Wednesday, December 25, 2013

On the first day of Christmas, Gamefreak gave to me

A SACRED FIRE ENTEI!

I'm too lazy to browse all the Bank-only Pokémon on Serebii's Pokédex, especially since he hasn't updated many of them with level-up moves, but holy shit this is the best Christmas gift ever! It'd be amazing if Entei actually became usable now, especially since Flare Blitz didn't do THAT much for its cause. Sure, it was better than Fire Blast or Fire Fang, but Sacred Fire... DAMN. I was pretty sure it was going to stay a Ho-Oh-only thing for all eternity.

On the other hand, it's been confirmed that Gamefreak didn't hide the Fairy type on purpose on the Global Link for previous legendaries in order to not spoil a potential retcon. So much for that. Now we have a pixie trio that's not even Fairy-type. Crying shame, because they might've been worth using otherwise. Um, they get Dazzling Gleam? ...I guess?

Edit: The Magma Storm nerf (I guess the proper word would be rebalancing, what with the chip damage buff) that I mentioned a while ago is officially confirmed, however one thing we didn't know about was Techno Blast being buffed to 120 power. Will using the drives have a point now? Of course not, using the appropriate type-boosting item along with Thunderbolt, Ice Beam or Flamethrower isn't that much worse, and these items suck compared to the almighty Choice Scarf, as well as things like the Life Orb or Expert Belt.

In addition, Hold Back was officially confirmed as a complete clone of False Swipe. So... why not give Celebi False Swipe instead of wasting game code? I don't get it. Some people say that was common knowledge, but I call BS on that, because the only reason we even knew about it before the event announcement was because of random Metronome sightings that I can count on a single hand. Good luck extrapolating anything at all off of that.

Edit 2: A suggestion for everyone: if there's no rush for you to transfer your Pokémon, you might want to wait a few days before getting Pokémon Bank. I hear it's nearly impossible to get anything done because of the massive server load, and it's safe to assume the same will happen during the international release.

12 comments:

  1. Here's a little trick: wonder trade until you get a Bank Pokemon then just breed it and send the offspring on GTS for more early Bank Pokemon.

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  2. Something I found while looking at Smogon, they have in a way acknowledge the Funbro set, by introducing the "Endless Battle Clause" which forcibly bans strategies that can cause endless battles

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    1. But it can't! Not as long as the opponent has two brain cells to rub together... does this mean Stallrein would've gone had permanent weather still existed?

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    2. There's a big difference between Stallrien and Funbro though. Stallrien has no way of healing the opponent, meaning that while it may take forever and a day all the opponent's pokemon will eventually faint, while Funbro can heal the opponent and forcibly keep them alive forever by constantly recycling the Lum berry. That rule wouldn't have affected the Stallrien strategy at all.

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    3. Fair enough. I guess there's no dangerous slippery slope effect that can come out of that, especially since some circles are (somewhat falsely) accusing Smogon of... you know what, this is another rant for another day. Probably tomorrow or on Friday.

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  3. But just like Flareon (similar situation actually, pokes with more physical stats and they get a bajillion special moves till this gen, see Flaze Blitz Flareon) but really wont move them up the tier, well there is a diffrence, considering Entei is getting FREAKING SACRED FIRE! I see it jump from RU to UU or just BL2, who knows what the intrest level will be.

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    1. Entei has many things going for it that Flareon doesn't, though. Entei is actually somewhat fast, it's much bulkier (even though it's usually a lost cause on Fire-types), it has some coverage with Stone Edge and Iron Head, and don't forget about Extremespeed either (though it locks you into an Adamant nature).

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    2. Wow, I've never really used a whole lot Entei, didnt know it had that amazing coverage, I do think it's pure fire typing will help it and hurt it at this point

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    3. The oly "logical" kind of Physical Grass move would be wood hammer, maybe, based on it's description, or they could give it power whip for sake of coverage, but still, would it get any higher?

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    4. Sacred Fire is infinitely better than Blue Flare, though. Why? 50% burn rate. NOTHING is safe switching into that. Entei can now cripple most of its would-be counters right as they come in.

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    5. Yeah I've read up the Entei threat on smogon it seems the 50% burn rate weakens a ton of pokemon, even if they resist sacred fire itself, 50/50 switch in that cant take it are many such as Salamence or Greninja, hell even T-Tar, but I think ill just leave this discussion at that

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  4. The sacred fire TM is almost a real thing! =D

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