is an amazing sight to behold. Back in RBY, she helped me beat the game (along with her two other siblings) and was just amazing. Ice Beaming Lance's Dragonite and KOing everything else to victory with that amazing special of 125... and that Blizzard that was 90% accurate then... wow really, truly amazing. Then came GSC and her Special Attack took a plummet down... to 95. And she was still stuck with her trusty Ice Beam, but Blizzard had to go. Then came RSE, and gave her Heal Bell to use. She was still viable, outstalling water Pokemon thanks to her monstrous Special Defense and Pressure. Spike Shuffling and Toxicing everything was quite fun too... and she only wished for a 50% recovery move to abuse those 90/100/125 defenses. All of that was going to be promised for Articuno and her siblings in DPP... but what happened? The Zapdos Conspiracy [sprite]145[/sprite] [shinysprite]145[/shinysprite] Zapdos, who already knew of his successes, was a favorite of Gamefreak. Gamefreak would do whatever he wanted and Zapdos plotted a conspiracy... he asked Gamefreak to invent something called "Stealth Rocks" (Stealth after Zapdos's stealthy plan for domination), which would further seal the deal for their favoritism. While Moltres got Will-o-Wisp and Morning Sun from , WoW became a TM and Morning Sun isn't so great now that all three birds get Roost. Articuno got Heal Bell and Haze... the former was all right but the latter was outclassed by Roar which all three birds got anyways. But Zapdos, he would get two amazing moves which would help him a lot, Metal Burst, which would force Blisseys to switch out, and Baton Pass, which would make Zapdos a better team player. Clearly Zapdos got the best gifts. Now what were these new Stealth Rocks? Something that would help Zapdos make his name even better... it still cut off 25% of his health so that no one would realize that HE was the one who started this conspiracy... while it cut off his sisters' HP by 50%. There. Now Zapdos would be the BEST of the three. THE ABSOLUTE BEST. No questions asked. And now that Articuno lost her powers as a defensive monster thanks to those little rocks, she was out of the league. But what about Moltres? The crazy offensive beast still did not exactly lose her job because unlike Articuno, her job was to sweep with crazy overpowered Fire Blasts and Overheats and Air Slash slower foes to flinchhax them. That is when the Platinum deal came in... and Zapdos went up to Gamefreak and asked for Heat Wave. And to make it not seem so much of a dirty job, Zapdos also asked Gamefreak to give Heat Wave to every birds (most of them who could not even use it properly anyways)... except for Articuno, Pelipper, and Lugia. The part that fails is... it says "The user exhales a heated breath on the foe to attack. It may also leave the target with a burn." So the birds do not flap their wings but have killer burning breath instead. Real smooth Zapdos, but I can STILL see your conspiracy here. It all makes sense now. This is Madness! So what exactly is wrong with Articuno? Well, yes, Gamefreak finally granted her that Roost she wanted so badly, which would also shed her quad weakness to Rocks. So it's amazing, is it not? Well, not with those Stealth Rocks in play! In order to get that "tank" in, you need to spin away the rocks everytime JUST to bring her in. How pathetic! Not even Moltres needs to be a phony because although she hates Stealth Rocks, she can at least do something before going down. Articuno cannot. STAB Ice Beam doesn't even seem to OHKO Salamence, which is pathetic. A defensive Ice Pokemon does not seem to work unless your name is Walrein. So Articuno could Toxic Stall... well, so can Moltres and Zapdos, only since they are faster, they are better. Articuno may be the most defensive of the three, but with that fail typing, she has no way of outstalling anything aside from bulky waters, which Zapdos can do just as well... AND survive Stone Edges... AND actually deal with Scizor. Yeah, unlike the other two, Articuno is no match for the Crimson Flash. All Articuno can do is STAB Ice Beam... and Toxic... and pretty much Sub/Roost/Roar/Heal Bell. That is pretty much it. In fact, the invention of Suicune was a Godsend... because he fixed EVERYTHING that was wrong with Articuno... AND more. However, Gamefreak has that problem of burying old problems and forgetting about them, much like poor Pidgeot up there (they "fixed" the problem with Staraptor). Disgusted at Articuno's pathetic powers, Gamefreak gave the anime producers the permission to actually have Articuno defeated by Ash's Charizard... on LIVE TV. It's true, I'm telling you! The Bleak Future Fortunately for Articuno, she looks upwards wondering what the future holds for her, unlike Regice, who immediately solved his problem by jumping off a cliff, never to return again. The only way we can actually solve her problem is by giving her some cool stuff... maybe Tail Glow or even Hydro Pump... something to make her more usable... or even changing the Ice type so that it has more resistances instead of just "Ice" (Articuno's Flying type cancels out her primary type's only resistance, sad isn't it?) I really do not know. For a legendary, poor Articuno has been plagued by futility... all