Week 6--Gothitelle: The Allure of Dark Magic

Gothitelle
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Vulpix says: 

Gothitelle, the Astral Body Pokemon, was introduced in Generation 5. Initially, it was one of the Pokemon I was most excited about going into the generation. Psychic is a particular favorite of mine, and Gothitelle’s colors appeal to me. Despite that, I had such an easy time taking out its evo line during gameplay that I decided against raising my own.

You chose poorly.

I know what you’re thinking… I was probably a little too hasty in my decision, but my first play through is always like that, operating on whims and quick decisions and no looking back. However, nearly every Pokemon has a use, and Gothitelle is surely one! Raikou will tell you some heartfelt, tried and true logic about how to properly utilize her.

As for me, after scrutinizing Gothitelle’s page, this is what I think I would do!

My Build

Terror!

Nature: Modest (Up SpAtk, Down Atk)

Ability: Shadow Tag

EVs: 252 HP, 152 SpAtk, 66 Def, 40 SpDef

Item: Leftovers/Life Orb

Moveset:

Trick Room

Fake Tears

Psychic

Energy Ball

Explanation: For starters, I went with Modest nature to pack a heavier punch, then used the EVs to add some bulk and a little extra oomph. Gothitelle’s build made it easy… with base stats 70/55/95/95/110/65, there’s nothing you need to do for its attack, and nothing you can do for its speed, really. Its HP isn’t all that impressive, though, so beef it up and increase its defenses. Modest already gives you a sizable boost on your SpAtk but a few EVs are still nice.

I like Shadow Tag! It means your opponent can’t leave the ring! So, that means, while he’s there you might as well torture him a bit. That sounds fun, right?! Trick Room is a fun one, as it reverses the order of who gets to go first, and with Gothitelle’s meh speed, that should put it pretty high in the pecking order. Don’t fudge with Gothitelle’s Speed though. With Trick Room, you’re going to beat out all of the speed attackers no problem, and you won’t win out against Trick Room pokemon anyway.

Who you calling 'meh'? I will END YOU.

Now that your opponent can’t go anywhere, hit it with Fake Tears. This makes your opponent more susceptible to your attacks. I thought about throwing toxic on there, but in my experience, toxic is too slow of a way to faint, especially since Gothitelle isn’t terribly bulky to begin with. With Fake Turns, you turn your opponent into a target that you can most likely one shot on your next turn, and there’s not much he can do about it (because he’s stuck there!).

Then all you have to do is rock Energy Ball (because I hate Rotom Wash) and Psychic for the win!

How could you question how fabulous I am? I mean, really. 

Raikou says:

Raikou here with some more awesome POTW!!

This week we are here to talk about the lovely humanoid, ribbon wearing fiend, GOTHITELLE. Competitively this pokemon can do so many things. I originally totally despised her in all of gen 5. There just wasn't anything special to her in my eyes, but between her decent stat spread she can fill many types of spots essential to a complete team. Plus not to mention she as some decent abilities that give her even more of a spread capability. Here are a few  ideas for those that want a way to build her

Specs Power House (Gothitelle) @ Choice Specs

Ability: Shadow Tag/ Competitive

EVs: 252 Sp Atk / 4 Sp Def / 252 Speed

Modest/Timid

- Psychic/Psyshock

- Thunderbolt

- Energy Ball, HP Fire, HP Ice

- Trick

This set here is just all about to deal out as much damage as you can, plus with her decent bulk, even uninvested, she can take a hit or two to ensure you can deal out some strong damage in return. Depending on how your team is built, Psychic or Psyshock is a necessity with that killer STAB hit. If you choose to use Competitive and someone happens to intimidate you, or anything of the short, you get more power. Although you can run Shadow Tag instead to make sure you can switch in on a poke you know you can kill and keep it there till you take it out.

This is my serious face. 

Assault Vest Wall (Gothitelle) @ Assault Vest

Ability: Shadow Tag

EVs: 152 HP / 160 Def / 138 Sp Atk / 60 Sp Def

Bold

- Psychic

- Energy Ball

- Thunderbolt

- Dark Pulse

This set here is one of my own personal sets, this is meant to wall peoples hits for as long as it can and twinkle down just about anything. With her base 95 Sp Atk, she can deal out decent damage with this investment in it. This is mainly meant to take out an annoying poke that you want to make sure the opponent cant switch it out unless you want it too, or until you bring in the KO

Yes... hold very still. This will only take a moment. 

Trick Room Wall/Power House (Gothitelle) @ Leftovers

Ability: Shadow Tag

EVs: 200 HP / 120 Def / 12 Sp Atk/ 178 SP Def

         252 Sp Atk / 252 Def / 4 Sp Def

Bold/Modest

IVS: 31/x/31/31/31/0

- Psychic, Psyshock

- Toxic/Dark Pulse

- Trick Room

- Protect/Energy Ball

This set can be taken in two ways, the first being a TR setter and wall that you can spam Toxic and Toxic Stall your opponent, while dealing damage in between turns. The second set is all about you power housing and destroying things while TR is up. If you want to be even slower to ensure you "outspeed" in the TR, you can run a Quiet nature. I personally prefer Modest so that I can speed creep another TR team whenever TR is not up.

