Random Pokemon

The Surprise Factor: Prologue

posted by Blue on Sun, 2008-10-12 20:32

When Pokemon Red and Blue first came to my country I remember playing them with my friends from school. Very few of us had internet and none of us knew how to use it. Furthermore, our Pokemon were not at level 100 (at first), we didn't know every single attack that existed and in fact, we didn't know every Pokemon that existed although they were only 151. Those days the Pokemon Battles were extremely different. I couldn't guess which Pokemon my enemy would use and what attacks it would have. The only thing I knew is that he was going to use his Starter Pokemon (and later on he would use Mewtwo). I have heard a lot of people nowadays saying that they prefer those types of battles and I am not blaming them. Every battle was something new and exciting. You didn't know what your enemy was preparing for you. A friend of mine destroyed all of us when he first placed Counter on Mewtwo, because he would deflect our Hyper Beams! I became very powerful when I first placed Blizzard on Blastoise because this way I could defeat both Charizard and Venusaur. We had a lot of fun those days due to the fact that every day we would discover something new.

Some years passed and we now had Pokemon Gold and Silver as well as Internet. Things changed a little because now if we got stuck somewhere we would check the internet and if we wanted to create a powerful Pokemon we would take the advise of a guide. The battles though were still quite unpredictable because all these guides were at their first levels (and/or some of us didn't know where to search).

With the arrival of Ruby and Sapphire and the Advance generation, the internet became full of guides, Pokemon of the Week columns and things like that, that were puting every Pokemon in a Tier. When I saw that, I first thought: "Ok, that's good because now people will not use Uber Pokemon against the others". This thought was right, but people continued using some specific Pokemon that are well known today as the Over Used Pokemon. Things got even worse when I realized that not only the Pokemon were more or less the same, but the movesets were also very predictable.

Today we have Diamond and Pearl and things are even worse. You are good if you remember the "counters" and the "anti-counters" and not if you use the POkemon you like with moves that will surprise your enemy. When I first joined this site I remember Eraleas saying to me that he doesn't care about all these, but he cares about Pokemon he likes; and in fact he really knew how to use them. I totally agree with him. That's what the trainer is all about. You need skill and courage to differ from the others…

You may wonder what's the point of this article. Well, this year I want to start a series of articles about the surprise factor in the Pokemon Games. I believe that we can defeat our opponents using smart and unpredictable Pokemon as well as movesets. I plan to post a "Surprise Pokemon of the Week" every so often with the help of Ninjomewtwo and your ideas. So, first of all I want to hear your opinion about this. Leave your comments here, as well as in the thread that I will create on the Forum. I will be very happy to see a lot of people caring about this project, because we may change the way we play Pokemon…

Pokemon on Nintendo WiFI: What have we done? - D/P Battle Tower Guide for Single Battles

ExplorerAce @ 13/10/2008 at 02:57:57 am

I think this is a good a good idea. I enjoy the element of surprise in my battles, whether it be a defensive-wall Metagross or a Chain-Pokemon (ie. Using a boost, then attacking with the opposite Attack type.)

I would also ask if you could have an article on Jumpluff. I know Aluado could help you with it. ;)

Blue @ 13/10/2008 at 05:23:06 pm

Actually this is a topic that we have to explore from its begining. Everyone is welcome to give advise:)

high @ 14/10/2008 at 09:32:48 pm

i agree, pokemon has lots it fun edge. Now a days people laugh at u if u use pokemon like castform. its all about stats and what not. i think this suprise pokemon of the week is a great idea because it will bring pokemon back to its fun roots where people battled eachother useing every pokemon and just have fun it it. i'm all for this.

Blue @ 14/10/2008 at 11:50:05 pm

I would like to say that the surprise factor is about the whole battle. We can talk about a Pokemon, a Team, the EP spread or just a single attack.

Anonymous @ 15/10/2008 at 12:50:39 am

Sounds cool. Could Palkia and Torterra be Pokémon of the Week sometime?
P.S. Mine are Mild ones.

Blue @ 15/10/2008 at 02:40:30 pm

Ok. We will put it in our priority list :) I will also try to think if there is a surprise way for Torterra. (Palkia is an Uber and this are even more predictable in the Ubem Metagame. You can use the element of surprise even there but I will focus on non-Ubers mainly)

Kevin @ 19/10/2008 at 12:26:12 am

I think this is a great idea. Some of my favourite teams are from story mode, where you don't have to worry about counters, tiers, and EV training. You just play.

People are very surprised when I use my Grumpig in "real" battles. It's actually one of the best on my team, even though I've never seen anyone else use it before, or really even consider it.

Anyway, Absol is one of my favourite Pokémon, but you don't hear much about him other than as a Baton Passer. I'm hoping you can find a surprise strategy with him :3

Alice @ 24/10/2008 at 07:43:10 am

Honestly, you are so right. Flashing back to those days battles were intense. I seem to always have a knack for provoking invigoration in my opponents and soon found some rivals rising in still. I miss those hour long Level 100 battles.

My story is far from different. First off, very quickly Mew & Mewtwo were not permitted. (Our Mew came from Toys R' Us. ~ Freaky think was mine's IV's were almost dead on max.) I could go on for a while reminising: especially considering I am getting sick of seeing Legendary Pokémon appear when I try and go online with Battle Revolution.

By the way, there was an undefeatable Pokémon in that first generation and they are not a Psychic type or one of the 3 birds. My friends made me battle without that Pokemon many times because that one Pokémon would never fall. Which was great, all kinds of new stradgeys were devised because of that.

With Plantium out, I seriously would like to give my right arm to be a designer approaching a MUCH needed Battle Revolution 2. There is finally enough speces that Suprise factor could return. I think to start with would be the option of Banning Pokémon with the Ability: Pressure. You can imagine how that would quicky start demanding more attention to stradgey again.

I wish you luck with your series of articles. However, the reminsing was nice.

Poundflaf @ 04/11/2008 at 04:45:00 pm

Im to young to know anything about "the old days", but people should not realiy so much on online movesets, and make up their own! I mean come on, going online for movesets, ahh, how much more obvious can you get! I may be 11 years old starting this month, but I now never to look online for movesets! People, too obvious! make battles fun!

alex @ 19/11/2008 at 10:17:02 am

hi, just thinking what you said about surprise movesets. Although I personally love surprise movesets (I've trained 4 different togekiss and use surprise sets on three of them), aren't we going to get an issue where people are going to be expecting these surprise movesets if they become popular? By the very definition, a surprise pokemon gets wiped out often or set up on if they are expected.

Anyway, I'd like to see a Drapion moveset. Drapion is unusual in and of itself and can work with Sniper and its Crit boosted moves (400% damage crits are sooooo good).

Also, since I'm a mad togekiss trainer, I thought a surprise Togekiss set could be made easily due to its vast movepool and Serene Grace.

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