General Pokémon

[SlowPokemon]

I felt since a bunch of us got off topic with Pokémon Gen IV in the Gen V and vice-versa... id just create a thread for all... and have you seen some stuff from PLDH... like these Pokémon 493 wallpapers?
HERE?


Which one's your favorite?

Sorry about a double post, but that link no longer works for me. (-_-')

[Roz~]

The website may just be down at the moment, so just try again later.

[DrP]

It is down, for how long, who knows?

[Dude]

What are you people talking about. It works fine.

[DrP]

It just tries to load... and nothing. You probably just got lucky! I've been trying to access this site for a couple days now!

[Dude]

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/6748/youguysarecrazy.png

[DrP]

and i tried on my windows PC with IE, Firefox, Safari and Chrome... nothing

[Cobraroll]

Hey! Politoed is a happy frog! Overworld-wise, that makes him a million times better than grumpy Poliwrath. Though, when it comes to professional battling, his best spot is on the side line, waving a small flag and cheering (oh, can't get that image out of my head).

Also, stick Swords Dance to a Tentacruel and run amok with Waterfall and Poison Jab and whatnot. Or a defensive/supportive Toxic Spikes/Rapid Spin set.

[Cobraroll]

Sorry for double posting, but I'm feeling nostalgic today. Also, I have little to do (well, I guess I should work with Emergence, but don't worry, I do that too).

Tonight, I want to talk about a Pokémon that has kept a special place in my heart ever since I first heard about the franchise. A Pokémon that was widely feared in the beginning of the saga, both game- and anime-wise. If you ever were to walk around in a Pokémon forest, this was the number one Pokémon to look out for. It still is. Ferocious, inhuman, semi-lethal (as far as I understand it, wounds caused by Pokémon will heal themselves, so they can't kill. However, the target will be knocked out for a long time, depending on the force of the attack. Read Emergence for further explaination), and totally badass. Except that in the games, it was a bad ass at best. It had limited value in terms of practically everything, learnt few moves and was both offensively, defensively and supportively one of the worst fully-evolved Pokémon in the games.

Tonight, I'll dedicate a speech to Beedrill.

By looks alone, Beedrill is one of the most awesome Pokémon in existence, hands down. Scizor might be the "ultimate bug" of today, but before Scizor, Beedrill owned the fear sections of our brains. A wasp or bee, ranging from half a metre in size to bigger than a full-grown man, with knife-sharp stingers on each hand and a particularly nasty toxic spike on its abdomen. Large wings so it appears bigger. And to complete it all, the eyes. Red, large, inhuman. Coldly calculating, like camera lenses or motion sensors. Yet worse, they hunt in swarms. Many of the hardcore fans from the early days, when 150 Pokémon seemed like a vast number, can attest that one of their childhood fears was a Beedrill attack. How many of us didn't walk around in forests in our dreams, when suddenly a sound like a chainsaw roared from the sky, and a swarm of man-sized bees dropped from above? Scyther might have been a cold-blooded ninja, and Venomoth might have been creepy as hell (look at those eyes), but nobody could match a Beedrill. Not even Scizor or Heracross could match a swarm of them.

But GameFreak, despite giving this adorable little hell-bug the looks which gained so much fame, decided that its main selling point would be aquisition as early as lvl 10. Thus, it couldn't be too powerful, or the game would be too easy. In the early days, Beedrill never got any better moves than Pin Missile (Base Power 28) by levelling up, and while some of us wasted a TM 15 on it, the strongest move we gave it with other means was usually Cut. Generation II was not nicer with it. It got Pursuit (did I mention that Beedrill would follow you for kilometres on end if you disturbed it, a distance it would comfortably cover in a couple of minutes?) as its new strongest move, and some game designer gave it Sludge Bomb as a TM move, presumably out of sheer sympathy. Still, Beedrill's movepool was abysmal at best. Its only selling point was mediocre Swords Dance sets, built from TMs that could be used way better on other Pokémon. The addition of Steel types made it an even worse attacker. Those days, I bet Game Beedrill cried itself to sleep, dreaming about the respect it was given in the Animé. Even Ariados was a more viable option than it, thanks to Spider Web, and Ariados itself was but a bleak copy of our hero bee.
Then Generation III came along. Beedrill got the meagre Endeavour, and an ability you saw a-plenty with all the other bugs. It had a comparatively shallower movepool than ever, and was even outclassed by Raticate. It enjoyed the respect of Seaking, Ledian and Luvdisc, and even Magnemite could beat it without breaking a spark (Magnemite don't sweat, do they?). In competitive play, Forretress annoyed its opponents to tears, Ninjask outspeeded everything, and Scizor was more memorable to new fans than the half-useless Beedrill. I had almost given it up myself, I was at the point of refusing to catch it so I wouldn't have to face reality, and live with the memories instead. We all remembered Beedrill as awesome, but upon inspection, it really wasn't at all.