Not so fast!

Lastly I will talk about her in VGC, I won't put up spreads just because there are so many of them, but if you want to know any more you can just message the page, and I will gladly Oblige you some info. In VGC Shadow Tag is really great for ensuring your opponent won't get the switch advantage and you can trap those trouble pokes in. Which works out great in a Perish/Trap team. She can even just be a wall and can slam Charms on the physically strong pokes in the meta to make them not be able to do any damage.

So there you go guys, Gothitelle. She has become one of my fav pokemon to use on my teams, and I highly recommend putting her into consideration when trying to build a well rounded team.

Raikou Over And Out!!!!!

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Week 5--Seaking: **** Yeah, Seaking!

Seaking
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For a very long time, I hated this fish more than Magikarp. Magikarp grows up into Gyarados, and for a long, long time, Gyarados was one of the strongest water Pokemon in the game, and is still second overall in physical attack for the water type (first, if you consider its Mega). I mean, I wanted Seaking to be way better than it was, but it just wasn’t very strong in a lot of ways. The most that could be said for it was that it was probably the easiest obtainable Waterfall user, since you could catch a Goldeen with an Old Rod.

As you don’t know, we choose Pokemon of the Week randomly. To do this, I use a random number generator to pop out a number corresponding the National Dex number of a Pokemon, then choose its highest stage evolution. Seaking is our first random pick. I confess that, before we picked Seaking, I had never considered using it in a competitive fight, but after doing a little research, I hurriedly bred my own. I hope you will soon see why.

OBVIOUSLY.

Let’s start with Seaking’s base stats. At a meh 80/92/65/65/80/68 (total 450), Seaking isn’t all that impressive. However, much like Nidoqueen, this moderately balanced set gives you a lot of flexibility with its training and upbringing, making Seaking an easily customizable fish. Also, since it’s a monotype water, it only comes with two weaknesses, lightning and grass, which are fairly well covered with a decent special defense.

You don't say!

Seaking has two useful abilities (in my opinion): Swift Swim and Lightning Rod. Most of you are probably already familiar with Swift Swim, which doubles the Pokemon’s speed in the rain. If you ask me, though, Swift Swim is not useful on Seaking. It would use up too much of your stat resources to make its speed boost worthwhile. Without boosting its stats, Seaking is a meh 136 speed in the rain. This would typically put it among the top speed Pokemon in the game, except that you have to consider speed-boosted Pokemon. If you’re up against a Pokemon with speed, you’re probably not going to get the first shot, so you’re wasting your time.

Lightning Rod is… interesting. Lightning Rod draws all electric attacks to the ability bearer and ups that Pokemon’s special attack by one stage. Only 16 Pokemon in the game own the ability Lightning Rod, and all except for Goldeen and Seaking make obvious use of it. The electric types use it as a charging technique—duh, zap an electric Pokemon and giftwrap a hot charge. Meanwhile, the ground type Pokemon are grounding the charge, rendering electric attacks harmless to the ability bearer’s team. But on Seaking, this takes a more startling role, as it makes Seaking completely immune to electric type attacks, one of its only two weaknesses.

F*** YEAH, SEAKING!!!!

Um. Wow. That’s impressive!

Well yes. More handsome than Magikarp, and far more useful.
Because Seaking.

This makes Seaking a wonderful addition to any rain team as a counter to Jolteon or Thunder in general and eliminates your fear of electricity—at least so long as your poor flimsy fish doesn’t die, that is. The drawback of using Lightning Rod Seaking is that it suffers from being Captain Obvious the moment it swims into the ring. Most experienced battlers will be expecting the Lightning Rod and simply avoid using their electric attacks. That doesn’t change the fact that your team is impervious to Electric, though!

This is the fish that I raised:

“Cuddlefish”

Item: King’s Rock

Ability: Lightning Rod

EVs: 252 Atk 144 SpDef / 124 Def

Nature: Jolly

- Waterfall

- Agility

- Megahorn

- Toxic

Cuddlefish, take the stage! 

Waterfall is your go-to move, and though I lack tried and true experience, I love the King’s Rock for extra flinching goodness! I chose natures and EVs to round out Seaking’s moderate but decent stats to make it a good solid fish with some emphasis on special defense to survive the dreadful grass attack. Megahorn is your weakness coverage to negate the fear of grass pokemon. Use agility if you can for that extra speed boost, and Toxic, of course, if you’re feeling vile.

I’ve found Seaking to be a fun Pokemon to use, but the problem I usually run into with using it is that the Lightning Rod is a dead giveaway. Although I am positive (see what I did there?) that Seaking’s presence protects my team from electric attacks, a well placed Energy Ball or Giga Drain one hit KO’s Seaking, and Energy Ball can be used by so many different pokemon that you might never see it coming.

