tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12804920817217529412024-03-14T07:35:28.567-04:00The Rambling, Gaming DudeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger797125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-34956759420209954402015-09-28T20:44:00.001-04:002015-09-28T20:44:57.885-04:00I made a Twitter account!Honestly, even though I've been thinking about shutting this down for a while, it still doesn't feel right to me that suddenly you guys are all gone. So I decided to cave in and <a href="https://twitter.com/Slowflake1601">make a Twitter account</a>. To be quite frank, it's probably more adapted to my current needs in terms of communication than Blogger at this point, though of course I'm going to need to learn the art of tweeting.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-27547327886712460612015-09-28T17:38:00.003-04:002015-09-28T17:38:30.757-04:00I'm shutting this place down.To be honest, I'm finding it harder and harder to find a reason to keep this place going, so I might as well just stop. It was fun while it lasted, but now it's time to say goodbye. Thanks for the ride, you were all really cool people!<br />
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(Don't worry, I'm not deleting everything, it's all staying up (same as my YouTube channel), I just won't be updating it anymore.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-6601763317467686242015-09-27T09:59:00.002-04:002015-09-27T09:59:20.127-04:00Unpopular opinion timeMega Charizard Y is what Charizard should've looked like from day one. It's actually somewhat appealing.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-31375881777380770862015-09-26T10:08:00.001-04:002015-09-26T13:24:14.236-04:00Gen Goalpost MovingThe worst thing you could do on the internet is become hated enough for people to dig through your dirt. As such, Julie Rei Goldstein's résumé was dug up, and here it is for your viewing pleasure (<a href="http://i.imgur.com/ugiRkqC.png">part 1</a>, <a href="http://i.imgur.com/hbjExNW.png">part 2</a>). At first it looks harmless enough... until you take a closer look at the "Film" section. She's listed as a "lead" role for the two films she was casted in... but how factual is this? The first listed, "<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2206204/">Billie Speare</a>", has a total runtime of 20 minutes. So right away it probably doesn't belong in "Film". But then... <a href="http://www.imdb.com/media/rm917875200/tt2206204?ref_=tt_ov_i">look at the poster</a>. Dear Julie is listed under "Co-starring". And judging by the length of that section, she could be anywhere between a supporting actress and part of an ensemble cast. <a href="http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/d/d6/052Meowth.png/250px-052Meowth.png">Sound familiar</a>? Yep, so "part of an ensemble cast" (the best case scenario) counts as a lead when she does it, but not when others do it. So essentially, Gen Zed's claim of having the first ever trans VA in a lead role is utterly nuked by Goldstein's own résumé. I want to pretend I'm surprised, but I'm not particularly skilled at lying.<br />
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But wait, it gets better. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1609779/">The other "film"</a> doesn't even have her on the cover. What kind of cover doesn't list their lead? Scrolling down, you find out that she's not in the main cast either... oh, there she is. "Rest of cast". I'm not even kidding. She claims to have the lead role, but IMDB lists her under "rest of cast". So by that definition, not only is Meowth a lead. but so is every character of the day in the Pokémon anime's 18-year run. Again, this is right there on her résumé. I wonder if she's been confronted with that yet. I would assume that yes, and I would also assume that her excuse is that IMDB is in league with Gamergate to try and make her look bad.<br />
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Meanwhile, over on Wikipedia, Hayden Black's been busy "enhancing" his own page with utter lies. Look at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hayden_Black&oldid=682448216">this old version</a> for example. It says this: "<i>Goodnight Burbank</i> made IMDB's Top 50 TV series to premiere in 2011." What, did he think no one would ever check IMDB to <a href="https://kiwifar.ms/attachments/genzedislies-png.50547/">verify that claim</a>? No, you're not hallucinating. It was ranked #1641. And this jerkwad had the balls to claim top 50, not even citing his sources in the process, because it was easy as pie to see this was a complete fabrication.<br />
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I also want to draw attention to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hayden_Black&action=history">revision history page</a>. A user named Cellmate27 says this: <span class="comment">"Had to change some of the things rewritten by a mounting 4Chan/8Chan campaign to "nuke" this wiki page." I dunno, but making the page more factual is the complete opposite of "nuking" to me. So what about Cellmate27's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Cellmate27">contribution list</a>? Yeah, you all saw this coming. This is a Hayden Black sockpuppet, pure and simple. Look at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hayden_Black&type=revision&diff=682837475&oldid=682773194">list of gratuitous boasts</a> that were then taken down by the next guy who edited the page. Hey Hayden, Wikipedia requires sources for a reason. And unfortunately for you, there are no sources that prove Gen Zed "</span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hayden_Black&oldid=682204904">has generated a very large amount of positive interest</a>". I wonder why?<br />
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<span class="comment">These people are acting in utter desperation to try and make themselves seem credible, but they'd already built up such a nasty reputation that the skeletons in their closets are being dug up at breakneck speed. To think they wouldn't have had to deal with this had they not been such irritating people. But hey, you can't expect any better out of a hardcore SJW and someone who tries way too hard to pose as one.</span><br />
