Pokémon General Thread

Playing a bunch of doubles randoms I'm starting to enjoy it more than singles as a format. However a lot of the movesets in doubles randoms are...questionable. Samurott only has aqua jet as an attack.

A few of them tried to rank Torkoal, but it always ended up unranked no matter what.

I can confrim Random doubles moveset is indeed not very good. Some of them don't even have Protect when it's a crucial move.

edited 20th Sep '17 5:07:44 PM by flamemario12

IIRC it is better than Ninetales; can set up Sun and Rocks and spin stuff away (but being weak to Rocks makes it a suboptimal spinner).

Stealth Rock is mostly a non-issue in Doubles.

Yeah you'd only use Torkoal as a spinner in singles.

And you might as well use something else that's not weak to literally every entry hazard.

Part of what makes it better lol.

I had a randoms where I got a mandibuzz with NO attacks whatsoever. Just taunt, roost, tailwind, and protect. Complete taunt bait.

But they can't Taunt if you Taunt.

Mandibuzz is pretty slow, though.

Not sure why you wouldn't at least give it Foul Play or Knock Off, though.

edited 20th Sep '17 7:51:40 PM by Anomalocaris20

I don't find Stealth Rock as bad as people seem to make it. You should have a way of punishing switches when you can freely do that in a singles format.

I play doubles exclusively. I don't see too many problems with stealth rock.

The problem with Stealth Rock was never punishing switch-ins, it was the asymmetric manner in which it does so.

No one really complains about Spikes or Toxic Spikes because their use is a commitment of 2-3 turns to get the most out of them, and many Pokemon are completely immune to their hazards. Some even flat out dismiss the latter when they switch in.

Stealth Rock is at its best after just one turn of use, only a very select few Pokemon with the ability Magic Guard aren't at least partially bothered by it, and many, many Pokemon will have their health cut in half ( their max HP, by the way, meaning anything with 49% health or less that's doubly weak to Stealth Rock is effectively dead if you can't phase it out) as a result of that single turn commitment, several of which aren't even immune to Spikes or Toxic Spikes in the first place.

edited 20th Sep '17 9:57:14 PM by Hashil

Yeah, SR's issue is in its uniqueness. Spikes and TS can punish Switch-ins fine, but the issue is that aerial pokemon are logically unaffected. SR was created to do that but it also became one of a kin because of its method. It takes the type chart into account, meaning that it is less of an anti air mechanic than an anti air, fire and ice mechanic (and bug).

The other problem is that it was introduced as a TM move, which gave it a large amount of distribution and therefore omnipresence. That was toned down in Gen 5 where the mov eisn't a TM, but that still left 4 generation's worth of pokemon that could still use the move somehow, the end result is that types that happen to be weak to Rock now have an uphill battle to climb and the problem would likely persist until they wither make more moves like SR (my preferred option, but I cna see the reaction to rocks scaring GF off from that) or just make it deal a fixed amount of damage like Spikes (I'd say that's the more likely option, but I'm between DP and USUM are 3 generations and a decade and it seemed like a now or never deal IMO. In the sense that if game freak wanted to do it, they would had done it by now or that they felt just limiting its distribution and budding Defog was enough)

Come to think of it, I forgot that SR also needs less setup compared to other entry hazards.

edited 20th Sep '17 10:03:32 PM by MorningStar1337

The number of fully evolved Pokemon that are 4x weak to Stealth Rock is around 18. The only Pokemon that is 4x weak to Stealth Rock yet also affected by other entry hazards is Volcarona which has managed to succeed quite well even in a Stealth Rock meta.

edited 20th Sep '17 10:05:46 PM by IceAnt573

They don't really need to bother with it because they don't care about singles competitively and that's the only place Stealth Rock is relevant.

Surskit

Stealth Rock would work better, in my opinion, if it did more damage to non-grounded Pokemon. Flying types, Lavitators and stuff with Air Baloons. The kind of stuff that ignores the other 3 entry hazards, so to speak.

Punish being immune to the other hazards, not being weak to Rock.

Changing the topic a little bit: I got my Cap Pikachu and noticed it said "Pika-pi Pikachu!" instead of just "Pikachu!". Then I was looking at the Pokémon Speak page and realized: it's saying "Ash-Pikachu".

Looks like Crystal VC for the 3DS may be coming as dataminers find evidence for it.

Say, anybody has any idea on how many more Pokémon titles will be for SD 3? I'm thinking of buying one and honestly, I doubt that I will play any game other than Pokemons.

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon may be the last mainline games before they shift over to Switch.

They're not looking that promising either, so you might just want to hold off unless news presented about them tells us otherwise, or you don't have the original Sun and Moon.

Most likely.

x4 You don't have a 3DS? Dude, there are so many amazing games on it now.

edited 21st Sep '17 8:47:48 PM by Zelenal

Well, yes, I do know that. I'm just not used to buy any consoles in general, the last ones I bought being GBA and DS, both of which are over a decade by now. XP

And hey, they still works!