Wreck-It Bowser

[Cassius.]

Bowser dittos are legit, son. Shame my continuous Bowser ditto tourny went no where. I blame all of you, *points at other Bowser mainers* of course.

Except like 80% of those guys disappeared. Technically, point wise I won that thing.

 

[B!squick]

Well, the key to something that never ends is that you DON'T win. You just happen to be winning, for right now. And even though that is never going to change, *glare at other Bowser mainers* you'll still never "win".

Also, if you beat me, it was just a fluke.

 

[Hobobloke]

I never lost a match.

 

[Flayl]

Guys, I know there are at least, like, 3 of you pokemon masters here, so i'm going to ask you for advice:

I don't if I've actually said this before, but here in Portugal the number of regular smashers has died down to 6, 7 if you count wifi. The only chance of playing in tournaments that aren't tiny is to travel to Spain (which I'm doing) or do events with multiple tournaments (meaning different fighting games or different wii games).

So one of our next events is a wii tournament with the main offline multiplayer franchises: Brawl, Pokemon, Goldeneye, maybe Strikers or another football game (those are really popular here). Since I'm one of the main organizers, it's my duty to read up and participate in at least a few of the events.

I have a sibling that's younger than me that has every 5th generation game except Soul Silver and every 4th gen game except fire red - ruby was mine and she got diamond so I could play but I got bored halfway through - so the variety of pokemon I can use is pretty big. I've always wanted to actually try out competitive pokémon but was never really motivated enough to do it.

As such, I've been reading up on Smogon to find out what the metagame looks like and how to build my team. I'm gonna take my 2 favorite pokemon and build a team around them: Charizard and Metagross.

Here's where you come in: Help me build a OU team with item clause and no Hidden Power stuff
Metagross @ Lum Berry
236 HP / 248 Atk / 20 Def / 4 Spe
Adamant
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Earthquake
- Explosion

Charizard @ Life Orb
60 Atk / 252 SpA / 196 Spe
Rash/Mild
- Fire Blast
- Air Slash
- Focus Punch
- Roost

[Pokemon with Rapin Spin for Stealth Rock and Spikes] - Maybe Tentacruel?

[Pokemon to counter Swampert and Suicune] - Maybe Breloom, Roserade, Zapdos or a Rotom appliance?

[Leftover Pokémon]

I copy-pasted the EV distribution directly from smogon

 

[Hobobloke]

I've been out of competitive play for a few months but I should be still quite qualified to help (Will probably get back into it for this gen).

First things first though.

every 5th generation game except Soul Silver and every 4th gen game except fire red

You've got your gen's a bit mixed up there.
1st = R/B/Y
2nd = G/S/C
3rd = R/S/E + FR/LG
4th = D/P/Pt + HG/SS
5th = B/W

As such, I've been reading up on Smogon to find out what the metagame looks like and how to build my team. I'm gonna take my 2 favorite pokemon and build a team around them: Charizard and Metagross.

Metagross is good but Charizard is a god awful pokemon, using him will make life really difficult to you, I urge you change him but if you have to keep him we can try and work around it.

Here's where you come in: Help me build a OU team with item clause and no Hidden Power stuff
Item clause is stupid =/ but I suppose we can work around it.

Metagross @ Lum Berry
236 HP / 248 Atk / 20 Def / 4 Spe
Adamant
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Earthquake
- Explosion

Do you have a lead in mind? Metagross makes a pretty beastly lead, beating quite a few common leads. Though if you want him to be your sweeper that'll work fine too.

Firstly you've copied EV's that are more suited to LeadGross
Metagross' speed is what really lets him down, he's got a very nice attack stat but with that speed he won't sweep much, it's for this reason I usually run AgiliGross this allows him to overcome this, I'd suggest changing it to that and running a set of

Metagross@Life Orb
60 HP / 252 Atk / 196 Spe
Jolly/Clear Body
- Meteor Mash
- Agility
- Earthquake
- Thunderpunch

EV's are standard, max Atk, good HP number for LO use and speed outspeed Choice Scarf Rotom-A after an Agility. I'd suggest Jolly so Choice Scarf Flygon doesn't outspeed and kill you with EQ, though Adamant can e used for the extra attack if you have no fear. Set is basic, obvs Agility, EQ + MM provide nice coverage and STAB, thunderpunch is the best 4th choice imo, allows you to hit bulky waters who might give some trouble.