thanks to Gamefreak forgetting about the poor Ice Queen. She looked like she was going to be a wonderful Pokemon from the beginning, but unfortunately that wasn't so. Favoritism on Zapdos on their part messed her up a LOT. They could do the Marowak treatment, but I have a feeling they would do the same on the other birds... and if that happens, I wouldn't want it. The last thing we need is an uber Zapdos... that thing is scary enough. Either way, Articuno definitely wins the Queen of Disappointments Award... because for a legendary with amazing defensive stats, she cannot even pull of the defensive act correctly. And I blame Gamefreak for that... for making poor Articuno suffer under a box for all these years... and doing nothing about it while improving Zapdos who did not need all those improvements at all. Articuno and her sister Moltres needs more buffing up than ever... and I am hoping something good happens in the end for them... they do hold a lot of potential. You cannot expect Gamefreak to get away with having really weak legendary Pokemon while they made an insanely overpowered starter Pokemon, now can you? I did some testing by modifying Articuno's movepool with adding Tail Glow and Hydro Pump and some other assorted goodies in Shoddy simulator... but I cannot bear the truth: there is NO saving Articuno. This poor bird dies to everything and cannot hit back hard enough. That is the sad truth. Even Moltres can be useful at times. Zapdos is too useful. Articuno... is along the ranks of Skuntank, Machoke, and Luvdisc. That is a SAD excuse for a legendary. I do not know if there is any way to save her. She is doomed... forever. Personal score: |||||||||| Like I said, Articuno is one of my favorites... and she is probably my favorite. I am quite displeased at how they did not even try when making her... Gamefreak has that nasty habit of burying old problems. Well, yes, there's Suicune, who I also like, but I am NOT ditching Articuno. As for the winner between the King and Queen for the Overall Most Disappointing Pokemon in this game, I have to hand it to Articuno. Sure, Regigigas is arguably less useful, but he at least has his defenses, is not Stealth Rock weak, and can do stuff like Paralyze and Confuse for the 5 turns while he is waiting to get its mojo going. Articuno, on the other hand, suffers from not being able to do anything from the start AND not being able to accomplish ANYTHING in the end. This poor bird must have traded off her powers for beauty... and even then, she isn't looking too good nowadays... especially when people have forgotten about her. I have, however, successfully managed to outstall many Pokemon with Articuno, sometimes even without spin support. Ironically, her most vital stat is probably speed, for without speed, there is no way to even land a Toxic or anything before getting 2HKOd due to rocks. Yes, a wall technically should not even need speed, but Articuno is the exception here. Her speed is nowhere near that great, which is another reason why Gamefreak fails at designing Ice Pokemon. Sure, Mamoswine and Weavile were great improvements... but as for those defensive Ice Pokemon? Was Regice made to replace Articuno? I have no idea, but Regice is now long gone. Why didn't Articuno do the same? Probably because she is a bird and therefore cannot really jump off a cliff. Poor thing... cannot even kill herself to save herself the misery U_U Winner of the Year: [icon]144[/icon] Any questions? Comments? Feel free to agree/disagree with my top 10 (rather 11) Most Disappointing Pokemon ever. By the way... I did this for fun...

Ah, Christmas is getting closer once again... Only 15 more days!... Anyone feel like sharing their lists?... (You can post even if you aren't devout Christians you know! :biggrin: ) As for me, I would like: A laptop, preferably at least 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, with an HDMI port, a lot of USB ports, blu-ray, built-in WLAN connectivity, and an Intel i7 processor (I'm debating on the OS, I'm looking into Mac but I've been a PC all my life, I'm gonna install windows in it if it is a mac and linux either way...) A Nerf Raider CS-35 with a roll of electrical tape, some spray paint, and some tiny pads (all for modding purposes...) An external hard drive of any size to extend the memory on my PS3... POKEMOD!!! (I said this last year too... :\ ) A visually modded (White with blue LED) PS3 controller... (Or just the standard red one...) Assassin's Creed II (PS3)... Super Street Fighter IV (PS3) (If it's out by then...) Metroid Prime Trilogy (Wii)... The Saboteur (PS3)... An AceKard 2i with a 16GB micro SD card or an AceKard RPG... The board game Stratego... As many Playstation Store Cards as can be found... :smile: And these T-Shirts (Power-up Pyramid, Noah just couldn't save those dinosaurs, Extreme hunting, The cat says, and Stop following me!...) Yeah, it may be a little superficial but I have my reasons... :creep:

So me and a friend managed to meet up with the hosts of Pokemon Sunday while at World 2009. Great guy. Anyways, it turns out he was interested in trading with anyone that he could, so he and I both ended up getting Piplup's from the guy's personal game. Did anyone else besides me happen to attend Worlds?