Pokémon Black and White News

[Roz~]

Ninetales' dream world ability's awesome. I'm sure it'll be used a lot in competitive battling now. As for my favorite fire-type, My it will always be Arcanine, I just love it.

[SlowPokemon]

Arcanine is THE legendary Pokemon.

[DrP]

In a way...

Note to everyone: never get lost in the desert... especially this time of year.

Also, the desert in BW is kinda cool! The alligator pokemon is fairly hard to come across for me

[SlowPokemon]

I'll look for it forever if I have to! It's gonna be part of my team.

Also, Jaroda is my favorite Isshu Pokemon right now.

[DrP]

Well, I should say, in White it is harder to find... in Black it is pretty prolific... and now it is starting to get annoying, but my Lv 23 Janoby is knocking it out of the park

My favorite Pokémon this time around is Shimama by far!!

[SlowPokemon]

Never haved loved electric-types, and to be honest Shimama looks pretty meh in my book. I won't be training it, more than likely.

BUT to each his own, right?

[Winter]

Reminds me of Gold version, is essence, your only real electric type pokemon you could get was Mareep and its evolutions because of the first gym being a flying type gym. I always had Ampharos in my final part because of that. I like him, but there's no versatility.

[DrP]

Yep... same reasons why I chose Ampharos... not really a much used Pokémon from what I have seen (it could be wrong)

Pikachu is the most overused Pokémon I know!

[SuperRiolu]

Pikachu is pretty overused!

I finally downloaded that emulator with the game. It seems pretty fun. I like all the new exploring I can do!

[SlowPokemon]

Yep... same reasons why I chose Ampharos... not really a much used Pokémon from what I have seen (it could be wrong)

In HeartGold and SoulSilver, EVERYONE trained an Ampharos. If they didn't have Ampharos, they had Togepi or the red Gyarados. Now Ampharos is in the OU tier. Big-time.

[DrP]

In HeartGold and SoulSilver, EVERYONE trained an Ampharos. If they didn't have Ampharos, they had Togepi or the red Gyarados. Now Ampharos is in the OU tier. Big-time.

Well, if it's any consolation, I trained Ampharos before in Gold and Silver and made it an integral part of my team in my original FireRed

[Cobraroll]

Speaking of tiers and competitive battling, here's my short analysis of the competitive battling scene at the dawn of the 5th generation:

There has been added a lot of new Bug- and Ice-types. This will perhaps draw more Fire Pokémon out to the limelight again, while giving Psychic- and Dragon-types a harder time. The former has been continually gotten more opposition since they dominated the scene in Generation I, while Dragons became too overpowered in the fourth generation.

As mentioned, Fire types: Stealth Rock and Stone Edge spelled demise for them in the last generation. Pokémon like Charizard and Moltres were thrown down to the lower tiers, despite their stats and movepool, while Ho-oh had a hard time finding a spot on any Ubers team. With increased presence of Bug- and Ice-types, Fire can perhaps shine again... or?

Rock-types are up and coming, folks. And this looks ugly. With the power to completely decimate aforementioned Moltres and Charizard with Rock attacks, maim every other Fire type with Earthquake, and run over the new Bugs and Ices with STAB attacks, Rock look unstoppable in this generation. Expect to see Aerodactyl a lot, since he is immune to Earthquake.

Luckily, there's a solution to that problem as well: Drought Ninetales. It will likely find its place in the Standard tier, where it can cast sunlight over powerful Clorophyll abusers such as Victreebel (hello Leaf Blade and Weather Ball! And Sleep Powder!), Exeggutor (HP Fire, Psychic, Solarbeam and a status attack/screen), Vileplume (Petal Dance has 120 base power now) and Shiftry (which can learn both Nasty Plot and Swords Dance. Pick your preferred end of the spectrum).

However, the buffed Grass types live dangerously, due to the aforementioned Ice- and Bug-types. The cycle is complete, in other words. Fire is countered by Rock which is countered by Grass which is countered by Ice/Bug which are countered by Fire and Rock.

Alternately, you can elongate the cycle by using Politoed and bring some rain to the battlefield and counter the Rock types with Water instead. Defensive Blastoise love Rain Dish, and the numerous Swift Swim sweepers will make even Aerodactyl shiver in fear. Though, you will bump into the buffed Grass types at some point, transferring the classic "Sun vs. Rain" dilemma from Ubers to Standard. One thing is for sure: There WILL be more weather in this generation.

Concerning more old Pokémon with new abilities:
 - Alakazam will take revenge. It was dumped into the Underused tier not long ago. Now, it has Magic Guard, meaning that it will never receive indirect damage. In other words, it can receive Life Orb boosts with no downsides. Coming off 438 Sp. Atk. Run while you can.
 - Technician Breloom will also play a role similar to Scizor's of the last generation. Expect Mach Punch to come your way soon.
 - Poison Heal Gliscor will also make an excellent wall.

More to come!

[Roz~]

In HeartGold and SoulSilver, EVERYONE trained an Ampharos. If they didn't have Ampharos, they had Togepi or the red Gyarados. Now Ampharos is in the OU tier. Big-time.

I know a lot of people who didn't train one. It's not that used. Ampharos is in the NU tier for a good reason.

@Cobraroll ~> Let's not forget the fact that Stealth Rock's no longer a TM. That will affect the metagame big time too.
I agree with you on what you said about Breloom; definitely going to be used more. Since it has Technician and Bullet Seed's power increase in BW it's going to be quite powerful.
Can't wait to play in that new tier, definitely going to be interesting!

[Cobraroll]

^True...

Still, every Pokémon with access to Stealth Rock in Gen. IV has it in Gen. V too, as it can be transferred over... it's just sacrifising its alternate ability, and perhaps a few egg moves. And for most of these, that's affordable, considering the awesome power of Stealth Rock.

Oh, and considering Ampharos... in G/S/C, there was very few good Pokémon you could train at the start of the game. Everyone and their little brother soon realised that Noctowl and Furret outright sucked, so if you wanted a good team, you were bound to end up catching Bellsprout, Spearow, Gastly and Mareep as soon as you got to Violet city. It's not that Ampharos is good, it's just one of the very few viable Pokémon to train...

[SlowPokemon]

Same there... but I disagree with one thing. I think that now, in Gen IV, Ampharos is very good. Access to a variety of move types, making it a fair Battle Hall competitor.

I still think that the ultimate Battle Hall contender is a well-trained Gardevoir.