Regarding our selection process

[Blue Harvest]

No one will care in 3 and a half more years (which I believe you stated you'd like the PoTW 5th Gen to last) about a moveset for Empoleon, Scizor, or any other OU or Uber Pokemon that you haven't covered. People will have figured out the best/most popular/their favorite movesets on their own. I mean, Swalot? Really? Do yourselves a favor and pick out Pokemon people will want to read about. And this isn't about the number generator. This is about the fact that you don't exclude dumb Pokemon that don't have any redeeming qualities. The last two PoTW to be featured were Swalot and Leavanny. It seems like the articles should have had a disclaimer saying: "These Pokemon cannot take hits or dish them out. They have little redeeming qualities, however. So if you wanna use them, use them."
Have you even read Levanny's Overview on its PoTW?
Why would anyone even consider using it after that severe criticism?http://www.serebii.net/potw-bw/542.shtml
Seriously this is some bull sh*t.

lol, Leavanny is complete garbage. Do you want us to lie and say "if you use Leavanny, and you use one of these sets IT WILL SWEEP". No, if you use the leaf bug it will probably just die on the spot when a Skarmory, Salamence or whatever switches in and kills it.

I do agree we should cover some more interesting Pokemon right now. If we just took Smogon's OU list we would have well over a year's worth of Pokemon to cover. Pokemon remain usable until you drop to the low 200's, this equals four years worth of POTWs.

Then again I'm not spending any of my time writing these. If you disagree, see what Reno says.

[asterat]

There over 70 unova pokemon that cna still be done thate full evolutions. Do those ifrst because redos are boring.

[asterat]

There over 70 unova pokemon that cna still be done thate full evolutions. Do those ifrst because redos are boring.

[Serebii]

If we were to do them all right now, we'd be stuck for the rest of the time with just old Pokéon. Here, we have variety.

[Mr. Marowak]

^^ Agreed. And how is it that nobody knows it's a RANDOM number generator? RANDOM! That means you DO NOT know what's coming next! Swalot's not a heavy-hitter competitivly, I can agree with that. If we were to do all the Over-Played first, nobody would bother to contribute to the next half. What am I saying? MOST ANYBODY CAN BE USED COMPETITIVELY! So long as you know how to use 'em. Marowak? NU, but usable. Typhlosion? Him too, but UU. This is why they even BOTHER with tiers. Would you pit a Blastoise against the standard (Energy Ball running) Galvantula? No. Would you put out a Lucario? More likely. If you don't like the PoTW, don't ramble on about it. I had a feeling things like this were gonna happen. No viewer consent? Whining about it. WITH viewer consent? You guessed it; whining about it! You can't please everyone, ESPECIALLY not on the Internet. If these sets are THAT bad, you can tinker with your own sets. That is all.

[Blue Harvest]

If we were to do them all right now, we'd be stuck for the rest of the time with just old Pokéon. Here, we have variety.

70 new final form Unovas + about 130 non Unova "relevant" Pokemon (meaning OU and Pokemon you can effectively use in OU).. thats 4 years or Pokemon.

lol, or at least try to avoid stuff like Leavanny and Swallot.

[jesusfreak94]

I personally like getting random Pokemon like Leavanny and Swalot. Yeah, they kinda suck, but they're just so much fun to read. When Garchomp's POTW came out, I almost perfectly predicted what sets were going to be on the review. It's just so...predictable. But Swalot? Who knows what possibilities you could come up with for that.

[jespoke]

Random stuff is fun! Only OU would be boring :I

[Blue Harvest]

If PotW is designed to teach new players we should absolutely focus on OU Pokemon. A new player won't gain anything from reading about Leavanny but they might benefit from learning about Garchomp or Salamence.

[tecannon521]

I dont get why everyone complains about doing pokemon like swalot and others. yes, they might not be in the ou but thats what makes them fun. anyone can go and use ou pokemon, win, and call themselves good. the uu and nu pokemon on the other hand are much harder to win with and therefore i find they are more fun to try and use. keep using the random number generator, its always fun trying to find ways to use the "inferior" pokemon

[stenli]

Serebii, how if the RNG gives you something like Luvdisc, Spinda, and Unown?
I think we just have to focus on competitively viable pokemon...
And please do Shaymin's Land Form :3

[Reno]

most pokemon are competitively viable, in one tier or another. stuff like unown wouldn't be done unless I was unable to write a proper article.

[MegaLeafeonmon]

Hey how about you focus on a specific region every week, but keep the randomness. That way, it might make people more happy......