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<span class="comment">Edit: OH GOD IT'S NOT OVER. In fact, it gets EVEN BETTER. So what of Black's contributions to articles that have nothing to do with him? <a href="https://kiwifar.ms/attachments/capture-d%E2%80%99e%CC%81cran-2015-09-26-a%CC%80-16-22-09-png.50853/">Take</a> <a href="https://kiwifar.ms/attachments/capture-d%E2%80%99e%CC%81cran-2015-09-26-a%CC%80-16-21-54-png.50854/">a</a> <a href="https://kiwifar.ms/attachments/capture-d%E2%80%99e%CC%81cran-2015-09-26-a%CC%80-16-15-27-png.50855/">wild</a> <a href="https://kiwifar.ms/attachments/capture-d%E2%80%99e%CC%81cran-2015-09-26-a%CC%80-16-21-18-png.50857/">friggin'</a> <a href="https://kiwifar.ms/attachments/capture-d%E2%80%99e%CC%81cran-2015-09-26-a%CC%80-16-15-50-png.50858/">guess</a>, <a href="https://kiwifar.ms/attachments/capture-d%E2%80%99e%CC%81cran-2015-09-26-a%CC%80-16-15-03-png.50859/">buddy</a>. (And yes, every word of that sentence is a different link.)</span><br />
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<span class="comment">Oh, by the way, the show itself is getting pushed back further and further. They're hoping to have the pilot done and ready to air by the end of the year. And they wonder why people think it's a scam and a cash grab. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-32025896120225564412015-09-23T17:46:00.002-04:002015-09-23T21:05:14.258-04:00Pokémon Shuffle competition plagued by hacking(Edit, 21:04 EDT: Fixed the link. For whatever reason I linked to the wrong thing. Sorry about that.) <br />
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Because of course it was going to happen eventually. Right now there's an ongoing competition for the otherwise unavailable Charizardite Y, and only the top scorers in each region will get it (although there are other prizes up for grabs). Unfortunately, the game's programming appears to be anything but foolproof, as malicious individuals gained the ability to use unreleased Pokémon to dominate the rankings, and possibly screw legit players out of their Charizardite Y. The chief offender here is, of course, Ditto - while I don't think it's ever going to be intended as an actual support Pokémon, it's still in the game code for whatever reason. I'm assuming it's meant to be a feature in yet-to-be-released stages. Anyway, if you're familiar with Trozei, you know what this does - it's essentially a wild card, being able to match with anything. And what happens when a quarter of the Pokémon on the board are wild cards (provided you use a Complexity -1 to get rid of Fennekin)? Of course the end result is neverending combos, and the results obtained are nothing short of outrageous. While the current top legit players, invariably using the same ol' Mega Gengar + Arceus + two out of Snorlax, Lickilicky and Blissey, scramble to top the magical 100k mark (the current leader in North America is sitting at 99916), some cheaters managed to get as high as 660k by using not only Ditto, but also Palkia, an unreleased Pokémon that provides extra power over Pokémon that are currently available (since there are only two super-effective Pokémon with 80 base power to go along with Ditto, whereas three are required).<br />
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It's safe to assume that those competitions are where Genius Sonority is making a mint. Ranking high enough to get a Mega Stone without buying every item available is nothing short of unthinkable, and those items are expensive and add up very quickly. For that reason, many people opt to do only one attempt with all items and pray to Arceus they'll rank high enough. But not everyone does that, and the lure of powerful mega evolutions, especially those like Garchomp, Lucario or Charizard that have typings without a mega in the base game, will be enough to get people to fork over some cash to buy in-game money and do more than one attempt. And don't quote me on that, but I'm pretty sure that guy that has 99916 points didn't do it in one try.<br />
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As a result, hacking deprives them of a lot of revenue - that potentially paid by the hackers themselves, since they can just get their Charizardite Y on their own (so basically they're just assholes who want to prevent someone out there from getting theirs), and that paid by the legit players, who see this and wonder, what's the point, you need to hack to get the stone anyway.<br />
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And one of the few perks of a game with microtransactions is that there's added incentive to preserve the integrity of the game, otherwise the cash cow dries up. Fortunately, Genius Sonority is aware of those recent developments, as they've banned those people who were dumb enough to use Ditto and Palkia. People like <a href="https://miiverse.nintendo.net/posts/AYMHAAACAAADVHkeAHK30A">this guy</a>. (Man, just seeing this makes me so happy in my pants.) Those who hacked to get Arceus, on the other hand, are probably not going to get the banhammer, since it IS legitimately attainable... it's just that it's a previous event, and a difficult one at that, so some people may not have it.<br />
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Now here's hoping that they beef up their security a bit before doing more competitions. We don't need this to happen every time one of those happens.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-21454508595243922002015-09-22T18:20:00.004-04:002015-09-22T18:25:46.816-04:00Pikachu Cup: Smogon vs. the worldSo we FINALLY have Smogon's stats for the month of August. Took a while! Anyway, I wanted to compare stats for the Pikachu Cup, so how about we do just that?<br />
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First thing we notice is that in the 1630 stats, which are typically what's used for tiering, Pikachu still ranked a solid seventh, so getting that Light Ball at the bare minimum was never in doubt. It's even in front of Raichu, in spite of being labeled as a "shitty Raichu" from the onset. But it's when we play with the weighting that the real fun begins. Without any weighting, Pikachu's fourth, and present on half of all teams (and a mere few percentage points behind Ampharos and Eelektross to boot. But with the most severe weighting (1760), it's down to tenth and only appears on a quarter of all teams. So this essentially confirms the obvious suggestion that the best players were in it to win it and didn't care a rat's ass about Pikachu, and everyone else just wanted to get another useless event move on Pikachu (I may have said this before, but I seriously doubt Endeavor Pikachu will be the next Refresh Salamence in that an incredibly rare move suddenly makes it broken ten years after the fact).<br />
