Time for another pokerole adventure to begin, this time hosted by me! 

 

Dice (Page 30 of the Corebook)

As with the other campaigns on this forum, all dice will be rolled by the GM in the interest of fairness.  If I'm unable to roll physical dice, I'll roll digital ones online.

If you're new to Pokerole, here's how rolling the dice works:

- Most significant actions will require a pool of six sided dice to be rolled.  How many dice are in that pool is determined by what action you are trying to perform, how many actions you're trying to perform, and what Attributes, Skills, and Specialties are related to those actions.

- Dice can be subtracted from your pool by move effects, statuses, or even just taking too much damage.  If your dice pool for an action would become 0 or less, then the action will either fail automatically or a Luck Die will be rolled instead at the GM's discretion.

- A 4, 5, or 6 is a success, and a 1, 2, or 3 is a non-success.  Two (1) results is a -1 success.  For most tasks, you only need a single success for the action to succeed, though more complex tasks might need more successes at GM discretion.  And generally, getting more successes means you do a better job of succeeding as well.

Generally, when I post the results of dice rolls, they'll look something like this:

Strength Check
(5)(2)(3) 1 success


These are dice from one of the official Pokemon TCG Elite Trainer Boxes.  I'll probably be rolling a lot of these.

Attributes (Page 23 of the Corebook)

These stats are the core of the game, and are what make each pokemon unique compared to other species.  These stats define what the character is good (or even excellent) at doing.

The Six Attributes
Health, Strength, Special, Dexterity, Defense, and Insight

There's six Attributes in my game, just like how there's six stats in the actual Pokemon games themselves.  This differs a little from the base rules, so I'll be detailing the differences here.
- Strength, Special, and Dexterity work exactly like the book says they do.  Strength corresponds to Attack, Special to Special Attack, and Dexterity to Speed.

- Health (HP) and Defense (Defense, obviously) both correspond to Vitality in the book, but are two separate stats instead of one in this game.  Both of them have minimum and maximum values equal to the pokemon's listed Vitality stat in the corebook.  There are cases where I may make special exceptions, however.  Blissey is one of those possible exceptions, given their gargantuan HP stat is not represented very well in Pokerole's base rules at all.

- Insight corresponds to Special Defense, and is also partially related to your character's observational skills.  In this game, if a character is hit by a Special Attack, the maximum damage of the move will be reduced by this stat instead of Defense.  This is another departure from the base rules, but it should be easy enough to understand for anyone who's played the Pokemon games before.

As such, each pokemon species should be decent at performing well in the areas they usually do in the games.  However, Attributes aren't the only stats that determine how well a character performs and what they excel at doing...

Skills and Specialties (Page 25 of the Corebook)

Every character has the same potential for leveling these various stats, and the maximum and minimum values are identical for everyone.  These are the things that can be learned, rather than them being someone's innate potential, and that can be used to help shore up certain weak points, make strengths more effective, or even do things that are entirely unexpected!  This is where most of the game's stat customization happens.

The Four Skills
Fight, Survival, Knowledge, and Contest

Each Skill covers a different area, and as such are used in different kinds of rolls.  Each one also determines how skilled you are in each particular field.

The Countless Specialties
Specialties are extensions of Skills, and cover a wide range of categories.  They're the cheapest stat to level up with the exp you've earned, but they cannot exceed the value of their corresponding Skill.  If you aren't very good at Fighting, then you're probably not very good at Brawling or using Weapons either.

Highly Skilled characters with carefully honed Attributes and Specialties are rare, but they make for some of the most fearsome opponents and allies!

Social Attributes

Social Attributes are used for a fair few Accuracy rolls (such as for Growl, which can use Tough or Cute), but they also play a large role in various social interactions.  Whether you're trying to fit in with or leave a lasting impression on the townsfolk, persuade someone your idea is good or strike a bargain with Kecleon Wares to get a lower price on an item, how well that works out for you will usually be dependent on a roll involving a Social Attribute, the Contest Skill, and a Specialty related to the Contest Skill.

Generally, Social Rolls will show up when you're attempting to do a significant social interaction of some sort with one or more NPCs, but it's something to keep in mind since previous games on this forum didn't use the Social Attributes at all.

Accuracy Rolls involving a Social Attribute also have a special rule: due to the Social nature of the moves using them, they cannot be Evaded.  This makes them particularly useful for weakening tough opponents!


Everyone is different, and how they interact with others and react to their surroundings will vary wildly.  This classroom is in absolute chaos, no?

Pokedex and Recruiting Pokemon

Pokedex (Page 83 of the corebook)
Every Pokemon from Gen 1-7 has stats in the corebook.  If you need information on a pokemon not in the corebook, ask the GM.

Move Listings (Page 298 of the corebook)
Information on every move from Gen 1-7, not including Plot Deviced moves.  Make sure to read the beginning of this section so you have an idea of what all the icons in the book mean.  If you need information on a move not in the corebook, ask the GM.

Ability Listings (Page 371 of the corebook)
Information on every Ability from Gen 1-7, not including Plot Deviced Abilities.  If you need information on an ability not in the corebook, ask the GM.

Recruiting Pokemon
After your characters have settled into living life as a pokemon, they may be presented with opportunities to convince NPC pokemon to join their group.  Generally, this is resolved with a skill check opposing the NPC's Will score.  The skill check that your character has to make depends on how they're trying to recruit the pokemon, though.  Regardless of the method, it will usually involve one of the character's Social Attributes, the Contest stat, and one of the Contest Specialties.  Whether you're friendly and inviting or tough and demanding, there's many different ways to recruit pokemon when the opportunity presents itself.

If an NPC is successfully recruited, the GM will keep track of their stats and any experience and items they gain.  And on that note, depending on how you persuade the NPC to join your group, they may not lose any happiness or loyalty upon joining, either!

NPC pokemon will grow stronger on their own, but players can potantially influence an NPC's growth a little by interacting with them (such as by helping them train or giving them advice).


So many friends, so little time!

Surprises
The Surprise system used in the other games will be present.  However, it is not replacing the Overtraining mechanic (Page 71 of the corebook).

A Surprise can be anything from a Shiny pokemon to a simple increase in a stat's maximum value.  Later in the game, you'll be able to spend large amounts of exp to give your player characters Surprises as well and make them truly unique.

Instinctual Stats (Pages 3 and 4 of MD Module)

Three stats define how pokemon-like and human-like your character is in this game: Logic, Instinct, and Primal.

These stats are a big, big deal for your human character turned pokemon.  Logic is related to your human memories, Instinct is related to your abilities as a pokemon, and Primal is the true beast within. 

- High Logic scores allow your character to recall more of their human life and craft more and more complex tools.  Simply put, you become more and more human-like the higher this score gets!  However, if this stat ever becomes 0, you may have to create a new character since they won't be able to remember that they were human in the first place.  It may be possible to help someone who's forgotten they were human remember who they are if they haven't completely become a feral pokemon, but it'll likely be a long, difficult process...

- High Instinct allows your character to use more of their pokemon species's move without having to spend exp to learn them.  You can still spend exp to permanently learn a move regardless of what your current Instinct stat value is.  In general, though, the better this stat is, the stronger you've become as a pokemon.

- And high Primal...well, the higher your primal is, the closer you are to becoming a feral pokemon, and the larger the penalties become for fainting.  It goes without saying, but try not to faint too often.

- Humans turned into pokemon have to balance their Logic and Instinct and avoid losing themselves to the call of their Primal instincts.  If they faint while their Primal score is 5, then the feral pokemon within takes over completely.  In the event that happens, you'll likely have to create a new character.

- Increasing Logic decreases Instinct, and whenever Primal increases, Logic decreases.  It's possible to be both Logical and Instinctual, but you have to work really hard at it!

- You might receive or lose points in any of the 3 stats at GM discretion depending on your role playing, and points awarded or taken away in this manner might not affect the other stats at GM discretion.  You can also spend experience if you want to manually increase or decrease the three stats (though it costs 50 exp per point added/removed).

Character Creation (Page 3 of the MD Module) and how do I join?

If there are currently available spots for new players (see the above Current Players list or talk to me, the GM), then this is how you'll go about creating a character to play as so you can join us!

As this is a Mystery Dungeon campaign, Character Creation is VERY different from a standard campaign by virtue of your character being a pokemon.  As a result, a couple changes to what information needs to be filled out are required.  Here's a few steps to follow for character creation:

Step 0: Ask the GM if you can join the game in a Private Message.  This is a very important step.  Please don't skip it. 

Step 1: Create your character's human personality and backstory.  Refer to Page 18 of the 1.2.5 Corebook for the relevant questions for creating a human character's personality and backstory for this PMD style game.

Step 2: Pick a pokemon with 3 base HP that is able to evolve and fits the character's personality.  Your character will become that pokemon in the game.  You can check a pokemon's base HP in the corebook's pokedex on Page 83.  You can also choose to play as pokemon that fit the general criteria that aren't in the corebook (such as ones from Gen 8 or Delta Species), but you'll have to discuss that with the GM if you wish to do so.