So, on the doorstep to a new generation, where is Beedrill today? In the shadow of almost every other Bug type, long since forgotten, and barely seen used in the remakes of the classic games. Beedrill is a ghost of nostalgia, well-known from way back then, but not even used by the Pokémon marketing team any more. From Generation I, there was Pikachu, Mewtwo, Meowth, the starters and Beedrill we remembered. Two still haunt the Animé, one got a movie and a special episode dedicated to it, nine enjoy eternal fame, while Beedrill sobs in the shade of Grumpig, Furret and Skuntank. It shares its destiny with a lot of bug brethren, but Beedrill is the veteran. Ariados, Mothim, Ledian, Volbeat; they are all newcomers. Before they were even thought of, Beedrill soared on silver wings through the woods. This once-so-mighty bee, a source of inspiration for a ton of new Bug Pokémon, deserved a better fate than this. However, it has one ace up its sleeve. And mind you, it has to pull those stingers through its sleeves, so the sleeve is big:

Lo and behold

X-scizzor was the move Beedrill needed to rise up. A generation ago, it got an ability which boosted... Twineedle (now buffed to 50 Base Power. Bubblebeam is 60, do the math). Thank you, Game Freak. Now, let's see what it can do with X-scizzor, SilverPowder, Swarm and Swords Dance. Watch the video. I just saw it, and my love for the monster bee bloomed again. Of course, it won't rise to the standards of Scizor, not any more. It will never outspeed Ninjask, and not cause Kyogre to flee in terror like Shedinja. It won't take hits like the bunker Forretress, or win the hearts of little sisters like Beautifly. But Beedrill can punch holes in Snorlax and one-hit-KO Tyranitar after a little setup. Beedrill isn't an useless-but-cool Pokémon anymore, at least not totally. He has proven that if you make him angry enough, Beedrill will haunt your dreams again.

So that's Beedrill. Average at best, hiding in niches to be effective, but totally badass. To us veterans, there will never be a scarier Pokémon, nothing will ever make you jump at buzzing sounds like the bee from the first generation. Back when Pokémon was Pokémon.

To Beedrill.

[DrP]

Sorry for double posting, but I'm feeling nostalgic today. Also, I have little to do (well, I guess I should work with Emergence, but don't worry, I do that too).

-Insert Ode to Beedrill here- (even though it isnt a poem)

Somebody really loves Beedrill. I could write one on Squirtle, but I dont have the time

[SlowPokemon]

Okay, then. As long as we're doing tributes (sorry if you have copyright issues, Cobraroll ) I think I'll make one to a very underused Pokemon: Shuckle. Note, I'm mostly doing strategies here. You might find it interesting, though.

Shuckle is a very infamous Pokemon. Wretched, crappy offensive stats. Abysmal Speed. Less-than-average HP. What's so great about it? Shuckle holds the record for being the Pokemon in the series with the highest Defense AND Special Defense. If you hit this Bug- and Rock-type Pokemon with a STAB Hydro Pump from a higher-level Blastoise, it MIGHT get it down by 1/5 HP. And it has Sturdy, shielding it from those pesky 1-hit KO moves. Not to mention its resistance to Sandstorm.

Shuckle is curious - and irritating - to use in battle, as of course it has simply horrible offensive stats. In gen II and III, it had potential ability. You could teach it annoying health moves like Rest (combo with Chesto Berry goes for really frustrated opponent). You can have it learn Attract to stop your opponent from using moves that wouldn't have much effect anyway. And then you could use Protect. Encore also goes for good irritation.

But, as we all know, these moves, while fun to use to make your opponent mad, are not enough to win a battle. So, most Shuckle movesets contained a move like Toxic. That's extremely risky, though, as you still have no weapon against Poison- or Steel-type Pokemon. Sandstorm is another option, but it's so slow that there's really no point.

So things really started to get interesting in gen IV. Shuckle was mostly kept with the same moveset. It had the noteworthy addition of Gastro Acid, nullifying the foe's ability.

But the move that gave Shuckle real potential was the addition of Power Trick, which switches the user's Attack and Defense. Now, that often can be bad, as its Speed is still horrible, plus it has terrible Defense now.

This can still be used to your advantage. A very skilled usage of Power Trick can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JzKMzQ64q0

Defensive or offensive, Shuckle can be a real powerhouse.

Shuckle: useless? Or misunderstood? Decide for yourself, my friends...

[DrP]

interesting stuff. ill write some sort of ode or love poem to a Pokémon that doesn't get much recognition, but some other time when I can sit down for an hour and type away

[SlowPokemon]

An HOUR? That took me eight minutes!

[DrP]

I like to be reasonable with my time... and this is accounting for getting sidetracked to go to other websites and getting texts and phone calls... so something that takes 5 minutes usually, takes an hour (but if im free from my phone, I might get a 5 minute job done in 3)

[Oni-Link]

Hey, can I join this thread guise?