PMD: Seventeen Plates DT 2

You're welcome. Trying new stuff, huh... Well yeah I dunno about everyone else but that definitely seem to be it :O I'm scared of Ren's future interractions with people though, it's kinda sad that he's distancing himself that much.

@15253, I have plans for future interactions with Ren, but it may or may not have to wait until after Gabriel has evolved. Either way, his aura-abilities and developing alchemy skill will prove to be a useful combination.

@Tortwag, that battle against ShowdownJay was impressive. Personally, I loved how you used that Volcorona, taking out a Mega-Metagross and a Resolute Keldeo like they were nothing. XD Honestly, I think your opponent's downfall was not using Dazzling Gleam against Asterra. I know Fairy types don't have many powerful Fairy type moves, but letting a type advantage go to waste is just sad.

@AstralHunter My jaw was actually hanging when that happened, 'cause I had forgotten the effect of my own Sticky Web, lol. Without it PyroCrunch would've been destroyed. Jay and I became battle buddies after a few games like that, though most of the time, he owns me. He's a really smart player.

And although you're right, that part was actually much deeper than you think.
By using Dazzling Gleam directly instead of Calm Mind like he did, Jay risked either immediate Sword Dance setup with my Fauch (the Scizor), or a Shell Smash setup with my Cloyster (who had a water move to sweep Metagross), or worse, a Quiver Dance setup with PyroCrunch (my Volcarona), who by the way had Leftovers to recover Stealth Rock damage.

So he wanted to power up his Clefable before doing anything, thus doing a safe sweep through my team, and avoiding a fast Volcarona killing his (including that Raikou who would've died to PyroCrunch had Jay decided to use Dazzling Gleam on Asterra immediately, like you suggested).
His idea with Clear Mind would've actually worked had I not purposely used Rock Slide several times in a row to create a flinch effect, thus preventing him taking the lead.

Sometimes you have to let type advantages go (which is really hard to do when you begin with an electric type and have a water type in front of ya) to benefit a strategy. Going by the good old reflex cost me several matches, actually.

But if you found that battle against Jay impressive, check out that comeback! http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/uu-252930353
^ I'm still Glyphayel. And I freakin' love ShellMaster (Cloyster). I would've lost had I not predicte Absol's Sucker Punch.

^^

so uhh....what language was that up there .3.

wow, this makes me want to remake toxic stall set and compete o.o.

While I didn't like the useage of your blastoise and galvantula, I LOVED the way you used cloyster. Just....fantastic O3o. Masterful comeback. mwah, ten out of ten <3 great match

@15253 Watch the replay instead of trying to understand the language, 'cause it's actually kinda hard to explain, lol. See it as Pokemon Language XD

@Verser Go ahead, that could be worth the shot. That Vaporeon was a pain.
Yeah I failed my Blastoise there, but I didn't have any true safe switch. And placing a Sticky Web was necessary, but THAT CLOYSTER. Thank you, I love this guy too

Ah, competitive online. I freaking SUCK at it. XD

And yet, I do manage to beat a few people. Cough, cough, @Buggiedude2340, cough, cough. <;

Speaking of, I've nearly completed Alpha Sapphire at this point, so I finally have a team I can battle you with on that game as well as Y.

I don't have any of those, so please recreate your team on Showdown, and I'll be sure to fight you with my actual Black and White 2 team.
'Cause yeah I don't have X nor Y nor Alpha nor Omega. I am a poor lonesome cowboy.

Competitive play? I'm even worse than Char is. XD

I have absolutely no grasp of effective strategies in combat, and my brother has beaten me so many times that it's ridiculous. I'm going to say that of....oh, maybe 10 or so times that we've fought....I've won once. Once. Even then, just barely. I suppose the difference lies in our different emphasis on combat aspects. My brother is excellent at offensive strategies (though he neglects giving his team's defensive moves, or even ones that inflict status effects or boost his own stats. He thinks that by "wasting" a turn using those moves, his Pokemon could be quite easily eliminated by his opponent. At least, that's I think he thinks. I should seriously ask him sometime.). Furthermore, he knows just about every single type advantage and disadvantage in his head, and takes advantage of those whenever he can.