Step 3: Discuss the character's backstory and pokemon choice with the GM.  This is an important step since elements from the character's backstory may appear in the game, and the GM may have additional information regarding the pokemon they're becoming (such as additional level up moves or the creation of a custom pokemon).  The GM will also give you a list of Level Up moves to refer to later in the character creation process and during the game itself (this particular step is also very important).

Step 4: Make a copy of the character sheet, which you can find here, and send the GM (me) a link with edit permissions in a PM via the Forums or Discord.  Once you've made a copy of it and sent me that link, then you can start editing it.

Step 5: Determine what your starting Attribute values are and fill them in on the character sheet.  Your starting Attributes and the initial limits on them are determined by what Pokemon Species your character starts as.  Check the corebook's pokedex (which starts on Page 83) to determine what they are.  If the pokemon is not in the corebook (due to being from Uranium, Gen 8, etc.) discuss it with the GM.

Step 6: Determine what your character's Social Attribute values are.  They should all start out equal to their equivalent Attributes' values, with the exception of one Social Attribute of your choosing that fits your character's personality.  That SA you choose gets a permanent +1 bonus.

Step 7: You get 3 free points to distribute to your Skills how you see fit at the start of the game.  Dump all three into one Skill, or spread them between 2 or 3 Skills instead.  The choice is yours.

Step 8: Adjust your character's Level according to how you distributed your free Skill Points.  One Point each in three different Skills is a starting level of 4 (1+1+1+1=4), 2 Points in one Skill and 1 in a second starts you at Level 5 (1+1+2+1=5), and all three points in one Skill starts your character at Level 7 (1+1+2+3=7).

Step 9: Add 1 point to either Logic OR Instinct so that it has a starting value of 2 instead of 1.  Pick only one.  Higher Logic means you remember more of your human life, higher Instinct means you're able to use more Pokemon Moves without having to spend exp to learn them.

Step 10: Determine which moves your character is able to use, find them in the book (or ask the GM for details on the move if it isn't in the book), and write them down on the character sheet in the relevant tabs.  If you have 1 Instinct, you can initially only use moves that cost 0 exp.  If you have 2 Instinct, you can use moves that cost 10 exp or less for the pokemon species your character is.

Step 11: Follow any additional instructions the GM gives you.  The prior 10 steps are just for creating the base stats for the character.  If I have other information for you to add to the character sheet, it's likely so that you're character will be comparable to the existing players'.

And once that's finished, you should be ready to play!  The GM will tag you in a post in the Game Thread when it's time to introduce your character in game!


Welcome to the world of pokemon!  ...literally!

Items

This being the world of Mystery Dungeon, there's a whole boatload of new items, most of which aren't in the world of pokemon trainers.  You can find a list of some commonly used healing and food items in the character sheet's Storage tab (which will be important in the game later on), but here's a few examples of some of them:

- You'll be using Oran Berries instead of Potions, Tiny Reviver Seeds instead of Revives, all sorts of strange and wondrous orbs and apparel that would normally be mundane objects with no special powers...the list is rather large.  Expect items to be a big part of your adventures, and for me to detail what new items that aren't listed in the book do when you discover them!  Good note taking is highly advised!

- Your inventory space when going on adventures is also limited, unlike in the prior campaigns run on these forums.  You'll need to find, earn, create, or purchase larger bags and other storage containers if you wish to carry more stuff.


A Wonder Orb, an item that holds one of a great many strange and powerful effects.



Food Items

It isn't a Mystery Dungeon game without a Hunger system of some sort!  Well, it can happen, but Gates to Infinity ended up being a lot easier without that mechanic.  Regardless, there will be a need to eat in this game!

- Apples are a food source, not a currency.  Expect to go hungry if you don't bring food on your adventures.  And if that happens, expect that to negatively affect your performance in battle, too!  Fortunately, standard apples are sufficient for short trips, but you'll need either a lot of them or more filling foods if you're expecting to go on longer adventures!

- Every pokemon can eat Apples, but not all food is fruit!  There's more food than you might expect in the PMD universe, including some that might seem a little out of place at first glance.  Apples just happen to be the most common food source.

Mystery Dungeons (Pg 8 of the MD Module)

The namesake of the series, Mystery Dungeons are filled with twists and turns and all sorts of surprises.  Not even I know what you'll find in them 100% of the time!

There are two types of Mystery Dungeons in this campaign: pre-generated and random.

- Pre-generated dungeons are created beforehand by me.  Usually, these dungeons are going to be very important whenever they pop up.  They could be made of preset tiles, or they might be a flowchart styled dungeon!

- Random dungeons, however, are another beast entirely.  I have a physical deck of cards with basic dungeon layouts printed on them (courtesy of the MD Module), and I'll draw from it to determine what the next room is, and roll some dice to determine if you encounter anything in rooms as you enter them.  It wouldn't be a Mystery Dungeon game without an element of random map generation, right?

- Generally, when you're exploring dungeons made from the tiles, I'll be providing and editing a Google Sheets doc that you can check to see a basic map of the dungeon at any time.

- To speed up the pace of the game, every room in a random dungeon will have a roll for a potential event.  This differs from the base rules in the MD Module, but I feel it's a necessary change for the game to flow better on the forums.  An event every other tile would feel too slow and drag the game out unnecessarily.  There's still a chance for nothing to happen on any given tile, of course, but the increased event frequency should help keep things more exciting!


It's not a Pokerole Mystery Dungeon, but it's just as filled with random layouts, traps, wild encounters, and other miscellaneous events.  Be prepared for anything.

Encounters and Game Calendar

Encounters are not as large of an issue in a Mystery Dungeon based system as they are in a standard Pokemon Trainer styled one.  Everyone should be working together as a team, ideally, so there won't be a large need to determine who gets dibs on what besides the item loot (which is similar to what happens in Dungeons and Dragons and the like).

However, for some portions of this game, I'll still be using the encounter system we've set up.  There may be times when there are many things that can be investigated or dealt with simultaneously and separately, and those are the kinds of situations that would warrant the use of the encounter system that Iron devised.

As an example, maybe you need to search a house for clues or evidence.  I could list various points of interest as separate 'encounters' that can be resolved simultaneously, like so:

1. Bedroom
A straw bed, a nightstand, and a large rug are this room's most notable features.

2. Storeroom 
No telling what might be in here unless you go open the door and look!

3. Garden
Is made up of flowers of many different colors.

4. Downstairs
Stairs that lead to the basement.  It's pitch black down there.

By contrast, if the whole group gets attacked by a swarm of pokemon while traveling through a Mystery Dungeon, everyone's likely going to be involved, alleviating the need for separate encounters until the battle is finished.

When and where the Encounter system will be used is up to GM discretion, but the aim is for it to be utilized whenever it would make sense to mostly/entirely separate individual encounters from each other mechanically.

This does, however, mean that there won't be a static three encounters per day like there are in prior games on this forum.  That doesn't change the fact that the GM will notify everyone when a new day has dawned, though!

Battles (Page 44 of the Corebook)

Please read this whole section in the book if you aren't familiar with how Pokerole's combat works already.

Battles are much the same as in the previous campaigns.  You give a set of orders for a round, accounting for any pain penalties and effects your character is experiencing, maybe set some conditional orders, and then see how everything plays out.  

For those who are familiar with the games we've played on this forum already, however, there's one major change in this campaign: since we're using all the stats listed in the book, we're using all the accuracy pools for moves listed in the core book as is.  Dexterity is no longer going to be the be-all end-all stat for both accuracy and initiative, and Fight isn't going to replace unusable stats.  You'll have to be a little more diverse in how you spread out exp to buff your accuracy pools, but you won't have to pour most of your exp into two very specific stats if you want half-decent accuracy.

Oh, and since you're actually directly participating in the combat regularly this time around, getting KOed is a rather large danger for obvious reasons.  There's a dearth of ways to avoid it, but they either have a monetary cost, are rarely found, or have some sort of drawback due to their ease of accessibility...


There's also going to be special battle mechanics later down the line, such as Mega Evolution.  Yes, there's no pokemon trainers, but there are other ways to access that power and others like it...

Pain Penalties and Healing

Pain Penalties reduce your dice pools, and how much Pain you're in is determined by how much HP you've lost.  Only the largest Pain Penalty is applied at any given time.

No Pain: At full HP or missing only 1 HP
-1 Pain: lost 2 or more HP
-2 Pain: at half HP or less
-3 Pain: have exactly 1 HP remaining

If you're in a great deal of pain, it's also usually difficult to escape from battle.  Fortunately, healing items exist to make your life easier!  Since this is a Mystery Dungeon style game, there's three primary healing items, and they're all rather effective:

Oran Berries: Restore 4 HP
Sitrus Berries: Restore 8 HP
Energy Seeds: Restore All HP

However, some wounds are too severe to heal them very easily.  It takes 2 HP of healing to heal 1 point of Lethal damage.  There are potential exceptions to this rule, but they're few and far between.

There's a wide range of status healing items, too.

Cheri Berry: Cures Paralysis
Pecha Berry: Cures Poison
Rawst Berry: Heals Burns
Chesto Berry: Cures Sleep
Aspear Berry: Defrosts Pokemon
Persim Berry: Cures Confusion
Lum Berry: Cures all of the above Status conditions
Heal Seed: Cures all Status Conditions, including ones a Lum Berry cannot cure


Make sure you have a healthy supply of Pecha Berries when you're expecting to face Poison types, as Poison can become deadly very, very quickly.