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Other than that, Electivire dominates at all levels of play, but it goes from 77% with no weighting to 91% with 1760 weighting - again, unsurprising. Same for Eelektross, which is is actually third at 53% without any weighting, but goes up to a whopping 69% at 1760. And with a field so casual that Pikachu got third, Eelektross finished FOURTH in the actual competition. Heliolisk also seems to be a (relatively) well-kept secret: fifth in the competition, fifth (39%) on Smogon with no weighting, second (60%) with max weighting. Ampharos, on the other hand, experiences a slight decline as skill level goes up, and in fact gets leapfrogged by Eelektross and Heliolisk as the weighting gets more severe. Emolga and Raichu are funny cases, as they were used far less in the competition itself (10th and off the top 12 respectively) than on the ladder (5th and 8th). Inversely, Galvantula was used FAR more in the competition (12th) than on the ladder (a lowly 17th).<br />
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Interesting fact: while the detailed stats for Pikachu are relatively similar between the two (although Knock Off seems to have been much more popular on the ladder), there was slightly less use of the Light Ball on the ladder, and slightly more of the Air Balloon. Which makes sense as an alternative to the Eviolite, which is frankly dumb even if you're not planning on using Magneton or Eelektrik (remember, Item Clause is a thing here).<br />
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Finally, 26% of the Pikachus in the competition and 21% on the ladder brought Static with them when EVERY LAST POKÉMON ALLOWED is immune to paralysis. Sure, Lightning Rod isn't that much better considering Electric moves were almost absent, but they were still there and did something, even if that something is piddly damage.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-47228624197528195172015-09-21T19:55:00.003-04:002015-09-21T19:55:24.447-04:00Programming oversight, or legitimate feature?MD4 brings back the infamous level 1 dungeons because why not, and it turns out you can totally break them by bringing Hoopa with you. Since it comes in an item, it's not really part of your team per se, so when it pops out it's at whatever level it's supposed to be normally. So, is that an oversight on the game designers' part, or did they actually intend for it to happen all along? I want to say it's not intentional. In previous games the highest levels you'd ever encounter in such dungeons would be in the low 30s, so to be able to have a much higher-leveled Hoopa do all the work is just silly. So I want to say they just done fucked up... but what if it was supposed to be a well-kept secret? Of course in the era of the internet no secret ever lasts that long, but to be figured out by virtually the first guy to do that dungeon is just silly.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-19674850671456288272015-09-20T20:46:00.000-04:002015-09-20T20:46:24.244-04:00Pokémon Shuffle is a weird game.TFW when you don't waste too much time on That One Boss, only to be completely stuck on a later boss that's not nearly as infamous. #megaglaliecansuckadick<br />
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Well, time to get serious in these Expert stages, I guess.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-14122854757113136422015-09-19T12:16:00.000-04:002015-09-19T12:16:30.403-04:00Yadda yadda yadda- Welp, time to <a href="http://i.imgur.com/PVU5hE8.png">get my ass kicked</a> by a F2P puzzle game. This is going to be a new experience for sure.<br />
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- Is it just me, or does Germany get all the cool Pokémon names? I mean, they get stuff like "Despotar", "Demeteros" or "Apoquallyp"... and, well, you all know how many boring portmanteaus we have. Sure, it might just be the whole grass-being-greener-elsewhere thing, but still.<br />
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- I'm going to venture a guess and say they completely embraced the fact that nowadays it's adults that play Pokémon. How else do you explain <a href="https://twitter.com/BulbaNewsNOW/status/644879033071570944/photo/1">this</a>?<br />
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- Finally, since I haven't updated you on our friends at Gen Zed in a while, munch on this... Julie Goldstein (along with much of the staff, it seems) is doing this entirely free of charge. Yes, she's dumb enough to commit career suicide over a gig she's not getting paid a damn cent for. C'mon, if you're going to make yourself completely unemployable, at least make sure you get something out of it!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-59199398103128960592015-09-16T17:24:00.001-04:002015-09-16T19:18:45.480-04:00Keep your money in your pocketsRemember when I said I was worried MD4 would turn out to basically be a fanservice-laden Gates to Infinity with all Pokémon and hunger? From what little we know so far, I wasn't too far off. The balance is still just as out of whack as MD3's was, and I know the first two games weren't perfect either, but the 3DS outings just insult your intelligence.<br />
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Traditional recruitment is completely gone, you now get all your Pokémon from <strike>Affinity Chart</strike> Connection Orb stuff. The good news is that you can do multiple missions in one go. The bad news is that the tutorial gets you a LEVEL 50 SALAMENCE. You're just a couple hours into the game and you get a LEVEL 50 SALAMENCE. What the fuck <strike>Trollfreak</strike> Chunsoft. Oh, but doing one particular mission allows you to do further missions that allow you to recruit... Team ACT from MD1. Well, we don't know if it's actually Team ACT, but they laid it out that way because FANSERVICE.<br />
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Oh, by the way, remember how MD3 just gave you friggin' Virizion early on just for the lulz? Well here you get Victini for free early on. I mean, come on. At least the first two games made you work for those legendaries - and I mean work really, really hard in some cases.<br />