Like us on Facebook! For a limited time, if you share our Facebook page on your timeline and comment "shared" on your POTW Facebook post, you will receive a very rare Lightning Rod Goldeen with 5 IVs! Lightning Rod is a Hidden Ability, which can only be obtained currently from the obsolete Pokemon Dream World. This means that unless you know someone with the ability, there is no longer a legitimate way to receive Lightning Rod Seaking! 

Week 4--Ludicolo: Singing (and Dancing) in the Rain

Ludicolo
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Vulpix says:

Lotad was one of the first pokemon that I ever caught on my Pokemon Sapphire game. I thought that its typing was pretty interesting, and on my first playthroughs I always like to play blank slates. I don’t look up stats online, I don’t research which moves it will learn and when… I just like to wing it. I set up a type balance on my team and I don’t switch anything up unless it’s not working out. This was how I met Ludicolo. All in all, he wasn’t a bad Pokemon.

Good Guy Ludicolo

Ludicolo has average, balanced base stats (80/70/70/90/100/70). It sounds boring, unimpressive, and unlikely to be the top of the list in any singular stat, but the beauty of balanced Pokemon is that they don’t topple over like glass cannons, and don’t have flimsy weapons, either. With a good nature and well-placed EVs, a balanced Pokemon can be a good allstar on any team. My Nidoqueen, for example, can survive almost any hit, and still hits pretty strongly as well.

I confess I’ve never used him in competitive battling, as I’m still fairly new to competition, but I can see how his abilities and interesting typing could be useful. In this regard, I will let our good buddy Raikou explain it best. As for me, I’d likely add Ludicolo to a Rain Dance team and use Rain Dish.

Raikou says:

Raikou is here to give you updates on this PotW. It just so happens to be that crazy dancer who seems like a drunken fool, Ludicolo.

Now this pokémon has always been somewhat of a powerhouse due to its abilities, typing, and decent base stats. Most of its real uses are on Rain Teams, which as always been one for my favorites themes.

Rain Wall/Forever Life (Ludicolo) @ Leftovers

Ability: Rain Dish

EVs: 200 hp / 196 Def / 52 Sp Atk / 60 Sp Def

Bold

- Scald

- Leech Seed

- Protect

- Giga Drain

This set has one main job, and that is to stall out someone, and even counter other rain teams. This set intends for Ludicolo to take most any hit, (aside from Physical flying hits that is) as well as be able to keep itself alive for a long, long, long, long, ect. time. You can opt in for Hydro Pump over Scald for more damage, but Scald is better because of its 100% hit, and that chance to inflict burn status. Just imagine its their last poke against this thing, and if things go right, you can get Leech Seed, burn damage, and be Giga Draining a pokemon till their health runs out, while yours is constantly growing.

NOPE!

Assault Vest Power House (Ludicolo) @ Assault Vest

Ability: Swift Swim

EVs: 152 HP / 120 Def / 94 Sp Atk / 16 Sp Def / 128 Spe

Modest

- Hydro Pump

- Fake Out

- Ice Beam

- Giga Drain

This set here is one of my personal set ups, as well as one of my favorites for him. This spread gives him decent coverage all around defensively and offensively. Not only are you maximizing on his dual STAB with some powerful moves, but you are getting good coverage with Ice Beam, and Fake out is always nice to break Sash's and give you some first turn damage advantage. In VGC this set did me loads of justice because it could deal out decent damage to just about anything aside from B.B. TalonFlame(gale wings), and Mega-Venusaur. On this set I prefer Hydro for damage output, but once again Scald is always a nice option.

Speedy Power (Ludicolo) @ Life Orb

Ability: Swift Swim

EVs: 252 Sp Atk / 252 Spd / 4 Sp Def

Modest

- Focus Blast/Leech Seed

- Giga Drain

- Hydro Pump/Scald/Surf

- Ice Beam/Protect

Here is where we see Ludi, just using its solid stat base, and awesome Swift Swim ability, to its max to deal heavy damage to everything it can get its hands on. For the water STAB you can choose between any of the 3 listed for good power, it all boils down to preference in the end. There isn't much that can take a Life Orb, Rain Boosted any of those three. It just boils down to what will work best for your team. I, once again, opt in for Scald just because if I run into a special wall at all, getting that burn residual damage is always nice.

You can't even handle your own life. What makes you think you could handle mine? 

The great thing about Ludicolo is that he is so very versatile and can be used under almost any setting. Another fun option in doubles is to open up with Scarf Politoed, Absorb Bulb Ludi, and turn one Surf with Poli, get the boost to Ludi's Sp Atk as well as Swift Swim boost. You can wreck everything. He can do so much, and can honestly fit on most any team. If you are looking for a great pokemon for your rain team, a counter for a rain team, or just a pokemon with a lot of possibilities, I recommend Ludi for the slot. Keep him in mind when building teams and you can't go wrong! Raikou over and out!

Not only that, guess who's always ready to party?
THIS GUY.