Generally, Seeds are going to have more powerful effects than Berries, but Berries will be more common.  Speaking of Seeds, an adventurer's best friend in Mystery Dungeons is these two:

Tiny Reviver Seed: Revives a fainted pokemon with half HP.  Does so automatically if it's in the pokemon's inventory when they faint, and becomes a Plain Seed when used in this manner.
Reviver Seed: Revives a fainted pokemon with full HP.  Does so automatically if it's in the pokemon's inventory when they faint, and becomes a Plain Seed when used in this manner.

Miscellaneous

This is where I'll list anything that doesn't fit in the above categories, such as some houserules and important clarifications on rules.  You may want to write at least a few of these down in your own notes.

This list is subject to change in the future, and I'll make a post in this Meta Thread detailing any changes that are made when they happen.

Houserules
- Assurance Move: changed its effect to '+3 damage dice if the target is at half HP or less' to better reflect the move's original purpose.  It also just so happens that Assurance works a lot like Brine in the PMD games.
- Razor Shell Move: Effect changed to 'Roll 5 Chance Dice to reduce the foe's Defense by 1' to better reflect the move's original effect in the main series pokemon games.
- Illuminate Ability: Added the effect 'the user becomes a decoy (as if they had used Follow Me) whenever they use a light based attack (such as Confuse Ray)'.  This is an effect the Ability has in the PMD games, and I think it'll work well in Pokerole!
- Reviver Seed Effectiveness: Changed both types of Reviver Seeds' so they function more like Revives in the main series Pokemon games with some of the automatic functionality they have in the PMD games.
- Healing Item Effectiveness: Oran Berries and Sitrus Berries heal more HP than what's stated in the corebook, as they are the common healing items in the PMD universe.
- Currency Shift: Poke is the currency this game is using, not Apples.  The GM will determine what every item's cost is as appropriate.
- Encounter Frequency: To better fit the pacing of a forum based play-by-post game, a chance for encounters to appear will be rolled for every tile in a tile based dungeon, not every other tile.

Rules Clarifications
- Nothing here yet!  (I'm sure that will change soon, though)

Other
- Natures exist in this game (Page 40 of the corebook), but are optional to use.  You don't have to assign your character a Nature if you do not wish to.

Bookkeeping

3/29/2020: Posted the Meta Thread for Primal Shadows and started character creation!

Hello again, this is the followup post I mentioned in my drafting guide. As promised, I will be dumping all the teams I made for this season and tournament in this post, but I’ll also be going through my preparation each week in depth (some longer than others). Hopefully this will provide a more tangible grasp of my process than generally saying things like “build your opponent’s team first, and use a friend to battle against it.”

Week 1

Tanamar and the Snowbank Barands
Expected team: https://pastebin.com/TUp2Vt83
My team: https://pastebin.com/12hrUwrS

Tanamar was the opponent I was most afraid of in the UCS. I have the most history playing against him and he has this annoying habit of beating me. Getting paired against Tan week 1 felt like a cruel trick, orchestrated for drama. At this point, I did not yet have my regular practice partner in Dragonstrike, and I asked Shademonkey, Hornet, and Narshyl for help this week. This is going to be the longest description I give for any week because I honestly over prepared, but the thinking process is still valuable. 

Tan’s roster was quite formidable at a glance. Mega-Archilles is definitely one of the most powerful megas in Pokémon Uranium. Flamethrower or Fire Blast under the sun is an intense nuke to anything that doesn’t resist it, and is likely going to be suspect tested from the Gamma tier (Uranium’s version of OU). My main fear from Tan’s draft was that he was going to use M-Archilles to punch some dents in my team, and then switch in Coatlith on a predictable water attack and finish the job with Chlorophyll. Anything left standing after these two heavy hitters would fall next to Garlikid and Gengar, together offering perfect coverage against everything and outspeeding my team at the same time. Focus sash Geigeroach offered a way to stop any momentum I may pick up provided Stealth Rocks are not up, and (literally) nuke any Pokémon I put in front of it. Worst of all, looming behind everything else, was the absolute monster that is Actan. Narrowly escaping the league ban its sibling Lanthan received, Actan has the bulk and offense as Beliaddon but with better defensive typing and a real speed stat of 97.

My primary win condition is a scarfed Xenoqueen, which fares poorly against M-Archilles with Flame Impact, and fails to outspeed Chlorophyll Coatlith under the sun. However, Actan was the glue that kept Tan’s team from falling to Xenoqueen, offering the ability to switch into Xenoqueen’s Radioacid while only taking 47% from Fire Blast (non-assault vest careful 252/252+ specially defensive). Geigeroach’s Lead Skin also makes it harder to freely click Radioacid, but with Stealth Rocks up wouldn’t be able to switch in freely. So my gameplan became clear: get rocks up, survive the sun turns, and then somehow kill Actan.

Fortunately for me, M-Archilles has difficulty breaking through Mega Syrentide, which was my mega. Coatlith doesn’t struggle as much to get through, although it can’t switch into Hyper Voice. However, as long as Tan’s Garlikid was alive, I couldn’t expect to start setting up Calm Minds and Rest + Sleep Talking with M-Syrentide. But with Coatlith or Garlikid out of the way, M-Syrentide was still an extremely solid win condition, and would need to stay healthy to be able to actually sweep. This meant it could not be my primary answer to M-Archilles and Coatlith.

So I looked to Feliger. A completely busted Pokémon in its own right, Feliger boasts a whopping base 155 HP / 105 def / 95 spdef. Feliger is a Normal type, which means that while it does not have any resistances, M-Archilles and Coatlith will be unable to hit it super effectively. However, the calcs didn’t look so good.

252 SpA M-Archilles Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Feliger in Sun: 171-202 (33.2 - 39.2%) -- 13.3% chance to 3HKO after Leftovers recovery

This Feliger set was not going to be a reliable answer to M-Archilles, taking 1/3 of its health switching into Flamethrower. But since it was supposed to tank only special attacks anyway, I decided to try out an Assault Vest.

252 SpA M-Archilles Flamethrower vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Feliger in Sun: 114-135 (22.1 - 26.2%) -- 9.2% chance to 4HKO

This was much better, it meant Feliger could switch into 4 flamethrowers before dying, and could almost OHKO (One Hit Knock Out) back with Earthquake.

0 Atk Feliger Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def M-Archilles: 220-260 (75.6 - 89.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

Coatlith would be dealing less damage unboosted than Flamethrower, but could be OHKO’d with Ice Punch in return if I needed to, which meant that Feliger could actually function to survive the sun turns. One of the goals had been met!

But this only dealt with 2 out of Tan’s 6 Pokémon. There were still three major threats between Garlikid, Actan, and Gengar. None of the Pokémon on my team could even be considered checks. Fortunately, Aerial Ace is at the top of Feliger’s movepool on the sim, which offered a 4x super effective attack against Garlikid, which means that as long as it was healthy, Feliger could theoretically OHKO Garlikid. Feliger also got Low Kick against Actan, which seemed excellent until I ran the calcs, and somehow Low Kick despite being 200 base power fails to kill with 0 attack investment. To have a 100% chance to kill with Low Kick, Feliger needs 188 attack evs, which is a lot. However, I had already identified Actan as the biggest threat that needed to be dealt with, which is how I wound up with Feliger’s EV spread.

In the end, Feliger became this general threat that could narrowly serve as an answer to several threats from Tan. I ended up running Knock Off over Earthquake because, again, Mega-Syrentide answered M-Archilles pretty well, but mostly because of how impossible Gengar was to deal with in the practice games I was playing. I found through playtesting that if Gengar could land Focus Blast against Beliaddon, nothing else on my team could reasonably beat it outside of scarf Xenoqueen, which Tan had two excellent switch-ins for. In the end, Feliger couldn’t possibly beat all of the threats it was teched to beat in a single battle, but being able to trade for two every battle was pretty solid considering those would be some of the biggest threats on the team.

Feliger couldn’t be the main answer to Garlikid. Most things on my team couldn’t even switch into it without being OHKO’d or outsped and 2HKO’d the turn after switching in. This is where I decided to use Whimsicott. Whimsicott’s unique Grass/Fairy typing meant it resisted the STAB attacks from both Garlikid and Coatlith, although Garlikid was a much bigger threat. I’d learned through the practice battles that M-Syrentide could actually switch into Coatlith on a Nasty Plot, survive a +2 Energy Ball (or 2 Energy Balls if Coatlith attacks rather than setting up), and OHKO back with Pixelated Hyper Voice if it came to that. With a Focus Sash, Whimsicott could live any single attack from Garlikid, threaten to OHKO back with Moonblast or maybe set up a Tailwind.

Tailwind was one of the ways I considered I could go on the offensive with my generally slower team. This is why Beliaddon has 196 speed EVs. Under Tailwind and this spread, Beliaddon hits 450 speed, perfectly outspeeding boosting nature M-Archilles at 449. This would allow Belliaddon to kill an unsuspecting M-Archilles with Earthquake.

