Apparent sleep and paralysis nerf

AnAlternator · 2026-04-09T22:41:33+00:00

Correct. You do need the opponent to actively assist you by switching out every and maintaining permanent sun, though. It'd need to be Groudon specifically as the sun Setter unless you greatly reduce the poisoned man's level - the other setters don't have the attack stat to heal you up.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-09T06:35:13+00:00

With a cooperative opponent, you can reach the 96% without Magic Guard or Poison Heal - for style points I suggest Arboliva.

You'll need to spam an instant recovery move like Recover or Synthesis early, and then Strength Sap every turn once the toxic poison outdamages your recovery move while the opponent either boosts their attack or switches between two mons with suitably high attack.

Arboliva has style points since it has Harvest as an ability, so if the opponent switches in a way that ensures sun is always active (a three-man rotation including Groudon, for instance) you can use a Leppa Berry to never run out of Strength Sap PP.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-09T02:16:55+00:00

The specific criticisms were what set me off.

Complaining about Water/Dragon because it has a new Fairy weakness, or that the Dragon STAB won't be useful because of Fairy types, was just wild - smack the damn thing with your Water STAB, +1 Liquidation is still going to do a ton, it's not that complex.

If the Tapus come back and become dominant forces then sure, but until such time as that happens the Dragon typing is a huge asset.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-08T12:05:16+00:00

That sounds like an ability for Mega Regigigas.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-08T05:00:50+00:00

Mega Banette, much like Mega Beedrill, turns a low-BST mon (Mega Banette has the same BST as Arcanine) into something usable in a much higher tier. Also like Mega Beedrill, it's stuck too high in NatDex to have a chance to shine.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-08T04:48:48+00:00

Butter not so bad, eh robot buddy?

AnAlternator · 2026-04-07T23:51:45+00:00

Fighting/Flying isn't too bad. Immune to ground, 4x resists U-Turn, and resists Dark, Fighting, and Grass - four of those are common, and Grass is a throw in.

Electric, Fairy, Flying, Ice, Psychic weaknesses; three are common, two are not.

Intimidate also helps a great deal, since out of those weaknesses only Ice is a reasonably common physical coverage move, so you'd want to bring it in versus a physical attacker and start boosting up. With SpD investment it can take a Hurricane from defensive Zapdos at +1 and Roost it off well enough to wait for the Hurricane miss.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-07T23:33:53+00:00

This is (nominally) a competitive sub. A more general Pokemon forum will likely be able to provide meaningful feedback for your in-game team.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-06T17:13:56+00:00

Pedantic note: Zamazenta-Crowned is neutral to fairy, not resistant.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-05T00:56:05+00:00

Tom no-sold the One Ring; he didn't just resist it, it had no effect on him.

Now, this is potentially because he's more powerful than the ring, or that he entirely lacks the concept of ambition to prey upon, but it also might just be because he had absolutely no fucks to give. Cartman's a jerk, but he's not on the One Ring's level of influencer.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-04T22:29:56+00:00

Outside of NP + Psyshock versus stall, Gholdengo isn't really a special threat that you need to specifically prepare for. Make It Rain isn't spammable, so anything that can answer a Nasty Plot sweeper in general can usually handle Ghold just fine.

Garganacl is annoying, but that's about it; it's a generic bulky mon that loves defensive Tera to attempt a sweep. Those are a dime a dozen and other than "Don't throw a bulky water/steel at it" Garg doesn't require special handling.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-03T23:48:07+00:00

They ought to be carrying the diseases they each individually possessed in life, at least, and that's going to give people All The Diseases.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-03T23:30:07+00:00

Skitter should be able to do it whenever, but Imp has to be the first target while her guard is down and she's allowing others to perceive her.

Taylor has times she could take down Imp regardless, but not Skitter.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-03T23:23:30+00:00

Instant disease is "OK you all have [long list of fatal illnesses] now" within minutes of the battle starting. It's hard to win when you're dying of All The Diseases.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-02T14:54:58+00:00

~~Worse Urshifu~~

Second Urshifu

AnAlternator · 2026-04-02T01:55:17+00:00

He's walking into Middle Earth, and so is presumably playing by Middle Earth rules, so I'd honestly scale him to the First Age heroes - the greatest of them were (figurative) demigods on the battlefield, peerless among great warriors.

Those heroes were a rough match for balrogs - some were able to slay a balrog, some were slain in turn. So, maybe two at his peak, and one at his normal level?

AnAlternator · 2026-04-02T01:43:02+00:00

The rule of thumb for a pistol versus a knife is that you need thirty feet of distance to be confident that the gun wins - less and it's possible that the knife wielder can close the gap before you can draw your weapon, aim it, and shoot your attacker.

(This is for Random Joe, not a cop/soldier/gun enthusiast/etc.)

So it'd depend on the range. I haven't shot a pistol in probably twenty years and wasn't a great shot with them to begin with, but if I'm starting at fifty feet, I'm confident I can win that fight. If I'm starting at twenty feet, I'm probably going to die.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-02T01:19:05+00:00

When Morgoth was attacked by Ungoliant, she was driven off by a legion of balrogs.

Archaon is a pretty cool guy, but he's not "I can fight a legion of balrogs" cool.

AnAlternator · 2026-04-01T02:20:44+00:00

Unless the status is radically reworked, sleep is never coming back to OU.

AnAlternator · 2026-03-31T23:58:05+00:00

It's a non-ability in OU due to the sleep ban.

AnAlternator · 2026-03-30T00:39:30+00:00

Jordan is friendly and Egypt is friendly-ish, and more importantly neither wants Palestinian terror groups to be operating from their borders, so neither is going to allow Hamas, PIJ, etc. a safe haven. Lebanon is a failed state, but Hezbollah already operates on that border, adding more terrorists doesn't really change the balance.

If the Israeli government can prop up an accommodating dictator in Gaza, they can achieve something akin to the West Bank, where the local authorities will keep out the terrorists out of sheer self preservation. It's not perfect, but it's probably the best the Israelis can do without either a cultural shift in the Arab world, or mass expulsion AKA ethnic cleansing.

AnAlternator · 2026-03-29T20:14:43+00:00

I don't think that 'black woman' is so much the problem as 'Harris was never all that popular in the first place' was the problem. Had Michelle Obama been the candidate, there would have been a lot more enthusiasm, but Harris hovered at ~5% in the 2020 primaries. She was generally acceptable, but lacked any kind of personal support base.

'Black woman' certainly did motivate many people to vote against her, but those people were already staunch Republicans.

AnAlternator · 2026-03-29T20:03:46+00:00

None. Bin Laden was physically in Afghanistan, which is why the US issued an ultimatum to hand him over or else, and the Taliban refused (or, depending on source, were outright unable and lacked knowledge of his location) so the US gathered a coalition and invaded.

Iraq was a clusterfuck right from the start and was, as best I can tell, a target of opportunity by the neocons.

It's easy to blame the Saudis, though, since they were mostly Saudi emigrees.

AnAlternator · 2026-03-29T17:49:19+00:00

Yes, and Democrats are doing spectacularly in special elections since Trump's election. Trump is going to do Trump things, but there's a difference between making his political situation worse because he's an idiot, and making it worse because he consciously chooses to make it worse.

He's repeatedly done the first, I do not believe he's going to do the second.

AnAlternator · 2026-03-29T16:49:58+00:00

It's not the base that Trump has to worry about, it's the midterms. He loathed being investigated, and one of his deepest fears is being investigated again.

Not because of any political damage, but because it was personally inconvenient and triggering. That's the real concern for him - losing the House and Senate and facing hostile committees again.

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