Pokemon Analysis

Complicated EV Spreads: Bulking Up!

Hey there Hat Lovers,

Today will be a follow-up to my “On developing Speed tiers throughout a metagame” article. This time around, I’ll be looking at examples of Pokemon that don’t set the speed bar first, and instead are interested in surviving important attacks. Specifically, I’ll talk about how players recognize what attacks are important, how that relates to the purpose of a Pokemon, and common themes amongst Pokemon that invest in bulk over maximizing their attack stat. My goal is to help players cue in on what they’ll need to prepare for in a developing metagame, and how they can go about doing that!

Table of contents

  1. What’s the real threat?
  2. What does your Pokemon do (and how can you help it fill that role)?
  3. What kinds of Pokemon use complicated spreads?
  4. In Conclusion

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Raichu & Friends

Hello Hat Lovers!

Today I’m going to talk about Raichu and some partners that work well with it. Before generation six Raichu was a terrible Pokemon, however Raichu’s base speed was boosted to 110, putting it above all the base 100s and Garchomp. Tony Cheung used a Raichu to win Washington Regionals, and Barry Anderson used a Raichu to win the Nugget Bridge Invitational. I played around with Tony’s Raichu/Gengar team a bit after Washington Regionals, and after US Nationals I revisited the team with Kangaskhan as an alternate Mega as seen in the Umbreon Team. I found that the Gengar side of the team wasn’t performing as well as the Raichu + setup side so I focused the team exclusively on having Raichu supporting an attacker. Over time I’ve been changing up what I was using on the team, but the theme to my teams has always been Raichu & Friends.

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Pokemon of the Week: Blastoise

Mega Tortank

Hey there Hat Lovers!

Today’s PotW comes as a request from PokeFan.

Blastoise: It’s a turtle. It’s a gen 1 starter. Its french name is “Tortank.” It’s pretty coo’, as most nostalgic 20-something year olds will tell you. But what can it do for you?

I’m glad you asked random internet-goer!

Base Stats:
 79 / 83 / 100 / 85 / 105 / 78

M-Blastoise:

 79 / 103 / 120 / 135 / 115 / 78

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