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On a slightly related subject, I finally caved in and downloaded Pokémon Shuffle. Once you overlook the fact that your sessions will almost never go over 20 minutes unless you pay, it's actually quite a fun little game. I've done the first 50 regular stages, none of the expert stages even though I've unlocked a bunch, and I even managed to snag the event Emboar. (Note for anyone interested: every time you beat Emboar, but fail to catch it, its base catch rate will go up by 1%. So if you're having trouble, you can basically grind the catch rate on this thing - but start now, because there are only two days left! And yes, this is strictly an Emboar thing, no other battle, including events, does this.) Regirock really, REALLY seems off-limits with its 20k HP in 30 turns, though, and Diancie... well, I still have until the 28th to get ready for that.<br />
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Edit: Okay, so MD4 charges you for going from a continent to another. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK. I'm sorry, but I'm just at a loss for words here. The first three games never did that! Nobody charged you a dime if you wanted to go to Blizzard Island, you went to Blizzard Island and that was it!<br />
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Oooh, but wait, it gets better. This is spoilerrific so I'll just mask it (highlight to read).<br />
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<span style="background-color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;">There's a boss fight where, about halfway through, you and your partner evolve to your final forms... AND THEN IT REVERTS AFTER THE FIGHT.</span></span><br />
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This is the most cruel I've ever seen a Pokémon game be. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-33165737310203406772015-09-12T10:35:00.001-04:002015-09-12T10:35:48.510-04:00The Zygarde mystery untangledAs most of us expected, it's getting two alternate forms, labeled 10% and Perfect. Perfect Zygarde is the silhouette we've seen before, and it's said to exceed Xerneas and Yveltal in power... though Kyurem had the same thing going for it, and we all know how THAT went. It's safe to assume Perfect Zygarde will have 700 BST - and it's also possible fusion of some kind is involved, since it has some blue and red on it. As for the 10% form (the one that looks like a dog), we don't know much about it, except that it's really speedy. We also don't know whatever its stat total could potentially look like, and there's still no word on how Thousand Arrows and Thousand Waves will work. Finally, the tiny blobs we've seen are the Zygarde Core and the Zygarde Cell, which makes up the mind of the new forms. No idea how it's going to translate in gameplay terms... we still have a lot to learn about all these new things, such as how the transformations are triggered in the first place, although we at least have the basics figured out.<br />
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There's also supposed to be some palette-swapped Greninja or something, but there's no word on what it's supposed to do. I'm just hoping it's not a further buff or anything, because it does NOT need it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-87930567109614142562015-09-09T17:25:00.002-04:002015-09-09T17:26:46.733-04:00Gen Copyright Infringement(Yes, ANOTHER friggin' Gen Zed post. It's not my fault this is turning out to be the unintentionally funny saga of the year.)<br />
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Because <a href="http://www.redbubble.com/people/genzed/shop">God forbid that those people have any original ideas</a>. What do we have here... The Usual Suspects, South Park, Scooby-Doo, Doctor Who, the Wizard of Oz... and they're selling this for money. Pretty sure this doesn't even count as satire and thus doesn't fall under fair use. Please have one or more of these get on their cases, HARD.<br />
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You know what the really sad part is, though? For all that everyone is making fun of this gong show, we have to remember that most of the people involved (which means EVERYONE aside from Black and Goldstein themselves) are doing this as their first gig. They're looking to make a name for themselves, and use this as a possible springboard into other jobs. And unfortunately, they've stumbled upon these two endless voids of failure where <strike>cleverness</strike> <strike>creativity</strike> <strike>visual appeal</strike> <strike>common sense</strike> EVERYTHING goes to die. It's unfortunate, but the best thing to do at their point would be to NOT add this to their résumé, and not ever mention this to potential employers. Hell, even AFTER I was hired by someone else I'd still want to keep my mouth shut because being associated to Gen Zed might be enough of a reason to get sacked.<br />
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Good news, though: apparently some people are actually working on a Gen Zed parody series, and this appears to be really serious. If nothing that's ever been said could faze the Black/Goldstein OTP, this might actually be the thing that really makes them realize "we done fucked up". But wait, it gets better. Someone suggested to the people behind the parody that they try to get ahold of a trans man to play the lead role, then do everything in their power to have the first episode out before Gen Zed's (which was pushed back again recently, this time to December). Just to have Gen Zed's entire reason for existing becoming (even more of) a complete lie. Of course that was only a suggestion, the odds of that happening are slim, but man, if it happened I'd be the happiest man on Earth.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-27528061468287232992015-09-07T21:06:00.001-04:002015-09-07T21:06:18.638-04:00Pikmin 4 confirmed to be late in developmentOkay, that's fine and all, but if that's the case, why did they not say jack about it at E3? Did they legitimately think people would want Federation Force more than this?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-34375273604051635402015-09-06T12:43:00.002-04:002015-09-06T12:43:35.004-04:00Never before have so many questions been answered so quickly.<a href="https://kiwifar.ms/attachments/nice-to-us-job-for-you-png.47171/">I refuse to believe it, and yet this is very much real.</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-85440719953685135922015-09-05T12:17:00.003-04:002015-09-05T12:20:55.494-04:00A little bit of everything- People are getting pissy over the Xenoblade Chronicles X localization because it's changing a lot of names from the Japanese version. You know, as if it wasn't completely normal. So, how bad does it get? Well, you want to know what BLADE stands for in the English translation? "Builders of the Legacy After the Destruction of Earth". Okay, so it sounds a bit... lame, I'll give you that much. Now, do you want to take a stab at what the Japanese name was? "Beyond the Logos Artificial Destiny Emancipator". I shit you not. And people think THAT was better? What's wrong with their heads? There are a lot of changes too, some character names changed, some features were renamed as well (Nav Ball to Follow Ball being the most notable one), but geez... fucking weeaboos, man. JAPANESU ES BETTERU.<br />