If you want a LeadGross tell me and I'll post my set.

Charizard @ Life Orb
60 Atk / 252 SpA / 196 Spe
Rash/Mild
- Fire Blast
- Air Slash
- Focus Punch
- Roost

Reconsider! If you want Zard you also NEED a rapid spinner which I hate, waste of a pokemon. However I get it if he's your favourite and want use him.

[Pokemon with Rapin Spin for Stealth Rock and Spikes] - Maybe Tentacruel?

Depends on Zard if you need one

[Pokemon to counter Swampert and Suicune] - Maybe Breloom, Roserade, Zapdos or a Rotom appliance?

You don't want your pokemon to only target one or two others if you can help it, there are alot of pokemon out there, Zapdos, Rotom-A, and Breloom are all good pokemon though.

[Leftover Pokémon]

NO LEFTOVERS! Everyone plays a role in a team (unless you run my awesome amazing signature shuckle set, which basically plays independent to the team).

I copy-pasted the EV distribution directly from smogon

Responses in Cyan.

I'm not going to make the whole team for you, you'll get more satisfaction if you decided the big decisions and I'll just help with movesets etc and help in your decisions. Besides we need to hammer out your core before any more progress is made.

 

[Cassius.]

Charizard is pretty bad. His main weakness, and probably the main reason why he's discarded easily is because he takes 50% from Stealth Rock every time he switches in (due to him being Fire/Flying). Like Hobob said, I personally think having a Pokemon with a core objective of Rapid Spinning is really a waste...so I don't bother really putting Pokemon such as Charizard on my team that are hurt terribly by S-Rocks and **** like that.

You want Pokemon that have multi-core jobs, don't look for only ONE specific Pokemon to counter. You'll come across a bunch of unorthodox teams and things like that; you want to cover multiple options, not just that one random MixPert or whatever.

If you're looking for a good Fire type, go with Infernape/Heatran, although both are pretty standard, but that's OU for you; only two viable fire types in there.

 

[Dumbfire]

If you want Charizard go Main PT in brawl.
Oh wait he sucks in Brawl too.

 

[Cassius.]

I heard Rock Smash is hella cute though.

 

[ItoI6]

IMO you should use a Swampert because it can take rock and electric attacks directed at Charizard well and bait grass attacks to give it an easier time switching in. Also, if you're going to use Charizard you need a spinner like a Starmie or Forretress.

 

[Flayl]

Guys, what the ****

It's not like I want to be the ultimate Pokemon Master. If I cant even use the pokemon I like I wouldn't play the **** thing lol

For pete's sake, you guys are BOWSER mainers.

When I said Swampert/Suicune, I meant bulky waters that would counter both my charizard and metagross. Those 2 are, afaik, the best ones for the job. If I can choose a pokemon that handles those two, I got "bulky waters" covered.

I was aiming for a physical tank metagross, a pokemon that could easily switch in physical attacks and severly hurt any pokemon that would switch in/remain. Putting in speed EVs and agility really detriments the defensive part I was counting on.

In other words, no, he's not a lead.

 

[Hobobloke]

Defensive Metagross is a waste man, he can fulfil so much better roles, and his high defence is nullified by the fact that he's weak to EQ, the most common move in the game. it's like 3am here and I'm going out tomorrow so I can't be bothered doing typing any more sets right now, will resume tomorrow.

 

[Dumbfire]

Guys, what the ****

It's not like I want to be the ultimate Pokemon Master. If I cant even use the pokemon I like I wouldn't play the **** thing lol

For pete's sake, you guys are BOWSER mainers.

When I said Swampert/Suicune, I meant bulky waters that would counter both my charizard and metagross. Those 2 are, afaik, the best ones for the job. If I can choose a pokemon that handles those two, I got "bulky waters" covered.

I was aiming for a physical tank metagross, a pokemon that could easily switch in physical attacks and severly hurt any pokemon that would switch in/remain. Putting in speed EVs and agility really detriments the defensive part I was counting on.

In other words, no, he's not a lead.