244+ Atk Life Orb Beliaddon Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 4 Def M-Archilles: 351-413 (120.6 - 141.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

Obviously this would let Beliaddon outspeed Gengar, Actan, and Garlikid and OHKO any of them. I have a history of running Choice Band Beliaddon, which I knew Tan was well aware of and used to playing against. With this plan of running around under Tailwind, I knew I would need a Life Orb in order to change attacks, and that I might be able to catch Tan trying to play around Beliaddon being choice locked, which could let me snag an extra kill.

The one member of my team that I’ve yet to mention is Gliscor. Unfortunately, it was stuck with Defog, Stealth Rock, and U-turn already for its moveset. I ultimately opted to go with Earthquake over Roost because Tan didn’t have any physical attackers Gliscor was capable of walling with Roost. Even Actan deals ~%48 with Metal Cruncher which can drop defense. Earthquake gave Gliscor the ability to hit M-Archilles, Actan, and Blubelrog super effectively. The reason Gliscor has 24 speed EVs is to hit 232 speed, which guarantees it will outspeed specially defensive Actan (which Xenoqueen forced Tan to run), which hits 230 with no investment, and 231 if the extra 4 EVs get thrown into it. The speed creep here is to let Gliscor use Earthquake first before taking a Metal Cruncher, which actually ended up mattering in the final couple of turns of our battle.

Ultimately however, despite all this preparation, every match I played my team against the team I had built for Tan in practice I lost. The speedy Hyper Offense would break through my team, even with Feliger trading favorably. I would never have the opportunity to set up Stealth Rocks to prevent Geigeroach from coming in for free against Xenoqueen or Beliaddon under Tailwind and trading with Proton Beam. But there really wasn’t much more to prepare for. It had already been close to 4 hours of battling across three days, the team couldn’t handle any more silver bullets.
Tan’s team variant I ended with excluded Blubelrog. I tested some variants against it as well, although I no longer have those teams. My literal plan for beating Blubelrog in my head was to predict it to switch into M-Syrentide, and instead of staying in, switch straight into Xenoqueen and force it out or die to Radioacid. In the final battle, I got a little lucky and landed a critical hit Earthquake from Gliscor against it, and got bailed out from dying to an Ice Beam despite my underestimation of Blubelrog.

Obviously, Tan did not bring the team I prepared for (that would have been insane), but you can watch how our match eventually played out here: https://youtu.be/5MIZ1g3OAQU.

Week 2

Skullex and the Tsukinami Volchiks
Expected Team: https://pastebin.com/3d2Xda9r
My Team: https://pastebin.com/A7RG45DW

This team looked like another bad matchup. The ability of weather teams to go hyper offensive for multiple turns puts a lot of pressure on bulky offense like my draft. Fortunately, outside of rain, Skullex’s team would likely lose to a good scarfer, because none of his Pokémon are particularly good at carrying one. In general, his team did not have a good way to stop a setup sweeper. My two best scarfers were Xenoqueen and Baariette. However, Vaporeon and Laissure are both decent answers to Xenoqueen being monotype, and coupled with Mega-Metalynx in the rain losing its traditional 4x fire weakness, I decided that Xenoqueen would not actually be very effective this week. So I looked to Baariette.

Choice Scarf + Moxie is an ancient combination dating back to the introduction of Moxie. Salamence and Gyarados both got Moxie as a hidden ability, and were popular stars of UU (forgive me for showing my age). Baariette has a high raw kill threat with its Hi Jump Kick, threatening to OHKO most Pokémon that don’t resist it after just 1 Moxie boost. As always, one thing to watch out for with Hi Jump Kick is Ghost types, however Skullex did not have one in his draft other than Dramsama, which I did not expect him to bring. This was a major weakness I prepared to exploit.

The only trouble was that scarf Baariette would be outsped by all of the Swift Swim Pokémon on Skullex’s team once Yatagaru set up rain (the temporary implementation of Stormbringer on the simulator was Drizzle). This meant that I needed a solid answer to Yatagaryu. Fortunately, Whimsicott resists all of Yata’s stabs and can threaten back with Moonblast. Additionally, Anderind can deny the rain with its Snow Warning, as well as threaten Yatagaryu out with a scarf with and its stabs. These two were my main plan to beat Yatagaryu.

Here is where I went full stupid mode. I personally don’t like scarf Anderind, I think it loses a lot of its power. So what I really wanted to do was run a Choice Band set, even though I would obviously be outsped by Yatagaryu. However, Skullex wouldn’t know that. I could bluff a Choice Scarf on Anderind and force Yatagaryu out, because Yata was such a crucial part of Skullex’s strategy, and Mega-Metalynx was such a reliable switch-in to Anderind. So, predicting this relatively standard play pattern, I decided to put Focus Punch on my choice band Anderind set. I didn’t really need it to beat Mega-Metalynx, but I did need it to flex.

252+ Atk Anderind Focus Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Metalynx: 314-370 (83.9 - 98.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after hail damage and Leftovers recovery
252+ Atk Anderind Focus Punch vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Mega-Metalynx: 236-278 (63.1 - 74.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after hail damage and Leftovers recovery

There was no real reason to diverge from the standard Gliscor and Mega-Syrentide sets this week, but I decided to bring a non-assault vest version of Feliger as an additional win condition. There is quite a benefit to bringing different strategies each week (just wait until week 4), because it means your opponents have to expect more things when preparing for you. Bringing Baariette this week meant my opponents would have to consider the possibility of facing one in the future. Increasing the diversity of my team comps played a factor this week, but I still needed to make sure I brought the right Pokémon for the job.

In the actual battle, Anderind became useless as quickly as the first turn, but the main gameplan went rather smoothly. You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/4P7R9gcTCBE.

Week 3

Jabuloso and the Venesi Baariettes
Expected Team A: https://pastebin.com/x2iPkWTj
Expected Team B: https://pastebin.com/EFR6AKfR
My Team: https://pastebin.com/A4mXk55e

I took one look at Jabuloso’s team and thought: “Wow this looks like a bad matchup.” Every Pokémon on Jab’s team was straight from the gamma viability rankings, completely unfair if you ask me. However, I received a secret weapon that Jab would not receive: Dragonstrike. This was the first week that Dragonstrike helped me, and only with his help would I be able to beat Jabuloso in an extremely tight game (sorry spoilers) and eventually go on to win every game including the finals. I started every week by asking Dragon when he was free to help me prepare, and sometimes I would ask immediately after my battle the previous week to get a head start.

But enough gushing about my spectacular practice partner, how could I beat a real Gamma team with the scraps of a draft team? Well, I’d have to use my own unfair Pokémon: Xenoqueen and Mega-Syrentide. Unfortunately, it would not be as easy as clicking Radioacid with a choice scarf due to Gararewl, or simply setting up Calm Minds and Rest + Sleep Talking through teams with Hyper Voice thanks to Frikitiki. Gararewl is basically the only non-Nuclear Pokémon in the game that resists Nuclear moves and does anything useful. It is what you want on your team against a Xenoqueen. As for beating Mega-Syrentide, if you don’t have Metalynx, Frikitiki is your next best bet. Both Metalynx and Frikitiki resist Hyper Voice and threaten back with powerful physical grass attacks. By the nature of his draft, Jab had counters to my two best win conditions.

Jab’s team also boasted Alpico, arguably the second best special attacker in the game behind Yatagaryu, and Mega-Baariette, arguably the best sweeper under Sticky Webs, which Jab had access to in Sponaree. To make matters worse, Gyarados could also sweep relatively unimpeded. Jab’s team was basically 6 setup sweepers (Frikitiki, Mega-Baariette, Gyarados, Inflagetah, Alpico, and Navighast) plus Luxelong and Gararewl. The trick was guessing the 4 sweepers he would bring, which would be impossible. So why try to guess 4, when you can just prepare for all 6? (I was so completely sure I was going to lose this week).

Basically, there is no substitute for practice. I built these two teams for Jabuloso and had Dragonstrike play them against me with whatever modifications he felt like making. The result was that I lost several (several) battles. But, I learned that I did not have a good answer for Alpico, so I brought Corsoreef and prayed Jab wouldn’t bring HP Grass. I learned I really needed an Intimidate user to slow down the Swords Dancing and Dragon Dancing that all of his threats could use, so brought choice scarf Baariette again, now with Intimidate and an extremely careful selection of moves: Hi Jump Kick for Mega-Baariette, Alpico, Gararewl, Frikitiki/Inflagetah. Thunder Punch for Gyarados. Poison Jab for Luxelong. And Aerial Ace for Navighast.

When you make a moveset like this, you need to know exactly how much damage each of the moves does to each of the Pokémon it’s supposed to hit. You need to know when you can and can’t revenge kill. In preparation, I did a calc for all of the Pokémon above, and screenshotted them so I could have it on hand during the battle. It may sound like a lot of work, but it doesn’t take much more than 10 minutes. I can’t recommend enough doing some preliminary calcs, especially against Pokémon you don’t see very often.

Having this prior knowledge lets you quickly identify your opponent’s movesets. To use an example from week 1, I knew after the first Fire Blast that Actan was specially defensive and that I wouldn’t have to worry about a Rock Polish set. During my battle this week, I knew immediately after the first Hyper Voice from Mega-Syrentide that Jab’s Frikitiki was Assault Vest, which meant I didn’t have to worry about a Swords Dance set, which conveniently meant Gliscor would be able to wall it as it had Roost this week (for that exact purpose).