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- Still waiting for Smogon's stats... apparently whoever's in charge messed up the stats' generation process, which led to anomalies like Raichu being in the top 20 in NU, even though apparently it's terrible there. Man, I really want to see those Pikachu Cup stats, to see if it was the bribe that got us the Endeavor event. Right now we have the most basic stats available for OU, UU, RU, NU and PU, but nothing else, and no detailed stats at all.<br />
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- Quick poll: which is the harder Mario level, the Perfect Run from Galaxy 2 or Champion's Road from 3D World? I'm going with the former. Not being able to take any hits whatsoever is the biggest thing, and the difficulty is very unevenly spread. The question mark tile, cloud and Pull Star segments are all complete jokes, and the Yoshi part is actually a bit tricky, but since it's first it's not too bad. It's the flip-swap segment that gets me every single time, I've never gotten past it. And even if I did, the freaking Hammer Bros would slaughter me in short order anyway. In comparison, Champion's Road allows you to take a few hits, and you have Peach and the Tanooki Suit at your disposal as well. There's no really easy part, but there's also no point that's completely and utterly unfair - as long as you hold on to those Tanooki Suits for dear life. One thing I'd like to see next time they try this super-hard level thing is to let us choose which segments to do first. No checkpoints means you barely get any practice in on the later parts, and too much on the earlier ones (though the first star in Grandmaster Galaxy is kind of a fix for this particular aspect, since there are checkpoints there).<br />
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- All this hoopla for 50 minutes? So apparently the first (and presumably only) season of Gen Zed is made of eight episodes that last between five and seven minutes in length. Which basically means their combined length is that of two to two and a half episodes of a show with a more normal running time. But then again, why am I not surprised? Any longer, and they'd be forced to start developing their characters beyond "TRANS TRANS TRANS", "cis white strawman", "token black stereotype because diversity or something", and "Amy Wong expy because diversity or something". And we all know SJWs see the world with a very limited array of labels (of which "pedophile" apparently isn't part of if the alleged bearer is one of their own number).<br />
<br />
- But if you're starving for bottom-tier fiction and can't wait for Hayden Black to just cave in and put that stuff up on YouTube because no network will ever pick his shit up, you're in luck, because the impossible just happened last night. SONICHU IS GETTING RELAUNCHED. I am not kidding, for the first time in over five years we got some new pages. First thing on the menu was <a href="https://archive.is/o6sU4">the second half of the Christmas special</a> (the new stuff starts on page 13). And I gotta say, all those pessimistic people who thought CWC circa 2015 couldn't produce hilarious content are eating their words HARD. Sure, there's some debate on whether or not he did these recently or he's been sitting on these pages for almost six years, but it's pretty clear given the (relative) quality of the art and the themes that were brought up (including, but not limited to, Simonla's revival) that this is all brand new. Still, racism, sexism and almost undecipherable autistic word salads? It's like he never left at all! So now we got Duke Nukem Forever, Sonichu 11 is officially underway, what next? Your move, Mr. Newell.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-46127610783682265552015-09-03T16:30:00.004-04:002015-09-03T21:25:54.342-04:00Pokémon news grab bag(I was waiting to see Smogon's Pikachu Cup stats before putting this up, but they're just not getting uploaded, so I guess I'll get back to it tomorrow... if we have the stats by then.) <br />
<br />
- Smogon has started retconning banlists for previous generations, and the first victim is none other than gen 5 weather teams. The already implemented Drizzle + Swift Swim ban was retooled into a blanket ban for all weather inducing abilities and speed-boosting abilities on the same team. This means Sand Force / Mold Breaker Excadrill is now allowed, but Chlorophyll Venusaur can no longer be used in conjunction with Ninetales. Do I agree with that? Probably not. It IS true that the gen 5 meta has changed a lot since X/Y came out, and Venusaur became an extremely prominent and dangerous threat since then. However, what set Swift Swim apart from Sand Rush and Chlorophyll is that Swift Swimmers also get a power boost on top of their speed boost, whereas the others get nothing of the sort. While this fact may seem irrelevant, since people in favor of this change say it is, it's important to remember that Swift Swim was so good in comparison to the other two that the moment you'd get rid of a Swift Swimmer, another almost just as broken would take its place. No more Kingdra? Say hi to Ludicolo. Ludicolo goes? Replaced by Kabutops. Kabutops gets banned? It's Gorebyss time. And so on. Meanwhile, you can't slap, say, Sandslash on a sand team or Victreebel on a sun team and act like they're suitable replacements for Excadrill and Venusaur. This is why I would've preferred a straight ban on Venusaur instead, but so it goes.<br />
<br />
But hey, I get to boast about Venusaur being the best Kanto starter again, so it's all good.<br />
<br />
- After Lysandre's Trump Card, yet another card was banned from the TCG - Shiftry. The difference is that this one has been around for years, and it's its synergy with the newly released Forest of Giant Plants stadium card that made it go from a marginal card into an obliterating force capable of picking up turn 1 wins like they're going out of style. You can read the full explanation <a href="http://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-news/shiftry-banned-from-expanded-format/">here</a>. Since cards don't get rotated out of the expanded format (at least not for the time being), it's likely that we may see more and more of these scenarios in the future.<br />