We already main a bad char in brawl.
So lets be tier ***** in Pokaman

 

[KillerJawz]

Here's where you come in: Help me build a OU team with item clause and no Hidden Power stuff
Metagross @ Lum Berry
236 HP / 248 Atk / 20 Def / 4 Spe
Adamant
- Meteor Mash
- Zen Headbutt
- Earthquake
- Explosion

Charizard @ Life Orb
60 Atk / 252 SpA / 196 Spe
Rash/Mild
- Fire Blast
- Air Slash
- Focus Punch
- Roost

[Pokemon with Rapin Spin for Stealth Rock and Spikes] - Maybe Tentacruel?

[Pokemon to counter Swampert and Suicune] - Maybe Breloom, Roserade, Zapdos or a Rotom appliance?

[Leftover Pokémon]

I copy-pasted the EV distribution directly from smogon

Smogon can go rot for all I care, but let me just break a few thing down from what I can see. Metagross has Zen Headbutt. To deal with who exactly? Who on earth could possibly be part poison/fighting and give Metagross a hard time? Infernape? He outspeeds and ohkos iirc, so there really is very little point to having Zen Headbutt, even if you get stab off of it, it's just not worth it. Meta also doesn't want Lum Berry, if you fear getting burnt that much, may I suggest Aromabliss or somebody else with Heal Bell/Aromatherapy? I hate seeing people put lum berries on pokemon like this, give it life orb or something else along those lines.

Now tbh, you want a lead. If you are adamant about having Charizard on your team, I suggest you get Aero or another fast taunter in there to deal with SR before it comes out. Aero's base 130 speed easily outspeeds all layers of SR (at least for the most part) and this saves you having to get a spinner out there, which as Hobo said, is quite a waste. Tentacruel is still a good option AS WELL with Aero. Takes any special hits aimed at Gross nicely and deals with them nicely. You can have it spinning if you don't want Aero, but I suggest having aero as a lead, you have no idea how helpful he can actually be, you do however lose to Ice Sharding weaviles.

Now luckily for you I have ran three different Charizard sets, and have found great success even in the midst of OU. Charizard doesn't specialise in doing anything that others can't, but hes one of the few fire types who doesn't get EQ'ed. This is MAJOR, especially in OU. I personally run a Specs Timid Zard running 252 in both, w/ Fthrower, AirS, HpIce, FocusB. This set allows me to outspeed other base 100s w/ 31 IVs, and OHKO a lot of dragons (Dragonite/Flygon). FThrower takes care of literally everything else and provides great STAB coverage. You however lose the likes of Starmie.

So that's say you have Zard/Gross/Aero. My personal option to deal with these would be a special sweeper, preferably along the lines of Starmie. Starmie comfortably 2HKOs bulky waters like Vapor and Sui without boosts, and OHKO's pert w/ grass knot.

 

[Zigsta]

Charizard does NOT suck in Brawl.

Just lost to Illmatic (Peach) + Fogo (D3) in doubles. Game one came down to me and Fogo, with me at high percent and Fogo at low percent. Got him to 100ish% before dying to a bair at 180%.

Game 2 Fogo went MK on our Brinstar CP. Both Fogo and Ill had 1 stock at the end.

Super fun matches, and Nike and I did work (like Klaw to spike on MK!), but sadly the Wii didn't have infinite replay.

 

[Dumbfire]

I know, just joking about Chari.
That sounds cool. Who does Nike play?

 

[Zigsta]

Nike plays Marth. I find him to be really good with Bowser.

 

[Phiddlesticks]

If you want to make a Charizard team, you really have to build around it. Figure out both what helps most with Charizard's weaknesses and what helps most with letting Charizard's strengths shine. Like, if you want to use a Belly Drum Charizard:

Charizard @ Salac Berry
Blaze, Adamant nature
16 HP / 252 Attack / 240 Speed
- Belly Drum
- Double-Edge
- Fire Punch
- Earthquake

Taken from the Smogon analysis. The idea is to Belly Drum while your opponent switches to a Charizard counter (likely a bulky Water type), then you use Double-Edge as a strong neutral attack against Waters that also should bring you down to <25% HP, activating both Salac Berry and Blaze.

You are gonna want something like Aerodactyl (as KillerJawz suggested) as a fast lead who can help prevent enemy Stealth Rocks with Taunt, as well as a reliable Rapid Spin Pokemon like Forretress (which should hold a Shed Shell so it doesn't get trapped by Magnezone).