My idea of a strategy is quite poor; I have such a low amount of self-esteem from losing repeatedly to people I've battled online in White 2 and X that my goal is more or less to outlast my opponent, rather than win. I frequently use defensive moves, switch Pokemon when necessary, and sometimes inflict status effects on my enemies. I'm not that excellent with my offensive attacks, and rarely use strong and powerful ones. Of course, that wouldn't be so terrible, but my brother's offensive strategies always cripple my defensive ones. He has spent far more time playing those games than I have (whenever he gets a new game, by the time he stops playing, he's spent well over 100 hours. I haven't even reached that accomplishment in Alpha Sapphire. XD ), and he knows how to use his team effectively. He knows how to use type advantages, fight efficiently, and take advantage of all the power he has (and I dislike using Legendary Pokemon in battle because I think they're OP, while he uses an entire team of Legends). I don't, and that's the difference.

I have beaten people before (*cough**cough*@Buggiedude2340*cough**cough*), I'm definitely not anywhere near the skill of a professional player. I'm an amateur, if that. Therefore, I'm about as bad as Char. Well, of course, he could beat me without much trouble, given my previous reputation and my actions.

Oh, yes, I finished Alpha Sapphire a few months ago. However, I haven't trained my team nearly as much as in other games. That's something that I probably need to work on. Of course, I'm also focusing on a lot of other games, so that plan might have to wait a while. >.>

@TheSilverFox if he uses a team of Legendaries, well that's definitely considered as noob, aka cheap tactic to win easily. No offense to him, but if you just use stuff like Mega Rayquaza to win against people, that's no fun. That's exactly what Tiers in Showdown are for.

That aside, Legendaries are not all OP. Only pure legendaries are, and even those can be taken down with the right setup, as you've seen with my Volcarona up there. But using a team of legendaries and you not doin' so isn't the difference, 'cause if it was, I would've have been able to sweep 4 legendaries (Ho-Oh, Kyogre, Groudon, Rayquaza) with just my Kingdra. I had mentioned that already, too. It's all about how you use your teams.

That also aside, meh. Everybody has pros and cons. Pokemon's not the only game I play either, hence why my competitive play's not perfect.

@Tortwag: I never explicitly stated that the majority of the difference between our fights, which usually result in his winning, are due to the fact that he owns a team of Legendaries and I don't typically prefer to use them. Although, personally, it explains part of the difference, the majority of it comes down to a matter of skill. Yes, using legends is a cheap way to win, though they are beatable, and I even know that he does use a Mega Rayquaza (he told me himself), but I think that the reason he keeps winning is because of our skills as fighters.

If you were to force him to not use any Legendary Pokemon, he would still be a formidable opponent. He, like I stated before, is a genius when it comes to offense and type advantages. No only that, but he has trained dozens of Pokemon, both legends and otherwise, in what he terms as "projects." He could quite easily formulate a team of non-Legendary Pokemon and still, while I doubt he would win as frequently, he would be able to win at least a few matches against other people. He might bring in his Magnezone (which crushed my team in one match), and a variety of other Pokemon and still be a fighting force.

The true answer as to why he wins and why I lose is the fact that he is far more skilled than I am. Like you said, it all comes down the way that we use teams. He delves into the strategy of a battle far more than I do. He learns what moves are effective, he learns what works against other Pokemon, and he can just as easily counter any strategy that I may have. Of course, my information may be a tad illogical, as I haven't fought him in a long time, and he will continually assert that he is not entirely interested in fighting unless somebody gives him a request. He likes to trade more than he fights, and, I have to admit, we have developed quite the repertoire of techniques to requiring rare Pokemon (including my trading a Thundurus for a Jirachi once; that was a good day.)