<br />
- Remember that catchy reggae song about Slowpoke? Well, they made <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOqy8cC72wA">an English version</a>.<br />
<br />
- <a href="https://twitter.com/JulieRei/status/639308855600517121">Don't you dare, bitch. DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE.</a><br />
<br />
...actually, by all means, go ahead and kick the hornet's nest. Get the entire Pokémon fanbase on your case. I'll be standing over here while you add a few zeroes to the amount of people who hate your guts. Hell, I see <a href="https://twitter.com/JulieRei/status/639457924398493696">you already got started</a> while I was typing this blog entry. Yeah, brag about your current job description all you want, but in this day and age where prospective employers check their candidates' online footprint, it's looking like it might be your LAST job description.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-69610119806316259602015-09-01T17:23:00.004-04:002015-09-01T23:12:38.858-04:00Gen AstroturfHoly crap, I might start considering setting up a separate blog for this saga if this keeps up, because Gen Zed is the gift that keeps on giving.<br />
<br />
Anyway, the folks over at Encyclopedia Dramatica did a little sleuthing (as in basic stuff anyone with a Twitter account can do, so that rules me out), and it turns out there's not enough artificial turf in Houston to match what the geniuses behind Gen Zed are doing to give the impression that it's a hot commodity. The show's official Twitter account, credited as belonging to lead character Shona "Did I mention I'm trans?" Sommers, had 41000 followers as of last night, and only 2.5% of them are real (which, to their credit, is still 100 times more real than Ashley Madison's female userbase). BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! Creator Hayden Black's account also fails the test, but not quite as miserably, with 20.2% of his followers being made of flesh and blood. Then there's the affiliated Goodnight Burbank account, which has only 4.8% of real followers. Compare that to the guy Black mocked for being old and out of touch with today's reality (some guy called Bernie Sanders or something, you may have heard of him) - this guy gets 92.1% real followers. Who's disconnected with reality now?<br />
<br />
And you know what? Considering the staggering amount of offensive bullshit (even for non-SJWs) Black puts on his Twitter, having so many of his followers NOT be human beings is actually the best thing that could happen to him. Because the day the SJWs get their hands on his Twitter feed, he is FUCKED. Hell, they're already shitting on the show because of the blatant black and Asian stereotypes (among other things). Unless, of course, they're actually being smart and they DID see his Twitter, but don't want to say anything because they don't want to give the cishet patriarchy the impression that they're devouring their own young. Ah hell, what am I saying? SJWs exist solely to be offended. They only feel alive when they're offended. That's who they are. And that's why they MUST see that Twitter feed, it'll be their own personal elixir of everlasting life.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-33936570804690246632015-09-01T07:56:00.001-04:002015-09-01T07:56:18.293-04:00Endeavor Pikachu now a realityHOW 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.<br />
<br />
Looking forward to seeing the Smogon stats for this thing. I'll amend this post once they're up.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-12552035752793640792015-08-30T09:51:00.000-04:002015-08-30T12:36:39.532-04:00Morning mishmash- RNJesus loves me, it seems. As I mentioned before, I'm replaying MD2, without Wonder Mail since that just breaks the game. So it's just the jobs I get from Spinda's Café and the billboards at the guild. Well, the first three Golden Chamber missions I got were all in easy dungeons like Mt. Horn, Steam Cave and Tiny Meadow. Remember that you're supposed to escort a level 10 or so Pokémon until you get to the Golden Chamber, so any dungeon that's even remotely difficult is out of the question. But wait, it gets better. At one point I get a mission for the ultra-rare Secret Slab (also an escort mission), which is one of the requirements for recruiting a whole bunch of legendaries. And... well, <a href="http://i.imgur.com/BczTWzC.jpg">look at the mission description</a>. 3rd floor of Tiny Meadow, the shortest dungeon in the game. I definitely hit the jackpot on that one. I would've gone insane if the dungeon chosen was something in Zero Isle instead.<br />
<br />
- The ongoing electoral campaign in Canada has me (and everyone else) bored beyond belief. It's basically everything that's ever talked about in the news, with the same people repeating the same things ad nauseam. But the really messed up part is that at two and a half months, this is over twice as long as every other campaign before (we can blame fixed date elections for that). And everybody's sick and tired of it a couple of weeks in. Can't imagine how that'll be when the vote finally happens. But the messed up part is that in America, they seem to be perpetually in electoral mode. The vote only happens in November of next year, and yet the potential candidates have been at it for several months. Factor in the midterm elections, and Americans spend more time hearing about elections than they do NOT hearing about elections. HOW DO YOU GUYS DO THIS?<br />
<br />
- But as much as I'd like the press to talk about something else, I know exactly what's going to happen. Céline Dion's husband and manager is all but guaranteed not to make it to Christmas, and even Halloween seems to be optimistic. Problem is, one of their closest friends just so happens to be the head of a huge media empire. So he's going to make all his newspapers, magazines and TV channels all about them for what'll seem like an eternity. And at that point we'll be begging for more election talk. We just can't win, can we? (I know I can trust you guys, but I just want to make it clear that I'm not going to tolerate any kind of hate speech towards the guy for making Céline Dion into a thing. He's dying, have some decency. Thank you.)<br />
<br />