What you'll also want is something that can help Charizard set up its Belly Drum, like a Jolteon with Substitute/Baton Pass and two attacking moves. If you think your opponent is going to use Earthquake on your Substitute, you can Baton Pass to Charizard who now gets a free turn of setup. A Pokemon with Wish would also be helpful to heal Charizard if he whiffs a Belly Drum or if you just can't get rid of Stealth Rock. Jolteon can use Wish as well, but you would probably be better off using a sturdier Pokemon like Jirachi (if you're able to obtain it ingame), Vaporeon or Blissey.

Anyways I'm not saying USE THESE POKEMON WITH CHARIZARD THEY RULE, just trying to help so you know what you're doing when trying to build around a certain Pokemon. Also, if you need to see which Pokemon learn the move Wish or Baton Pass or whatever, Smogon's website has an easy search engine that also tells you what tiers the Pokemon who learn it are in.

 

[Dumbfire]

Nike plays Marth. I find him to be really good with Bowser.

Yeah I team with a Marth too. It works out most of the time but for crap MU's like any MK I go DK instead.

 

[Zigsta]

Just lost to Deva 2-1 in first round winners in normal singles. The set was sooooo close and was SUPER hype. The set also got recorded.

 

[Flayl]

Smogon can go rot for all I care, but let me just break a few thing down from what I can see. Metagross has Zen Headbutt. To deal with who exactly?

Water pokémon, electric types with levitate, zapdos and moltres.

I'll edit in the rest of my replies later, got some stuff to do

edit:

Hobobloke:
Tyranitar with choice band earthquake deals 80-95% to Metagross with 252 HP EVs
Metagross can OHKO him in return with Meteor Mash if you're lucky (87-104%)

Considering Tyranitar has 134 Atk and choice band, aren't you guys overrating how EQ makes Metagross a bad physical tank? It's not like I'm going to switch him in against ground types...

KillerJawz:
Having Aerodactyl as a lead sounds pretty good. I can switch to Tentacruel/Forretress if Weavile shows up right?

I'm not going to breed a charmander to the perfect IV distribution, so no Ice/Grass HP for me. Unless you have a good substitute, I'm afraid there are better moveset choices for me.

I'll take Starmie into consideration, but it doesn't like getting EQ'd by Swampert, so maybe it's not the best choice for that? Dunno.

Phiddlesticks:
I thought the belly drum charizard was interesting, but it requires a lot of setup (facing the right pokemon at 100% health). Aerodactyl is sounding pretty good. The current OU Baton Passers are: Celebi (I can't get it), Gliscor, Jolteon, Ninjask, Scizor, Togekiss, Umbreon, Vaporeon and Zapdos. OU pokemon that have wish and weren't mentioned are Blissey and Jirachi (which I can't get). I'll keep these in mind if I run belly drum charizard.

Killerjawz (again):
Thunderpunch sounds good now. Actually getting it will be a pain, but I'll try.

 

[KillerJawz]

Water pokémon, electric types with levitate, zapdos and moltres.

Vaporeon laughs at Gross w/ Zen Headbutt, especially with t-wave/burn support. It can hit Tentacruel pretty hard, but then you also have EQ. Rotom yeah I suppose. Zapdos packs heat wave, moltres... now that's just silly.

Zen Headbutt is unnecessary. People have GOT to stop thinking this move is useful on Gross, it just isn't. He has such better options.... I mean what you just described to me there, two of those suggestions are both weak to t-punch, hitting Zapdos for neutral damage as well and which gross has access to. He already has a strong STAB in MMash and tpunch makes dealing with bulky waters much easier excluding pert.

I'll edit in the rest of my replies later, got some stuff to do

I await them eagerly ;___;

 

[Flayl]

Edited my stuff. I need more convincing on why I shouldn't use Metagross as a physical tank, specially now that I have Aerodactyl to lead.

 

[MrEh]

Max Sp Def Sassy Tyranitar FTW man!

 

[B!squick]

Well, I am amazing at Smash when I'm drunk, so I just need to make sure I'm good and wasted when I go to my first tourny and I should come in top 4 at least. Seriously, 4 people, items, random character = lots of random situations and I consistently came out on top. Go me! :D

Cata has a release date finally. Dec. 7 I get to find out how much my Death Knight has been nerfed.

What else... City of Heroes, also known as the best MMO made to date, is getting an awesome content update with Issue 19.

World of Tanks is looking really sweet. It's still in beta and it is far and beyond a more complete game than many released games I could mention, and it's free to play with a premium account costing you only $10 a month. Did I mention the tanks?