My final measure against the myriad set-up sweepers Jab could bring was Whimsicott. It didn’t have any special double stab resistances this week, but it did have Prankster Encore. This meant that if I switched Whimsicott directly in on Jab going for a boost, I could Encore it and force a switch. Additionally, Memento could serve as a last resort to stop a sweeper. But even with all this, it looked grim. Dragonstrike and I agreed that if Jab brought the first team variant, it would be extremely difficult for me to win, if not impossible.

Lo and behold, Jab brought 5 out of the 6 on that team. I literally messaged Dragonstrike upon team preview “are you kidding me.” Despite this, I still had to formulate a gameplan. I knew that if I could wear down Frikitiki with Stealth Rocks and having it switch into Hyper Voice once or twice, Mega-Syrentide would be able to completely sweep. The scary thing about the Xenoqueen and MegaTide core of my draft is that they attack on completely different axes. I could use Xenoqueen to slowly wear down Gararewl, which Jab would have to use to constantly pivot throughout the match. When it was eventually worn down enough, Jab would no longer be able to switch it in to Rapid Spin away my Stealth Rocks. Gliscor would let me constantly keep up momentum against his team through U-turn and Defogging away any hazards Jab set up along the way. Importantly, Gliscor matched up very well against Gararewl, and never had to fear switching in, but always forced Gararewl out.

I would not have won the match without a long sequence of perfect predictions. I called multiple switches from Jab and hard switched into an answer to maintain momentum. In truth I got quite lucky on multiple turns, but was only able to capitalize on that luck by using my gameplan to navigate the match. Ultimately, Xenoqueen was eventually able to wear Gararewl down to where it was no longer effective, and I kept Baariette alive for a surprise Aerial Ace to kill Navighast. Gliscor was able to keep Stealth Rocks off my side of the field and kept getting U-Turns off when Jab switched Gararewl out, letting Xenoqueen come in repeatedly. Honestly the battle almost deserves a post of its own, but I’ll let someone else do that. For now, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/BjOvsiF3dIA .

Week 4

Mizz and the Nowtoch Jackdearys
Expected Team: https://pastebin.com/YSpfWFHK
My Team: https://pastebin.com/zHbpVnEJ

Look, if you haven’t figured it out by now, hyper offense was a bad matchup, and Mizz’s sand team was no exception. Generally, sand teams in Uranium struggle against bulky waters like Mega-Syrentide, but Mizz had the answer in Winotinger. Choice Scarf Final Gambit Winotinger is a clean answer to MegaTide no matter how many times I’ve used Calm Mind. The other problem with yet another weather team is it is impossible to outspeed it under the weather effect. My go-to answer to weather sweepers had been Anderind, but this week it didn’t look particularly promising. For starters, Escartress switches in on every move scarf Anderind has and sets up sand again, negating the hail Anderind sets up itself. Additionally, both scarf Winotinger and scarf Chimaconda outspeed and OHKO Anderind, and I was pretty certain they would both be scarf, as much as Tan complains about scarf Chimaconda.



Both of these two scarfers have a base speed stat of 85, which is 1 more than Xenoqueen at 84. This meant that Xenoqueen would be permanently outsped by Mizz’s two scarf users, and that it would not be able to get much of anything done, especially when Tracton presents the same problem after a Speed Boost and Protect. This week especially, I would not be able to rely on my Pokémon to outspeed the enemy team with a casual choice scarf, so I would have to innovate (very annoying, honestly).

There are a couple of different reasons why I brought Trick Room this week. On top of everything above, I promised Mizz I would “bring something spicy.” And, as we’ve already mentioned, it’s important to bring different strategies each week to keep your opponents guessing. There isn’t a lot to say about making a Trick Room team, but I’m going to do it anyway. Trick Room lasts 5 turns, and you want to maximize the number of turns you get to take under its effects. Outside of Tracton, every turn under Trick Room Xenoqueen is guaranteed a kill with Radioacid. To maximize our number of turns, Whimsicott has Memento (giving Xenoqueen a free switch-in) and S51 has U-Turn (I only realized later that S51 would have been better with Explosion).

The other thing to make sure when making Trick Room teams is that you don’t go all in on Trick Room. The battle will last more than the 5 turns Trick Room will be up, and it’s very difficult to set it up again and sweep. My plan was to have two Trick Room users in Whimsicott and S51, both of which would set it up for Xenoqueen to dent some things, but I would still need a team for the rest of the turns.

Mega-Syrentide is a staple of the team, but this week would not be able to Calm Mind sweep through everything due to Winotinger’s Final Gambit, so I brought Calm Mind + 3 attacks. Not that M-Syrentide has many options, but Ice Beam was for Cocancer, Surf for Chimaconda, and Hyper Voice for everything else. M-Syrentide would also be my best answer against Tracton, which threatened to stop Xenoqueen’s Trick Room sweep. With the calcs I’d done, max physdef M-Syrentide would be able to switch into any Tracton set regardless of any factors and 2HKO. With Tracton dead, all I would have to do is set up Trick Room a second time with S51 and finish it off.

My backup backup win condition this week was Feliger. Nothing on Mizz’s team could 2HKO it without boosts, which meant that Slack Off would allow the cat to clean everything up outside of a random mon clicking Toxic. It was my fault for not doing enough preparation this week, but I should have known that scarf Winotinger would not 2HKO Feliger with Aura Sphere, and it almost cost me the match. The match, as always, can be watched here: https://youtu.be/3hlJz1b-5Lc.

Week 5

Spoder and the Legen Harpteras
Expected Team: https://pastebin.com/sKYH3GBv
My Team: https://pastebin.com/LwDE56Wm

Somehow I found myself up against yet another bad matchup: hyper offense. Except this time, Spoder had the two fastest and most offensive physical attackers in the entire game. Mega-Inflagetah, even without functioning Accelerate, kills most things after a Swords Dance. Harptera kills basically everything after a Swords Dance. Fortunately for me, Spoder’s team is extremely weak to Stealth Rock, and only has Dermafrost to Rapid Spin and remove them. Because I identified that Stealth Rock was so vital to my win, I brought Sableye for the first and only time this week to block the Rapid Spin to remove them.



Going into this week, I wasn’t super worried given how solid I considered my strategy this week. Spoder would truly have no way of escaping Stealth Rocks once I got them up. However, playing against the team I made with Dragonstrike, I realized that Spoder could just Swords Dance a couple times and it would be over whether I had Stealth Rock or not. The most scary Swords Dance user he could bring was easily Harptera. In order to beat it, I decided to do something quite stupid, and bring Baariette. Now baar with me for a second. This rancid Baariette set could switch into a swords dance from Harptera and live the Acrobatics, killing back with Rock Slide.

Obviously the previous statement is a complete and utter lie. But Baariette with Ice Punch has game against Dunseraph, Fafninter, Dermafrost, and Astronite. If I got lucky, I could catch Harptera on the switch-in and kill with Rock Slide. The best and only real answer I had to Harptera was physdef S51 with Eviolite. It also walled and killed Leafeon with Toxic and Recover spamming. For Mega-Inflagetah, my Mega-Syrentide would have to do. Once all the Swords Dance users were out of the way, Feliger would be able to brute force through the rest of Spoder’s team with a Slack Off + 3 attacks set in Earthquake for Jolteon, Brick Break for Fafninter, and Rock Slide for Harptera.

When it came time for the battle, Spoder didn’t actually end up bringing Harptera, which was my biggest problem and worry. When you watch the battle, you will see me throw certain Pokémon away to their certain deaths. When I did this, I was letting Toxic wrack up and preserving health on Pokémon I need to actually win, while the ones I was sacrificing to Spoder’s fervor wouldn’t help me win at that point anymore. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/aIMUFnRiDP8.

Week 6

Dee and the Zeta Sponees
Expected Team: https://pastebin.com/4cTPkhsb
My Team: https://pastebin.com/p1HmkD8u

As sad as it makes me to break the streak of declaring every week a bad matchup, this week was for once a good matchup. Mainly this was because Dee did not have the tools to survive hits from scarf Xenoqueen’s Radioacid. Their only outs were Extremespeed Barand and Protect + Speed Boost with Stenowatt. For Barand, M-Syrentide and S51 together could play around the most threatening choice band set, and for Stenowatt, I brought Roar on Tofurang to hard switch in upon sight and Roar whatever Stenowatt would Baton Pass to out again, removing the buffs.



There was also nothing to stop Mega-Syrentide, which itself stops Mega-Gyarados cold and OHKO’s it with Hyper Voice. Ultimately, I don’t think there was much Dee could have done differently to win this week, their team just wasn’t equipped to handle Xenoqueen and Syrentide, as you can see here: https://youtu.be/uziyw2LwaAE .