- Remember what I wrote yesterday about Gen Zed? Two things. I forgot to mention, no network wanted to pick this up (gee, I wonder why), so this is going straight to YouTube. The fact that TV executives wanted that SJW shitfest as far away from their networks as possible gives me some hope for humanity - that means there's still a while left to go before SJW culture breaks into the mainstream. Second, someone decided to make <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLoZWVI85Cs">a slightly more accurate trailer</a> for this. Definitely worth a look.<br />
<br />
- Is it wrong that I've never heard of Ashley Madison before the whole hacking thing? I mean, I have literally never seen that name. Ever. But it turns out everyone and their dog is on there. But you know what the best part about this is? We now know the male-to-female ratio in their userbase, and it is SAD. The quasi-totality of the 5.5 million accounts attributed to female users were fake, just to make it seem like yes, you can go on there and find your true love while still being married to someone else. In truth, your chances are just about nil. The amount of women who have ever checked their messages, even just once, out of 5.5 million, is... 1492. Meanwhile, 20.3 million men have checked their messages at least once, out of 31.3 million accounts. All this for a male-to-female ratio of... 13600. It's official, Ashley Madison is the internet's biggest sausage factory. And people PAID to jump in on the fun train. Guess those 5.499 million fake accounts really paid off, huh?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-69270790575388785822015-08-29T19:09:00.004-04:002015-08-29T19:27:57.171-04:00Tumblr is now openly cannibalizing its own.It begins. But we all knew that'd happen eventually.<br />
<br />
So there's a two-minute trailer for this cartoon called Gen Zed that
really should be renamed Tumblr: The Animated Series. The animation's
worse than the CD-I Zeldas, the "humor" is unbearably offensive for anyone
with two brain cells to rub together (and by that I mean it makes South Park look like the pinnacle of political correctness), the one cis white male is
represented as what Tumblr thinks cis white males are, but it's all okay
because FIRST OPENLY TRANS LEAD IN CARTOON HISTORY, and she's VOICED BY AN ACTUAL TRANS VA. <b>SO PROGRESSIVE.</b> (Note how nobody seems to remember Team Rocket's Meowth, because as far as anyone knows Maddie Blaustein didn't go on a jihad against the cishet shitlords.)<br />
<br />
But the fun part? <i>Even the SJWs and Tumblrinas are taking a lava dump all over it.</i> I'm not sure why, because being a relatively sane person in comparison I thought for sure they'd be all over that shit, but apparently not. And honestly, I'm rooting for them, just this one time. <i>This cartoon is that bad.</i> It's just beyond belief that you can infer so much out of a two-minute trailer, and yet here we are.<br />
<br />
But hey, if you don't believe me... some people hunted down choice tweets from the people involved in this, mostly the series' creator and the aforementioned trans voice actress WHO CAN DO NO WRONG BECAUSE SHE'S TRANS, and here are a few samples.<br />
<br />
<i>"Conservatives are frightened of trans people using the wrong bathrooms because it means less people potentially using their glory holes."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"It doesn't matter if you're overweight, you should love yourself. Because no one else will."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"#jaredfogle ate at a Chinese restaurant tonight. His fortune cookie read "Please stop touching me inappropriately."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"I'm starting a pool. What will #PresidentCarter die of first: cancer or old age."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"We're lucky Moses was Jewish. If he hadn't haggled with God we'd have way more than 10 commandments."</i><br />
<br />
(This is a retweet, but still, just watch.) <i>"My safe word is, "I'm HIV positive." Trust me, it works."</i><br />
<br />
<i>"Same guy who stabbed 6 people in today's Jerusalem gay pride parade also stabbed 4 people at same event in 2005. What a shit stabber."</i><br />
<br />
<i>"As Hillary Clinton's email scandal gets worse, Bernie Sanders begins worrying about his carrier pigeons."</i><br />
<br />
<i>"I walked past Bill Cosby's star on the walk of fame & felt woozy. But then I realized it's because all of Hollywood is covered in urine." </i><br />
<br />
Wow. Just wow. I'm blown away. When this shit starts spreading on Tumblr, because you know it will, it will get so, so bad. Get the popcorn ready.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-50880884252251651352015-08-28T19:48:00.003-04:002015-08-28T19:50:10.627-04:00Subtlety, thy name is not J.C. Smith.<a href="http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/41030/pokemon-marketing-director-teases-flowers-in-series-future">Exhibit A</a>. It's not like there's a flower Pokémon with an unreleased form that comes with its own stats and signature move or anything.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/41039/pokken-tournament-is-not-the-main-pokemon-thing-in-early-2016">Exhibit B</a>. We all know Z/XY2/whatever it ends up being called is coming sooner than later. The only valid question is whether they'll go out of their way to have it come out on February 27 or not.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-46773949180593530402015-08-25T18:02:00.001-04:002015-08-25T18:02:15.852-04:00How does this even work?No, seriously, I want you to explain <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE3FGrw1Ukk">this</a> to me. "Amiibos learn from you." SUUUUUURE.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-7369795820259462482015-08-24T16:53:00.000-04:002015-08-24T16:53:41.680-04:00Should Intimidate be nerfed in doubles and triples?Yesterday I mentioned that all eight quarterfinalists in the VGC's Masters division packed a Landorus-T (along with seven Seniors and five Juniors), and how it was a telltale sign of an unhealthy metagame. I'd like to point out one of the more perverse effects of that superdominance, which stems from Intimidate. If you look at all the top threats in the VGC meta, you'll find only two strictly physical Pokémon: Mega Kangaskhan and Landorus-T itself. The rest, aside from the odd pure physical Salamence, is either mixed or special. From Heatran to Gardevoir to Amoonguss to Sylveon to Rotom-W to Milotic to Aegislash (and then some), it's all about those special attacks. And for good reason - Landorus-T's ubiquity (and the fact that it's almost NEVER one of the two Pokémon that are left out), and its tendency to switch in and out repeatedly, means physical attackers are almost always doomed to perform at -1, meaning only those few that can still deal solid damage under those conditions are worth using. Which basically means Mega Kangaskhan and Landorus-T. Even other titans like Tyranitar, Terrakion or Conkeldurr have a bit of a hard time, which is just silly. It's not like they don't hit like trucks, right? Well, that's what happens in a virtually permanent -1 environment. Smogon's VGC ladder has more detailed data as well as skill-based weighting, and according to those stats almost half of all the teams pack Landorus-T. That's WAAAAAY too much.<br />
