NOTICE TO ALL
10 years ago
Monday, January 17, 2011
NCS 1/17/10 - A friendly message.
Steelix Prime was my main good pull this time. That, the promo Latias and the coin will pay for the pack. Knew I could count on you, Raikou!
As a friendly reminder, starting today, the Shiny Entei that unlocks the Zoroark event will be available at GameStop. This Entei is Adamant-natured and comes with the moves Flare Blitz and Extremespeed, essentially making it a super-powered Arcanine. Now to soft reset like crazy and make sure that Kan'u has awesome stats. (A shame that I did not have my Diamond with me - then I could have gotten two.) Go get it if you have HG/SS, Diamond, or Plat!
Speaking of Pokemon...I FINALLY BEAT THE HALL! Breeding obscenely strong Salamence finally paid off! Now for a female Umbreon...*Evil laugh.*
P.S.- Love Day chocolate rocks. Ghirardelli FINALLY did strawberry chocolate!
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Jumping the Shark - err, Dragon.
Congrats, YGO:5D's. You have officially jumped the shark. You have also proven that, by doing so, YGO is in fact a Glass Canon.
For those of you not in the know, there were, pretty much from the get-go, supposed to be only 5 Signers. 5 Signers, 5 Dragons - thus 5D's. Pictured above is the sixth Signer.
As of January 5th, Leo/Rua, brother of Luna/Ruka (the Signer connected to Ancient Fairy Dragon) is also a Signer himself. He bears the Heart of the Crimson Dragon on his arm (yeah, apparently birthmarks conveniently appear and reappear in this universe) and his signature card is the long-awaited 5th Dragon, Life Stream Dragon.
Wait a sec. Wasn't Black-Winged Dragon supposed to be one of the five, too? Crow has a Signer mark and everything. BWD participated in at least one ancient battle. It was, on all counts, a legitimate Signer dragon.
Now, just to be clear, there were a few hints that Leo could have been a Signer. There was a moment early on in the series when Luna said that Leo was a Signer just to cheer him up. He also had traces of his sister's magical powers. Power Tool Dragon even looks very similar to Life Stream Dragon.
Life Stream Dragon was legit from Day 1, so why the extra mark? If anything, Black-Winged Dragon is extraneous. It's like a sixth digit on a human hand - unsightly and unnecessary. It does not look at all like the 5th dragon seen in flashbacks, even though it had a few flashbacks of its own. The series is called 5D's, not 6D's. If another Signer had died (for good), this would not have been so disappointing.
Konami, do you realize what you have done? You have given fanfic writers a blank check for madness. Now that you've made the Heart of the Dragon a viable mark, what's keeping people from using the lungs or spleen as fanfic fodder?
Does this thing even HAVE a heart? Or a spleen?
Whatever faith I had in 5D's just got shattered. Ra help us all. I'd trust Mega Ultra Chicken before THAT abomination.
Friday, January 7, 2011
"BAN IT!"
With Pokemon Black and White coming out this year, players (particularly the group Smogon) have been buzzing about the soon-to-be tournament scene. A lot of new Pokemon, abilities, and moves have come out to talk about...and possibly ban.
This is getting annoying.
First off, Smogon, although a fine resource on the competitive battling scene, is a fansite. That means that none of its information is official. Nintendo has, however, taken a few leaves out of the battling community's book and added Ubers - Legendary Pokemon with an obscenely high stat total and occasionally Pokemon with very good abilities (namely Tyranitar and Wobbuffet) - to official tournament restricted lists. This is their way of saying "our bad for making overpowered things that are only supposed to get you through the game."
One of their latest plots has been to ban two abilities: Drought and Drizzle. These set up sunny and rainy weather respectively. Prior to B/W, they were only found on two Pokemon: Groudon and Kyogre.
Kyogre in particular has been dubbed "the most powerful Pokemon in the game" thanks to its ability. It has monstrous SATK and an attack called "Water Spout" that does massive damage when Kyogre is at full HP. It's a beast, especially with rain set up.
Surf's up!
Gen V's Dream World brought with it two new Pokemon: Ninetales with Drought and Politoed with Drizzle. This gives Sun- and Rain-based teams a chance to shine without requiring an Uber to get off the ground. That was an ingenious move on Nintendo's part. Here, Nintendo; have a cookie:
Drizzle is not an inherently broken ability. It can benefit many a Rain Dance team, ubers or no. Same for Drought, although Drought has even less of a reason to be banned; what, are you really afraid of Fire and Grass Pokemon taking over the world?
Clearly a criminal mastermind.
