Phantom's Art Thread - just Pokemon

[Dragonstrike]

Spoiler

Personally, I'm always geared towards competitive and optimized strats + gameplay, as no matter how awesome a Pokemon is conceptually or the unique traits they have, if they have such massive liabilities and/or not too good stats/moves, then I'm not going to enjoy it. Dragonite is one of my favorite Pokemon, for example, but in Showdown I hardly ever use them because getting the most of the OG Dragon is not easy as running other more robust/reliable Pokemon like T-Lando. I also happen to find Aggron and Bastiodon to be really cool Pokemon, but their huge Weakness to common types leaves a lot to be desire, even with high Utility Moves, Sandstorm, and/or Defense Buffs. 

As for its Typing, those three Weakness happen to be some of the most common Moves in the game, and its still takes neutral Damage from Electrics + Water + Steel types without being able to do much to them (especially Bulky Waters and Heavy Metals, since they resist BOTH of their STABs). Fire types are also just straight up a Hard Counter to Ice/Steel because they get QE on them and resist their STABs, which in Iron's Pokerole is what a Pokemon will have to settle for, as coverage, TM, Tutor, and Egg Moves are at a premium unless you're one of a select few Pokemon or have oddles of Poke/XP to spend. Sure, Hail Buffs and/or Barrier works to give it a lot of Defense to mitigate those problems, and it has a pretty killer offensive typing, but the trade off of being a Glass Cannon with debatebly good Defenses/attack power is just too steep for my liking. I agree that in Pokerole making Phantom's D-Metalynx work would not be an insurmountable task, but it would certainly be harder to do than most other Pokemon. Of course, since I now permanently own a Bastiodon via Terra, I really should be one to throw stones here, but....well, you get my points, right?

However, I don't necessarily find it wrong to have these sorts of flavor or unoptimal 'mons, since they do provide a lot of variety, quirkiness, and pleasing asethetics, which goes a long way to keeping a game fresh. Plus, they can bring with them all sorts of unique Moves/traits that could be game changing in the right hands. You just won't see me using those sorts of Pokemon, unless I can find a way around that and make them good in spite of its inherent flaws, or it has something else going for it. If others want to use inoptimal Pokemon, good on them, and if they can make them work, even greater! To paraphrase an old saying: to each their own, and darn anyone that says otherwise!

Honestly, this isn't really the thread to be discussing this.  I think Phantom did a good job with the art and altering the basic level up moves to match it, and this thread exists to show that off.  No need for it to be more complex than that, right?

For the record though...

...the types listed in order of their commonality from most to least is...

- Water
- Normal
- Flying
- Grass
- Psychic
- Bug
- Fire
- Poison
- Ground
- Rock
- Fighting
- Dark
- Steel
- Electric
- Fairy and Dragon (they tie for third/fourth rarest type as of gen 7)
- Ghost
- Ice

While Ground, Fighting, and Fire are some of the most common offensive moves competitively, it doesn't mean they're the most common type by a long shot.  Ice is amazingly common as a coverage move in competitive, for example, yet it's also the least common type all around.  Competitive trends aren't necessarily reflective of how a pokemon will perform in a practical, casual setting.  I honestly prefer to keep my competitive and casual mindsets separate when possible (and I've not really done much that grinds the competitive gears recently, tbh, beyond a little theorizing here and there for Uranium's competitive scene.)

Yeah, the points you bring up are valid concerns in some cases, but there are workarounds (or can be.  I know I'm planning some stuff for my campaign that could make some of those concerns irrelevant in the later stages of it, even disregarding any information D-Orchynx is missing that would define how it's used), and I personally don't think it's that bad of a situation for several reasons.  And honestly, I think playing fully optimally all the time can get boring since it means you'd be playing the same way every single time, and you could miss out on experiencing some really fun stuff as a result.

But yeah, back on topic...once again, great job with the art, Phantom!