<br />
So, just how amazing is Intimidate? Well, you just have to take a look at the weird stuff people do to keep it around. Every now and then, you might run into a mixed or even special Landorus-T. Now, common sense would dictate that if you're going to do that, you'd run the Incarnate form instead because it deals such crazy amounts of damage, right? Well, nope. It's worth giving up on that extra damage because <i>Intimidate is just that good</i>. (That, and Landorus-I can't flinch opponents with Rock Slide, which is part of the appeal.) There's also this really silly thing Salamence users can do to preserve their Intimidate. Usually, when a Pokémon gains a speed boost upon going mega (such as with Salamence), common sense dictates you'd use Protect on the first turn since the speed boost doesn't apply on the mega evolution turn, right? Well, here you can have Salamence protect but NOT mega evolve, just in case you want to switch out so you can re-use Intimidate later. Getting in your mega evolution safely is less important than preserving Intimidate, because <i>it's just that good</i>.<br />
<br />
So here's what I think should be done. Intimidate should be nerfed so that instead of affecting all targets in range, it only affects one of them at random. I think it'd be a lot more fair, considering that unlike multi-target moves and the likes of Reflect or Light Screen, the effect of Intimidate isn't lowered at all when hitting multiple targets (because mathematically speaking, it can't be). Of course there's the issue of Mega Kangaskhan being even better as a result, but I think it's safe to assume Parental Bond is going to get a pretty big nerf when gen 7 comes around, considering Mega Kangaskhan is so much better than every other mega in doubles, and is still part of that group of horribly broken megas in singles. That, and since it's the only thing that gets it, it won't nerf other things that might've enjoyed that big boost. Though another thing to consider is that if Parental Bond gets nerfed, there might be less of a need for Intimidate spam, and thus less Landorus-Ts everywhere - but that's just pure theorymon, who knows what'd happen in practice.<br />
<br />
So in a perfect world, both Intimidate and Parental Bond would be better off being nerfed in my opinion. Any thoughts on that?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-67461981871423749772015-08-23T15:42:00.002-04:002015-08-23T15:43:06.086-04:00[Karenite rage intensifies]Last year a Pachirisu drove its team to the world championship, but we sure as hell didn't get a repeat of that this year. Champion Shoma Honami brought the five most popular Pokémon in the VGC meta, as well as the very popular Cresselia (#11 on Showdown's VGC ladder), so the title was taken by one of the most bog standard, vanilla teams possible.<br />
<br />
Worse, looking at the teams of the eight players that made the single elimination round in the Masters division, there was barely any variety whatsoever in teams. These eight teams combined together featured eight Landorus-Ts, six Kangaskhans, six Amoongusses, six Heatrans, five Cresselias and four Thundurus-Is. That's almost three quarters of the entire pool covered by just these six Pokémon. I don't care what anyone says, that is NOT the sign of a healthy metagame, and <a href="http://www.smogon.com/stats/2015-07/vgc2015-1630.txt">Smogon's VGC ladder stats</a> corroborate that, proving that their way of doing things, although controversial, is the right thing to do. By the way, of the six Pokémon listed above, only Kangaskhan and Amoonguss were allowed last year, hence why everything felt so samey this year - most of the gamebreakers were legendaries that weren't in the Kalos Dex.<br />
<br />
On another subject entirely, word on the street is that the odds of getting Pokémiles out of the Pikachu Cup aren't so good, because it appears non-Smogonites really got into the Pikachu spirit. Even though it rarely gets anything done because Raichu (among others) is just so much better. Apparently Electric moves are also a lot more used than they honestly should, so it seems like the level of play is surprisingly low. I mean, Electric moves in a metagame flooded with Motor Drive / Lightning Rod / Volt Absorb users, and where most of the rest resists them? The hell? First-hand accounts suggest Pikachu itself got more and more rare the higher you got on the ladder, so clearly we know the scrubaroonis are to blame if Pokémiles aren't what we're getting. I'm looking forward to comparing the official stats with Smogon's, because we're going to see some drastic differences.<br />
<br />
Speaking of the Pikachu Cup, have a look at <a href="http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/pikachucup-261520573">this Showdown replay</a>, and be sure to pay special attention to the chat. I'm gonna start a petition to have the opposing player pictured in the dictionary next to the word "scrub".Unknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1280492081721752941.post-85466824322381645402015-08-20T18:40:00.001-04:002015-08-20T18:42:20.962-04:00A rundown of the Electivire... I mean Pikachu CupI don't know if any of you are intending to participate in that thing, but regardless, <a href="http://www.smogon.com/articles/pikachu-cup">here's a nice read</a> on what you could potentially expect to face there. And looking at it, it's amazing just how much Pikachu sucks in this. It has no niche whatsoever, with only Plusle and Rotom-S having less of a point. Emolga's one of the most dangerous Pokémon around. Minun has a niche. Eelektrik has a niche. Dedenne has a niche. So would Electabuzz if this was a simulator thing. Pikachu... just rolls over and dies. It's pretty telling that Raichu's whole point in this tournament is playing a support role with Fake Out, Helping Hand, Encore and Knock Off, despite its defenses being shit (and by that I mean it still looks like Lugia next to Pikachu).<br />
<br />
Hope you like Pokémiles!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9