If anything, Nintendo should be doing more instant field effects. Instant Hailstorm is nasty since only one type is immune; why not give it to another Ice Pokemon to curb Dragons further (darn you, Kyuremu)? A Trick Room from the get-go would stop the flow of Sweepers that came out this Gen. (Play your cards right and Mr. Mime might end up being useful - hint, hint.) Instant abilities are not a bad idea in and of themselves. There is no reason to ban them. Just ban Kyogre.
The other thing that Smogon is trying to ban is ANYTHING that inflicts the Sleep status. Before you start saying "DURRR you've never been hit by a Sleep move!", that's not true. I get hit by them all the time in the Battle Tower. There are no Full Restores to save me. Sleep moves are legitimately annoying and game-winning.
But y'know what? Sleep has been a part of Pokemon since Generation I. Jigglypuff used to be one of my favorite Pokemon because its lullaby attack on the TV show was amusing. There are abilities that can block Sleep if you are that worried about it. It's good, but the sparse amount of Pokemon it can come on and general low accuracy of such moves compensates for how good it is. Freezing is much worse a status. Don't tell me you're planning on banning Ice Beam just because it can freeze, Smogon.
The sad thing is that this is happening with Pokemon. I'm used to this sort of talk from YGO players. Since the ban list was first born, there have been 'banlist babies' screaming "ban it!" at any remotely powerful card that Konami released. Some cards, like Fiber Jar, were worthy of the ban. Others such as Brain Control were not so deserving. It is still a common complaint in YGO, in part because the game is inherently broken. Pokemon is not as broken, and does not merit removing whole game mechanics.
That is just silly.
This is getting annoying.
First off, Smogon, although a fine resource on the competitive battling scene, is a fansite. That means that none of its information is official. Nintendo has, however, taken a few leaves out of the battling community's book and added Ubers - Legendary Pokemon with an obscenely high stat total and occasionally Pokemon with very good abilities (namely Tyranitar and Wobbuffet) - to official tournament restricted lists. This is their way of saying "our bad for making overpowered things that are only supposed to get you through the game."
One of their latest plots has been to ban two abilities: Drought and Drizzle. These set up sunny and rainy weather respectively. Prior to B/W, they were only found on two Pokemon: Groudon and Kyogre.
Kyogre in particular has been dubbed "the most powerful Pokemon in the game" thanks to its ability. It has monstrous SATK and an attack called "Water Spout" that does massive damage when Kyogre is at full HP. It's a beast, especially with rain set up.
Surf's up!
Gen V's Dream World brought with it two new Pokemon: Ninetales with Drought and Politoed with Drizzle. This gives Sun- and Rain-based teams a chance to shine without requiring an Uber to get off the ground. That was an ingenious move on Nintendo's part. Here, Nintendo; have a cookie:
Drizzle is not an inherently broken ability. It can benefit many a Rain Dance team, ubers or no. Same for Drought, although Drought has even less of a reason to be banned; what, are you really afraid of Fire and Grass Pokemon taking over the world?
Clearly a criminal mastermind.
If anything, Nintendo should be doing more instant field effects. Instant Hailstorm is nasty since only one type is immune; why not give it to another Ice Pokemon to curb Dragons further (darn you, Kyuremu)? A Trick Room from the get-go would stop the flow of Sweepers that came out this Gen. (Play your cards right and Mr. Mime might end up being useful - hint, hint.) Instant abilities are not a bad idea in and of themselves. There is no reason to ban them. Just ban Kyogre.
The other thing that Smogon is trying to ban is ANYTHING that inflicts the Sleep status. Before you start saying "DURRR you've never been hit by a Sleep move!", that's not true. I get hit by them all the time in the Battle Tower. There are no Full Restores to save me. Sleep moves are legitimately annoying and game-winning.
But y'know what? Sleep has been a part of Pokemon since Generation I. Jigglypuff used to be one of my favorite Pokemon because its lullaby attack on the TV show was amusing. There are abilities that can block Sleep if you are that worried about it. It's good, but the sparse amount of Pokemon it can come on and general low accuracy of such moves compensates for how good it is. Freezing is much worse a status. Don't tell me you're planning on banning Ice Beam just because it can freeze, Smogon.
The sad thing is that this is happening with Pokemon. I'm used to this sort of talk from YGO players. Since the ban list was first born, there have been 'banlist babies' screaming "ban it!" at any remotely powerful card that Konami released. Some cards, like Fiber Jar, were worthy of the ban. Others such as Brain Control were not so deserving. It is still a common complaint in YGO, in part because the game is inherently broken. Pokemon is not as broken, and does not merit removing whole game mechanics.
That is just silly.
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