Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Endeavor Pikachu now a reality

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Don't people like winning at video games? Oh well. Pikachu ranked #3, behind Electivire and Ampharos, but ahead of everything else, and by that I mean powerhouses like Heliolisk, Stunfisk and Emolga. However, we can reassure ourselves in that it's quite clear that people used Pikachu because they were bribed to do it, because almost 40% of Pikachu users gave it something else than a Light Ball. Sure, in normal circumstances the only reason to use Pikachu over Raichu is the fact that it has the Light Ball, but if you force yourself to use one it seems like the Light Ball isn't the be-all-end-all option, with the Focus Sash and even the Eviolite (come on now, Pikachu wouldn't survive any kind of hit even with the Eviolite) seeing quite a bit of play.

Looking forward to seeing the Smogon stats for this thing. I'll amend this post once they're up.

11 comments:

  1. I honestly don't know. Pikachu doesn't have much to abuse Endeavor in the first place.There's the sure-fire way to use it once by combining it with Quick Attack and a Focus Sash, but yeah... Only usable once, dies to anything that can get around the Focus Sash and has to forego the Light Ball for that kind of strategy.
    Endure would be an option, albeit a really bad one, but it's an Egg Move.

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  2. Like the guy above me, the only viable option is FEAR, but there are better options...

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    1. I agree with both of you. Endeavor is fundamentally gimmicky. I can tell you right now it's not going to become the next Refresh Salamence in that it's going to come out of nowhere and totally break the game in ten years or so.

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    2. And even if Endeavor is absolutely vital to a person making a new team, there are better options than Pikachu. Aron, for instance. Or just subjecting the other guy to a blitz of 6 Pokemon...

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  3. Since you've commented on TCG news before, I thought this may be interesting. There's been another card Banning. This time the culprit is Shiftry from Next Destinies, which has been banned from the Expanded format.
    http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/shiftry-banned-from-expanded-format/

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    1. So they can ban TCG cards when they're OP but not overcentralizing Pokes in official tournaments (beyond the mascot and event legends which are all banned by default)? Makes sense to me.... /s

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    2. Wobbuffet was soft banned at one point, I think. And if they forget to nerf Kangaskhan in Gen 7, she'll be gone from tournaments too...

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    3. I believe Wobbuffet was banned in Gen 3 because of a bug where if 2 Wobbuffets holding Leftovers met each other they'd be locked in an endless battle. It's why the mechanics of Struggle and Shadow Tag were altered in Gen 4

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    4. Huh, I was wondering why that was the case, since it didn't seem at all LTC-style ubiquitous last time I checked. Turns out it's the recently released Forest of Giant Plants that makes this gamebreaking deck at all possible.

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    5. And for the record, it's not really the same thing as what Smogon is doing. If it was, they would've given the axe to shit like Seismitoad and Shaymin a long time ago.

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    6. It wasn't a bug, it was the fact that Wobuffet was piss offensively and people nerfed their offense as much as they could.

      Hilariously there was a way to break it up. If one had Tickle instead of the usual stuff, when it came time for Struggle, that one would WIN despite running out of PP first... and one of two things would happen. One, the opponent Counters you enough and is left with a Wobuffett that has barely any PP left to face whatever you send in to finish it off, or two, you manage to kill it but now have a PPless Wobuffet out against whatever your opponent sends out to set up and sweep you. Not fun.

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