[LokiTheGengar]

Jesusfreak is totally right. Swalot is the epitome of WTF when it comes to competitive battling (heck, I forgot it even existed for a while), but It's fun to see what strategies come about from those oddballs. If the Pokemon is limited due to its moveset I might even run it as a joke because nobody sees it coming (but not Leavanny). And never, ever underestimate the amazing awesomeness of the unexpected.

[Blue Harvest]

most pokemon are competitively viable, in one tier or another. stuff like unown wouldn't be done unless I was unable to write a proper article.

All Pokemon are usable, but only the top 150 or so are actually viable. Sorry lol, no matter how hard you try Leavanny and Swalot are going to be terrible.

[stenli]

Sure, every pokemon have their own niche, like Leavanny can sweep ..do something in Sun. But why should people bother using her instead of Leafeon? Why should I use Swalot when there's Muk? ~_~

Discussing trollish pokemon can be fun sometimes. The thing is the RNG shouldn't be completely random as it can give us godawful Pokemon more than 100 times in a row...

EDIT: @below that actually is my point...

[Blue Harvest]

Sure, every pokemon have their own niche, like Leavanny can sweep in Sun.

See, this is the logic I see a lot of players have. No, having Chlorophyll does not give Leavanny a "niche". A niche refers to how something makes a living in its own way. How this species can out compete other similar species and survive. The Elephant gets by by being damn near impossible to kill without a pack of starving lions. Humans are the top predator on the planet due to our brains, despite our bodies being comparably frail. In nature some shitty animals like rabbits that aren't very good at much can get by if they have a ton of children, or band together in packs.

But this isn't nature, its Pokemon battling. Leavanny's "niche" as a sun sweeper is outclassed almost 100% by every other Pokemon that fills a similar "niche". Sawsbuck, Venusaur, Shiftry, Victreebel, Lilligant etc. What does Leavanny do that these Pokemon can't? Baton Passing Claw Sharpens? STAB Bug? Being "different" does not make something usable.

Don't get me wrong. You have the freedom to use whatever you want. But no matter what not "all" Pokemon have a niche. Some downright suck. If you use them capitalize on their strong points; but don't fool yourself into thinking they are the best at it. ^_^

[windsong]

I dont get why everyone complains about doing pokemon like swalot and others. yes, they might not be in the ou but thats what makes them fun. anyone can go and use ou pokemon, win, and call themselves good. the uu and nu pokemon on the other hand are much harder to win with and therefore i find they are more fun to try and use. keep using the random number generator, its always fun trying to find ways to use the "inferior" pokemon

No, they can't.

[Reno]

basically what this thread tells me is that if all OU pokemon were picked people would complain. when I write about swalot or whatever, people complain.

[Tbird]

basically what this thread tells me is that if all OU pokemon were picked people would complain. when I write about swalot or whatever, people complain.

Meh can't please everyone so just keep doing what you're doing. This is supposed to be fun and all, but I guess it's only fun if people get everything their own way .

[steelguttey]

im just going to as for my favorite pokemon: Grumpig.
While he has almost no value in OU, he can do well in the lower tiers, plus you haven't done him ever.

[jesusfreak94]

basically what this thread tells me is that if all OU pokemon were picked people would complain. when I write about swalot or whatever, people complain.

Yeah, I seriously don't know why people complain. If the RNG picks a top-tier OU or UU Pokemon, then this gives newer players valuable information about common Pokemon in that tier, as Blue Harvest said. If the RNG picks some crap Pokemon...well, those are so much fun to read and come up with sets for.

On top of that, those people don't have to write these things like you do, so they really don't have room to complain...

[SomeoneIGuess]

What he said. Besides, when the RNG picks crap, it's fun to watch Reno go 'Unown is crap, why would you want to use it when there are 492 other Pokemon in the Pokedex?'

Or something like that. In 4th Gen.

[random13]

im just going to as for my favorite pokemon: Grumpig.
While he has almost no value in OU, he can do well in the lower tiers, plus you haven't done him ever.

Dude, look at the last 11 pages, it's RNG (Random Number Generator) no requests.

[Blue Harvest]

im just going to as for my favorite pokemon: Grumpig.
While he has almost no value in OU, he can do well in the lower tiers, plus you haven't done him ever.

Grumpig counters Infernape, offensive Deoxys S, Heatran, Starmie (kinda), CM Virizion (if you run Psyshock / Twave), Latias, Latios (you survive two Draco Meteors.. usually), Machamp kinda, Conkeldurr almost.

Ok, some of those were a stretch. He sucks pretty hard, but Psyshock / Thunder Wave / Magic Coat / Whirlwind could be usable. It also gets Heal Bell to keep from being total dead weight. Its pretty crappy but in 4th gen it was ALMOST good enough to be used. It was mostly outclassed by Tentacruel for those resistances and tons of others outclassed Grumpig at support and special walling.