And how about that price for the 3DS? $300... is a bit steep considering you can get this:

Xbox 360 250GB Console includes:
Xbox 360 250GB Console
Xbox 360 Black Wireless Controller
Xbox 360 Black Headset
Xbox 360 Composite A/V cable (standard definition)
One Month Xbox LIVE Gold Membership
1 year limited console warranty

For the same price. And here's the thing, Nintendo has always been the one to sell their products, usually of better quality parts, for very reasonable prices.

$600 is totally reasonable for the PS3

Which makes me wonder, just how much money is Microsoft losing from their new Xboxes? I knew they weren't making a profit in the console department for awhile now, so just think how hard this new version of the Xbox must be hitting them?

Because here's the thing, me and my room mate have been playing the **** of it since we got it and right now it's looking like it will survive the 1 year warranty it has (which is more than I can say about the Elite we got late last year that stopped reading discs after only 3 months or so). Thus, the new Xbox, in our experience, is much more reliable implying better parts that probably cost more.

I know the 3DS is going to sell well regardless, people buy iPhones year after year for Crist's sake, but I would have been totally fine if they just removed the 3D thing and sold it at a cheaper price. It's not even real 3D anyway, just an illusion.

 

[KillerJawz]

KillerJawz:
Having Aerodactyl as a lead sounds pretty good. I can switch to Tentacruel/Forretress if Weavile shows up right?

I'm not going to breed a charmander to the perfect IV distribution, so no Ice/Grass HP for me. Unless you have a good substitute, I'm afraid there are better moveset choices for me.

I'll take Starmie into consideration, but it doesn't like getting EQ'd by Swampert, so maybe it's not the best choice for that? Dunno.

Killerjawz (again):
Thunderpunch sounds good now. Actually getting it will be a pain, but I'll try.

Yeah you can easily switch out without the fear of getting pursuited. Iirc with switch boosted damage its a 2hko on Aero, so no fears. Forretress LAUGHS at Weavile (walls slightly better then Tenta, but Tenta absorbs toxic spikes).

Oh sorry, I assumed you were using pokesav or wireless pokesav. My bad ^^. I had Dark Pulse on an older Charizard of mine. I wouldn't reccomend it however.

You shouldn't be switching Starmie INTO a EQ, it should come after either a solid prediction or a faint. For example, baiting Swampy to WF/Surf a poke, having Starmie come in on it and Grass Knot. You could try something bulkier if you want,but I find that Starmie is a perfect Swampy destructor.

 

[B!squick]

Oh, I just saw a new ad for the new Xbox. It's $200 now, apparently. It had an * after it and I didn't get a chance to read the fine print, but needless to say, it's not winning the 3DS any points.

 

[Cassius.]

Isn't the 3DS going to be like $300?

 

[Zigsta]

3D's the future. Mark my words!

 

[bigman40]

Isn't the 3DS going to be like $300?

Yes. Hoping the price drops to like $250.

 

[Cassius.]

Well ****, I hope that goes down certainly. Or I might wait a year or two...

 

[B!squick]

Isn't the 3DS going to be like $300?

And how about that price for the 3DS? $300... is a bit steep...

 

[MrEh]

Considering how much entertainment I got out of my REGULAR DS, I'd pay $300 in a second.

 

[Hobobloke]

So guys, start saving your money for this. It's shaping up to be pretty big and coincidentally it's when the sakura trees are in bloom so it's a perfect time for a holiday if you ever wanted to go to Japan. Need an army of Bowsers to rep.

 

[MrEh]

After living in Japan all my life, traveling there for fun is the last thing I want to do. lol

 

[B!squick]

After living in Japan all my life, traveling there for fun is the last thing I want to do. lol

You're Japanese? O.o

 

[Hobobloke]

^
Pretty much my reaction. You could come and be our official translator! I only know my stock phrases/greetings. What's the equivalent of 'good game' in Japanese?

 

[KillerJawz]

I think we're being trolled ;___;.

 

[MrEh]

For once in my life, I'm not trolling.

I can't make something like that up. :/

 

[IsmaR]

I believe him. My weeaboo-in-training senses never lie.

 

[Zigsta]

So how many Bowsers are on Facebook? Add me!

Also, if you'd like to keep up with my film activities, I blast them on Twitter fairly often.