Anyways, as I'm delving away from the topic, I still assert that he's more skilled than I am. He has far more experience than I have; he is familiar, however vaguely, with what works and what doesn't, experiments, and is a decent fighter all around. I don't train my Pokemon as much as he does. I don't focus on the games as much as he does (when he's interested, which, right now, he's not). In conclusion, it's less of a matter, as you stated, of what kind of Pokemon we use in our battles, but more of my lack of skill and interest in the game themselves compared to him.

poor buggie

@Tortwag, you forget, I actually watched the video - I know to whom you are referring when you use your Pokémon's names. ^_^

Wow, you weren't kidding. That implakeibol was definitely a difficult opponent. (You know what, I actually like reviewing these battles, so I'm gonna do that now.)
♦ I see you have another Galvantula - what happened to VoltRunner? D: - and that using Sticky Web seems to be your opening tactic. It's a pity that Chandelure took him out so quickly.
♦ You bring in Tyratank and suddenly the Chandelure disappears. Why does that not surprise me? But it was a smart move on your opponent's behalf, especially by bringing out Vaporeon. And man, that was one impressive wall. It sucked that you couldn't use any of Tyratank's powerful Water moves against it; using Dark Pulse the whole time must have been frustrating. It must also have been terrible seeing your Mega-Blastoise get killed by a case of Bad Poisoning while MP's Vaporeon just Rests and eats Leftovers.
♦ At least your Ladjinn took care of it. When MP's Forretress appeared, however, I was woried that he would use Pin Missile and end Ladjinn, but then you struck with Fire Blast - an excellent tactic! Sadly, Forretress retreated, and that after using Rapid Spin, thereby removing Tachikoma's Sticky Web. To make matters worse, the Chandelure then returned and finished off Ladjinn. (I saw it coming, but it nevertheless sucked.)
♦ Lucario! Obviously, I was delighted to see you had one on your team, but I don't understand why Chandelure retreated again, especially to be replaced by Forretress, and then simply to return after Forretress was knocked out. But, it succeeded in taking out SetMinion ( ), so I suppose that his tactic worked, whatever it was...
♦ But wow... ShellMaster was a total boss on the battlefield. When MP's Chandelure used Fire Blast on him, I thought he was a goner, but that Focus Sash proved extremely useful. Then, he not only defeated Chandelure, but MP's Cloyster as well! Shell Smash had, by then, already been a life-saver, but using it in response to Absol's Sucker Punch was ingenious. And after dealing with him, ShellMaster then took out MP's Dragalge like it was nothing.

Very well played!

Now, back to your first game. What you say is true, but with Clefable's high defence and already boosted stats, I'd have attacked as soon as I could. He ended up losing anyway, so what harm could it have done?

@Charizard821 and @TheSilverFox, you should stop picking on @Buggiedude2340.

PS: This is kind of random, but I was shocked and afraid when Twinkiel felt relieved at beating Mumbles. If Twinkiel is one of the strongest of the three strongest humons - if not the strongest - yet he struggles more frequently in fights, how are the rest of our characters *cough especially Gabriel and Riley cough* supposed to survive? O_o

Is it just me or is there a cough going around?

Not gonna lie, @TheSilverFox, you mentioning having beaten Buggie in the same way I did nearly cracked me up. Nearly. It's hard to make me laugh with written words or images on a screen. A challenge to you all. (And I think I know who's gonna take it on. Cough, cough, @Tortwag, cough, cough.)

Silver, we must battle! But... I DO have two Legendaries. The Eon Twins. Blain and One-Wing-Latias. I was working on capturing Primal Kyogre too, but if you really don't want me using Legendaries, I DO have a Kadabra who I'm pretty proud of. Try chasing down and capturing an Abra that only uses Teleport. Then try training him with just the move Thief. Lots of dedication, that took.