Week 7

Poisseman and the Moki Nimfloras
Expected Team A: https://pastebin.com/qxw0cpr2
Expected Team B: https://pastebin.com/r2ys8yhr
My Team: https://pastebin.com/w6xjjgRy

This week looked rough, but winnable. Poisseman’s only two checks to Xenoqueen were spdef S51-A and Metalynx, and neither take the fire type coverage moves well. In fact, Poiss’s entire team was pretty weak to fire types. It looked like I would finally be able to bring Beliaddon again. Unfortunately, this looked like the worst match-up for Mega-Syrentide yet. Metalynx is probably the best M-Syrentide counter in the game, but Theriamp and M-Arbok both revenge kill M-Syrentide with their powerful super-effective STABs with ease. With Ice Punch, Theriamp punches through my best answer to it in Gliscor. After a Swords Dance, Theriamp could only be stopped by choice scarf Xenoqueen.
But Poiss had two other potent threats. Seikamater has more than enough bulk to set up several Quiver Dances and can continually heal off chip damage. The only way I could beat Seikamater was having it die to Toxic. That’s why I have Toxic on Tofurang, S51, and Feliger. It was literally that important. The secondary plan was to Roar it out with Tofurang.
Tofurang was my plan to beat Poiss’s other threat as well: Mega-Arbok. Mega-Arbok loves to set up multiple Coils and plow through teams with Sucker Punch, a very accurate Gunk Shot, and Earthquake. Just like Seikamater, there was no beating it after it got enough boosts, so what do you do against that? Roar. My plan with Tofurang was to Toxic Seikamater before promptly roaring it out, and then Will-O-Wisp Mega Arbok before roaring it out. The double status, Roar, and U-turn may look weird, but I had a feeling Poisseman wouldn’t expect it. If I was able to side step Theriamp somehow, Toxic Seikamater and phaze it before it can set up and sweep my team, and then Will-O-Wisp Mega-Arbok and also phaze it before it sets up and sweeps my team, then I can win, easy.



Another out to Mega-Arbok was Defiant Beliaddon. Arbok has no choice but to give it a Defiant boost upon switching in, whether pre-mega or not. Also, Beliaddon beats everything on Poiss’s team outside of Theriamp with relative ease, aside from Archilles which folds to Gliscor anyway. I speed crept it to reach 222 speed in order to beat physdef Nimflora which hits a speed stat of 220. Beliaddon is almost never run with speed, which is partially why speed creeping it specifically is so effective. Somehow, the battle plan with Tofurang went perfectly to plan, and if you don’t believe me, see for yourself: https://youtu.be/-c_YiOpZXxc.

Semi-Finals

Poisseman and the Moki Nimfloras Part 2: Electric Boogaloo
Expected Team: https://pastebin.com/3Qi3dSaM
My Team: https://pastebin.com/RyFWPuuT

Same game plan, just like the first, but somehow, things have got a lot worse. So this week I wouldn’t be able to gimp Poiss’s entire lineup with a single Tofurang. Additionally, Poiss got some new toys in Tracton and Herolune. Tracton would present a problem due to its ability to tank Radioacids from Xenoqueen and set up a Swords Dance before plowing through my team. Herolune had recently been showing up in the preliminary Beta tier (Uranium’s UU) with a choice scarf and wrecking things particularly hard. I was afraid that someone would finally catch on and start scarfing their Pokémon to blow out Xenoqueen.



However, I got some new toys as well. Harptera is an egregious Pokémon that can easily clean up draft teams without the actual answers that keep it in check in Gamma Tier. My team was basically the same with Harptera replacing S51 and Mega-Syrentide replacing Feliger. Despite Feliger’s raw power, Herolune would present a real way to break through it.
The only strategy that I truly gave away in the first match was Tofurang, which meant that Beliaddon’s speed creep could be effective again. Additionally, Beliaddon’s new speed beats neutral natured Herolune, which would be useful given Herolune is expected to force Beliaddon out. However, if Beliaddon failed, Mega-Syrentide switches into most Herolune sets pretty easily and blasts something with Hyper Voice or Surf.

I also expected Poisseman to actually bring Archilles this week to counteract Tofurang and shore up his weakness to Xenoqueen (with Flame Impact) and Beliaddon (with Earthquake), which was another reason to bring Mega-Syrentide over S51.

In the week 7 match, my Xenoqueen traded for his Theriamp, which was actually very good for me all things considered given how dangerous Theriamp was to my team. I didn’t want to make the same trade this week, which is why I led with Gliscor and set up my Stealth Rocks. Before I drop the battle video, I’d like to impart a little bit of battling strategy: when your opponent uses moves like Reflect, Trick Room, Light Screen, or has weather summoning moves like Drought they intend to abuse, you should stall out as many turns as you can. Oftentimes it will help them if you kill the Pokémon setting up Trick Room or Reflect. In this battle, you can see me choose to U-Turn with Gliscor instead of using Earthquake and killing Jerbolta, switching into Tofurang, then switching back into Gliscor to eat an attack from Jerbolta. That wasted two turns out of the 5 Reflect would be active. I forced Poisseman to manually switch Jerbolta out in order to get a threat in, which then had to take chip damage upon coming in -- in this case a crit Earthquake to OHKO. But enough about the minutia, see for yourself: https://youtu.be/0yJR3jhky_A.

Grand Finals

Tanamar and the Snowbank Barands
Expected Team A: https://pastebin.com/bvMQLK7S
Expected Team B: https://pastebin.com/ggU6EaGp
Expected Team C: https://pastebin.com/0XmKtyVU
My Team Draft 1: https://pastebin.com/wstNbCNm
My Team Draft 2: https://pastebin.com/isR2kLLn
My Team Draft 3: https://pastebin.com/LgEXCQ2W
My Team Draft 4: https://pastebin.com/WAYMzzNJ

This was it. The Big Kahuna. The Whole Enchilada. The Royale with Cheese. The Tall Pancake Stack. The Super Soaker. The Bacon Chicken Ranch Pizza. The Grand Finale. Take your pick but to be honest I’m choosing none of them except maybe the pizza. My goal after beating Tan in the first week was to go undefeated through the regular season, and let the playoffs happen as it would. I had already accomplished that. But now there was a greater feat on the table: going entirely undefeated through the whole tournament and becoming the first UCS Champion.

To do this, I would have to beat Tan — again. It was time to enter the training chamber from Dragonball Z with my battle prepping partner Dragonstrike and come out a week later. For this battle, I built three possible teams for Tan. All of them had Actan and Blubelrog, which I predicted would be core to Tan’s strategy. Blubelrog is still one of the best counters to Mega-Syrentide, and Actan is just a house. Blubelrog doesn’t have many options given that it is designed to counter M-Syrentide. It had to run Haze and Sludge Wave, and I figured it would have Ice Beam for OHKO’ing Gliscor. Its 4th move would probably be Protect for scouting against scarf Xenoqueen (like in week 1), and is also in general a classic Tan move, but it could also be Toxic.

Actan would almost certainly be specially defensive again to counteract Xenoqueen, the same set as week 1, but I had to also consider a Rock Polish set. After a Rock Polish, Actan could use its ridiculously powered STABs in Metal Cruncher and Knock Off, coupled with Earthquake to cleanly sweep through my team. My best answer to Actan would be to paralyze it with Dunseraph’s Glare, which would effectively neutralize it’s offensive presence, and allow my slower attackers in Anderind and even Mega-Syrentide to take care of it once weakened.

One of the new tools Tan had at his disposal this time was Antarki. Tan makes Antarki work in ways no one else can, and there was a lot of versatility to be afraid of. Fortunately for me, Tan had already shown me most of what Antarki can do in regular matches for months by stomping me with it repeatedly. I expected the most likely would be the standard specially defensive set with Will-O-Wisp, Recover, Shadow Ball/Flamethrower, and Taunt/Toxic. However I also knew to prepare for Calm Mind offensive and Specs/Life Orb. With Antarki and Blubelrog, there was little reason for Tan to bring Gengar this week, despite how difficult it had been for my team to deal with in week 1 preparation. So honestly, this made me a little less worried. I play against Antarki pretty regularly in Gamma battles, especially ones piloted by Tan.

I still don’t have many good switch-ins for it; very few of my Pokémon can take a burn from Will-O-Wisp or would appreciate switching into a specs attack. Mega-Syrentide could take it on pretty consistently, but would give a free switch-in to Blubelrog, which I really didn’t have a good switch-in for (don’t want to lose HP on Feliger, which was supposed to check Mega-Archilles). This was where I started considering Dunseraph more and more. It had both the ability to paralyze Actan and Toxic stall Antarki. What’s more, bringing it in against Antarki would welcome Actan in, where I could paralyze it. But Dunseraph had a greater, more important role here: dealing with Mega-Archilles. Once again, Tan’s team (now with Gellin) had the potential to completely sweep me under the harsh sunlight provided by Drought. Dunseraph is one of the only true counters to Mega-Archilles and is the reason that variants run HP Ice. It has the unique ability to switch in on both STABs and cripple Mega-Archilles with a Glare. Dunseraph spamming Glare was going to be my answer for Actan and Mega-Archilles, and could also Toxic stall to deal with Antarki. It was stretched a little thin but it could probably accomplish all three if things lined up right.

But I had a few new toys as well. If I failed to emphasize how quickly Harptera can end a battle last week, let me do it again here. Tan’s best answer to Harptera (outside of Flame impact from Mega-Archilles, but more on that later) was physdef Laissure, which would not do the job after being weakened, which is why I opted to run U-Turn despite being a Swords Dance set. I knew that if things lined up well, Harptera could cleanly sweep as long as I ran Brick Break for Actan instead of the standard Drill Run set.

The other toy I now had was Escartress. Usually a physically defensive tank and Stealth Rock setter, it is the other counter to Mega-Archilles. It is the reason Mega-Archilles variants run Hidden Power Grass. However, it can also be quite threatening with a Shell Smash set. I don’t know if Tan realized this, but almost his entire team was hit by Earth Power super effectively. The ones that weren’t (Gengar, Garlikid, and Gellin) would fold to Surf or Ice Beam with enough prior damage. Shell Smash would also allow Escartress to outspeed everything except the Chlorophyll users provided there was no Sticky Web from Tan’s Cubblfly. Both Harptera and Escartress could single handedly blow through Tan’s entire team with the proper setup.

Lastly, in keeping with a time honored tradition, I refuse to use a normal “good” set on Anderind. This week it was part of negating Tan’s weather sweepers, which meant taking on Mega-Archilles. I planned for the lead matchup, where he would lead Mega-Archilles to get it mega evolved turn 1, and I would bring Anderind as bait. I know you’re thinking, “But Fam, Anderind is weak to and outsped by Mega-Arch, you’re just going to get obliterated!” And that’s what I was hoping Tan would think too, and that’s what makes it bait. Anderind was specifically EV’d and itemized (Occa Berry) to live exactly one Flamethrower 100% of the time from Mega-Archilles under the sun.



252 SpA Mega-Archilles Flamethrower vs. 0 HP / 48 SpD Occa Berry Anderind in Sun: 271-319 (84.4 - 99.3%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
236+ Atk Anderind Earthquake vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Mega-Archilles: 366-432 (130.2 - 153.7%) -- guaranteed OHKO

It would be able to OHKO back with Earthquake, completely removing the biggest counter to Harptera and one of the biggest threats to my team. Anderind would also serve as a functional check to Chlorophyll Coatlith, OHKOing it with Ice Shard.

236+ Atk Anderind Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Coatlith: 372-444 (103 - 122.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

It was important to know how much Ice Shard would do to Tan’s other grass types as well, so I made sure to know those calcs too. Calcs like these are easy to neglect, but are critical when it comes to priority moves.

236+ Atk Anderind Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Garlikid: 158-188 (49.2 - 58.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after hail damage
236+ Atk Anderind Ice Shard vs. 0 HP / 4 Def Gellin: 176-210 (54.8 - 65.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO after hail damage

Again, Tan’s team was very weak to Ground type attackers, and Anderind was no exception. Ice/Ground in general is really powerful offensive coverage, and if Anderind had the speed of Theriamp and access to Swords Dance too, it would easily be one of the best physical sweepers in Gamma tier.

At the end of the day, I’d already gone undefeated in the regular season, and I really wanted to throw in a meme set or two for kicks. After all, if you’re not willing to meme in a tournament, then what’s the point? If it works, you’re a genius. If it fails, you have a perfectly good excuse for why you lost. There’s nothing to lose (other than the finals against the best player in the tournament, of course).

I don’t plan on participating in the next UCS Draft League, as you can tell by now it was a lot of work and I would only be letting people down by putting in less and losing. If I put in less and still won, well then I’d just make people feel bad. Either way, I’m going to be taking a (deserved) break from the draft league for a while. I’ll still be helping with the administration of future leagues. I’m working on a program that will automate stat collection for the league, for instance. I hope you hear from me again next season when I go through the participants’ teams and throw out some predictions for the tournament. Until then, enjoy this finals match:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12yD9...Kjvik/edit

Taken from Twitch's creativity Discord.
https://discord.gg/m5xsCaM

There's no thread about this on this semi-dead forum, so I thought I'll just make one now. Share thoughts, fears, opinions, viewpoints if desired, I'm curious to listen and wanted to give them a platform here.

I'll start: Things are serious, yes, but things still feel so...surreal for me. Maybe because not much's really different; I tend to wash my hands relatively often anyway and rarely ever leave the house unless I must, so if the curfew comes, I wouldn't mind too much.

Either way, stay safe and healthy~☆

It has been a long time since I first came here, asking for advice on my broken save file. I am a lonely person, finding it hard to make friends and connect with people, but I try everywhere I find myself. I was ready to meet new people and find my niche. But, there was few people on anymore (although I didn't know it). I tried reaching out, trying to trade with people, trying to make friends. But it did not work...

PhantomUnderYourDesk, I bred you a shiny Eevee, hoping that you would be my friend. But, in November, you stopped replying to my messages or looking at anything I posted. I wonder if I said or did anything to cause that! 
CodySP, thank you for helping me with my save file, it has enabled me to help many suffering souls on Reddit with issues they have. 
Spiritmon, I'm sorry for frightening you by my irritated comment a little while ago (I didn't know my words could frighten anyone!). Thank you for listening to me and all the other things you've done for me, although what they were escapes me at the moment. You have been very nice in offering the shiny lv100 near-perfect-stat Beliaddon, although there's nothing I can give you in exchange that would be worth it for you... 
TheTainted_Wisdom, I've read everything you've posted, heard many of your ideas and opinions, and received several wonderful pokemon friends from you. Your friendship has been invaluable to me, it has definitely helped me feel less alone in the world, and frankly, you're the reason I'm not leaving this forum forever to more active Pokemon Uranium areas (like Reddit).

I have noticed that there is almost no activity everywhere on this forum save for the roleplaying section. Therefore, I have an announcement. I will join the many who have left this forum for unknown reasons. I won't just disappear, though. I'll still ghost on and off, seeing how things are going, but I will no longer comment or post anything from now on. If anyone wants to trade with me or anything, they'll have to post it where I will be willing to reply. I don't have discord (and won't for a currently unknown length of time) so don't look for me there. 

I am tired of being largely ignored. Nothing that any of you say or do will prevent me from leaving. I am sorry it has to be this way, but this is all my fault. It is my fault for coming on a largely silent forum, naively thinking a lot of people were on here normally, and expecting to make friends with at least one person within the first 3-6 months, and trade with many more.

With that out of the way, I have a little confession to make. If any of you noticed that it was my birthday, sometime in August, well...... I lied. That's not my real birthday. And my age? That's not my real age, either. I chose both at random. And don't ask my birthday or my age either, because if I don't lie to you about it, I probably won't tell you. It's a little personal preference. 

I'm not angry at anyone on this forum. I will find people that enjoy (or at least don't mind) my company, eventually. I am now finished. This is the last post I will make, the last comment I will have, on this forum. I knew it would come to this eventually, I just didn't know when. I'm not deleting any of my comments or posts that have been previously made. I'm not quitting Pokemon Uranium. I'm not even slowing down on what I do on there. But, I am quitting here. Say what you will about my decision, what you say is up to you. Good luck to all of you on your various endeavors. We part ways, for now. Goodbye!

Bingo

~~~Man is but a mist, that appears for a little while and then vanishes~~~

With Masking previously planned to have a nuclear form, the Pahar line getting one in the form of the Mystery Gift, and some Pokemon like Lavent getting shiny sprites that resemble Nuclear forms, I'm curious about what you would make into a Nuclear type, what secondary typing it would have, as well as Nuclear moves. Also, what would be your worst nightmare when it comes to having to fight against a hypothetical Nuclear mon?

I think the coolest (no pun intended) one for me personally would be a Nuclear and Ice Type Dermafrost. I just love the idea of a nuclear-corrupted Pokemon with thick sheets of ice as armor plating on some parts of its body while others burn with the heat of radiation as it lobs Atomic and Ice punches around. Although obviously this would never happen as even though the terrible Ice-typing coupled with Nuclear would be FAR from making it a gameplay-breaking threat, the only way for it to get Atomic Punch logically would be for it to learn it after leveling up from a Snopach, and nuclear Types can't learn nuclear Type moves as they level up. So it would have to be stuck with Nuclear Slash or Gamma Ray or something. Still, I love the idea of a custom sprite with a body that has both the blues of ice and the greens of radiation seemingly battling it out on the surface of the pokemon's body and generating steam in parts as a result.

I also like the idea of Antarki having a nuclear form because it would remind me of those shadow people from the Metro games. Having a Ghost-Nuclear typing, Half-Life, Gamma Ray, Grudge, and Ominous Wind. (Yeah I know it's supposed to be the good counterpart of Dramsama, but the idea is that it's been corrupted). It would also be cool to see a nuclear sprite that's a little closer to the original shiny since I'm not a fan of the newer sprite.

The idea of a Nuclear-Rock/Psychic type Astronite would be cool too. Just being this mysterious sentient celestial rock being with both Psychic AND nuclear powers. Having Gamma Ray, Solar Radiation (Basically a nuclear type version of Growth that boosts ATK and Sp ATK by one stage, and 2 stages in the sun), Meteor Mash, and Psywave.

And something that's always bugged me: How come *none* of the Nuclear Pokemon have ever been Flying types? I mean I could understand the balance issue of nuclear types having type immunities, were it not for the fact that there are plenty of Dark, Normal, and one set of Ground Nuclear mons that are all immune to Psychic, Ghost, and Electric moves respectively. Yet, Eshouten, Gyarados (though in that case it's entirely understandable), Gliscor, and even Pajay all lose their Flying Type, what gives?

Worst nightmare nuclears:

Well a Nuclear Actan comes to mind. Not so much because of its typing, ability, or even its base stats, so much as the idea of a perfect-stat Nuclear Actan being distributed as a Mystery Gift. (Though some of those other elements are certainly scary too even if abilities like Defiant and Competitive could turn Intimidate against it).

A Nuclear Lavent with any move other than Gamma Ray packing an Adaptability Flamethrower for Steel types would also be pretty nightmarish.

But I think a Nuclear Archilles/Inflagetah would probably be the worst. As cool as its sprite would be, a Nuclear powered stab fire/ground toting mega with solid/the best speed, +2 priority moves, AND nuclear attacks?!? Nooooooooooooothankyou!

Hello, I am FamSlayer, the champion of The Uranium Championship Series for Season 1. Through no shortage of luck, I managed to go undefeated through the entire tournament, finishing with 9 straight wins between the regular season and the playoffs. To help competitors preparing for next season, I want to share as much of my strategy as possible so that the tournament and players can grow. This is the first post where I will be briefly breaking down the first part of the UCS: the draft.

The Uranium Championship Series is a draft league format, and if you don’t know what that means, you can read up on it here. The short version is that each of the 8 players take turns drafting from the Pokédex to make up a team. This draft will inform your entire season, and it is incredibly important. There are three general types of Pokémon that you should be prioritizing in draft.

The first type serves a vital utility in removing hazards such as Stealth Rocks and Sticky Web. Defog users are better than Rapid Spin users because they cannot be “spin blocked” by a ghost type, so prioritize them first. The best Defog users are Coatlith, Gliscor, and Gligar at the moment, although Gliscor and Gligar only get defog due to a bug in the online simulator, and that might be fixed before next season. I do not recommend a Defog (or Rapid Spin) user that is already weak to Stealth Rocks as you will have to take (at least) 25% when switching in. You have a couple more options when choosing a Rapid Spin user, but S51-A and Gararewl are still the best of the bunch, so pick them if you can. Unfortunately, assuming Gliscor’s access to Defog gets fixed, there will only be three “good” hazard removers, so I recommend drafting first! Remember, Pokémon like Splendidfowl may get Defog, but its weakness to Stealth Rocks will limit its effectiveness. If you were not lucky enough to get good hazard removal, you need to think more carefully about whether the key Pokémon on your team can be weak to rocks. Think twice about drafting Harptera and Inflagetah if your only way to remove hazards is Dermafrost.

Secondly, you want offensively threatening Pokémon with raw power. Actan, Yatagaryu, Harptera, Seikamater, Garlikid, Inflagetah, Mega-Archilles, Frikitiki, and Paraboom are perfect examples of pokemon that can 6-0 teams after just one turn of setup, and some with less than that. You’re looking for Pokémon  with very high speed or speed boosting moves, or ones that can easily spam high base power priority moves. Sometimes a Pokémon that is extremely difficult to kill and tends to OHKO things with its STAB moves like Actan or Mega-Syrentide fit the bill as well. 

Lastly, you need defensive Pokémon. You can’t expect to win every week with hyper offense, even though hyper offense is very strong in Pokémon Uranium. Antarki, Mega-Syrentide, Actan, Laissure, Luxelong, Gliscor, Escartress, Nimflora, Cubblfly, Tofurang, and Tubareel all serve different roles, but have unique typings and niches that make it difficult for one Pokémon to break through more than one or two. Pokemon with reliable recovery on this list deserve special recognition, like Antarki, Luxelong, and Escartress with Recover, and Gliscor, Nimflora, Cubblfly and Tofurang with Roost. These recovery moves allow these Pokémon to serve as true walls to much of the metagame, and will all serve you well on your team.

I made a tier document at the start of the season, and have updated it throughout as I have seen different Pokémon perform. This is only my opinion, so do not follow this as law. Also, don’t draft straight down this tier list, as there are far more important factors than what tier I put a Pokémon in, like how well it would work on your team.

FamSlayer's UCS Draft Tier List.

This is some basic information I wanted to get out before I made my followup post about teambuilding and preparation where I will be dumping (as promised) all of my teams. Thanks for reading, and be on the lookout for a followup post in the next couple of days!

I'm not sure how common this knowledge is but I thought I'd put it here just in case. Both just as an "FYI" but also for the sake of getting clarification.

Everyone who's read Aiden's Breeding Guide knows about Hidden Abilities (Massive Thanks Shoutout for that by the way since I missed a LOT of developments since the last Pokemon game I played was XD Gale of Darkness) However, a while back I was breeding for a perfect stat Seikamater candidate, which resulted in a lot of time spent, and more than a few high/perfect IV male Tricwes. Naturally, I kept some of them to breed with other Bug Egg Group mons to transfer those IVs over.

But here's the thing, at least one of those Tricwes I was using for breeding passed on a HA to the offspring, despite neither the female mother, nor of course Tricwe (since it doesn't have an HA) having an HA present. (And, yes, this was a while ago, but I stopped while writing this, went into a cave with Gligars, caught one, and bred it with what I believed was the Tricwe with the "hidden HA," and literally the FIRST egg had a Gligar with Immunity.)

A bizarre circumstance to say the least, but this lead me to assume that the reason some Solar Power Nupins were in the Wonder Trade were due to using hacks, bred from a hacked Nupin, or using a Shiny Duplicat caught using the Pokeradar, as even though Duplicats don't have an HA, Shiny Pokeradar Grass Patches are supposed to be guaranteed to have HAs, and given the previous case of a mon without an HA generating offspring with an HA even when the mother did not possess it, I assumed it would be possible.

I tried a male Tancoon, a female Tancoon, and a genderless Comite bred with one of my many shiny Duplicats, yet even with a sample size of 15 or so offspring apiece, not ONE had their HA.

So I would have to assume that this is only something that can happen via breeding, as the Tricwe in question was bred from a female Tricwe + a male mon that had an HA, and it's the only way for something that doesn't have an HA to be treated as if it has an HA. However, given that there aren't that many breedable Gendered mons without HAs, I don't have anything to compare this too, so perhaps it's something that can only happen to the Tricwe/Seikamater pre-evolution linneage or something. Regardless, there appears to be no way to get the HAs for genderless mons that can't be picked up with the Pokeradar like S51, Tracton, and Nupin unless someone trades the offspring of a hacked mon like with those Solar Powered Nupins that have been floating around.

Okay, so I just became aware a few days ago that the Nuclear Actan is still kicking around in some capacity.

Let's say, hypothetically, I or anyone else were to somehow get my hands on one. Be it via Wonder Trade by some miracle, tweaking files to get rid of the patches that prevent the glitch that made catching it possible, or just straight-up hacking one from a Chiynmunk if I somehow figured out how to do that.

If this Actan were to attempt to be traded in the GTS, or set up on a Virtual Trainer team... Would that get my file/game banned from online use? I've gotten the message "you have been banned from online play/services" erroneously before so I know it's possible. I just don't want to go through the effort of trying to get something awesome only get completely and utterly locked out of the game's online community just for doing so. I also don't relish the idea of going through a ton of effort only for the Virtual Trainer I try to make to just get banned and disappear anyway.

So I've been working on breeding some mons with solid stats and moves all the way to LV 100 anyway. So I figured that after discovering how to create multiple save files I'd create some novelty Virtual Trainers that people could fight for fun.

I'm already working towards a Curie-themed VT (albeit really slowly) with Urayne, Pajay, Gliscor, Xenoqueen, Jerbolta, Mega Arbok, Mega Baariette, Mega Gyarados, etc. as considerations (All nuclear obviously) Minus Nucleon since the rival and most VTs have it anyway. Or maybe even a shiny Lavent if I can find one just for shiggles.

Another one would be an Eviolite-focused one with things like Cubblfly, Gligar, Cararalm, Sableau, Corsola, Folerog, Dearewl, Skelerogue, Misdreavus, Palij, Primape, etc. all with Eviolite.

A stall VT with Umbreon, Lanthan, Seikamater, Corsoreef, etc.

And lastly a Malevolent/Dark/Ghost mon VT with things like Chainite, Mega Gyarados/Baariette/Dramsama, Mismagius, Beliaddon, Navighast, Vilucard, Sableye, and Oblivicorn.

I was also considering some meme and even juvenile joke pokemon like my Fafninter nicknamed "TRoosevelt" or getting a female Aromatisse so I could have it say "Can-can dancer"/"Slut"/"Hooker" Used "Attract!"/"Captivate!", "Penis" Used "Harden!", "Emo" Used "Cut!" (yes I know that move isn't in the game, it's just an example) that kind of thing.

Do any of you have suggestions of what a funny or interesting combination of Pokemon, Moves, Abilities, Names, etc. You'd like to see as virtual trainers? And what would your ideal combination of 'mons consist of? (I know that the VT AI isn't exactly Chess Grandmaster levels of strategic and all, but this is more for novelty than anything else).