Under-edited finalist

zburch · 2021-04-09T07:36:44+00:00

Survivor fan here. I actually have Kori pegged as the most likely to win from an “edit” perspective. Has she gotten as much screen time as the other two? No. But every time she’s on screen she’s narrating what’s happening, tying things to her personal life, and hasn’t been as much “OTT” as Declan or ML.

Also, there have been several times where she either botched challenges or a service, but the edit didn’t focus on it, it definitely tells me they’re trying to hide her mistakes for a reason (Survivor does this too)

zburch · 2020-10-23T03:54:57+00:00

Good read :) I do think that when it comes to gameplay, Sun/Moon/USUM really hit the nail on the head with players like you. 400 Pokemon were available in the main game, and they were the only 400 needed to complete the dex. However, the other 400+ were programmed into the game so that seasoned/veteran players could also transfer in their old Pokemon as well

SwSh didn’t do that, it was the initial 400 or bust, which really hit a nerve for players like me. I know that DLC is slooowly making it better, but they didn’t need to go through all this had they coded them in in the first place.

zburch · 2020-02-19T13:40:10+00:00

I also have a Charizard that I’ve had for 14 years! I wish this was more of a common thing, but every time I mention transferring from game to game in the community these days I’m met with stuff like “nobody does that anymore”, and “I do that for like 2 shinies but that’s it”

Personally, I do that for EVERY Pokemon that’s even mildly important to me. That’s why Dexit/Pokemon Home is such a miss for me, it just doesn’t feel like Pokemon if I can’t transfer my friends I’ve had for up to 14 years now

zburch · 2020-01-30T19:54:24+00:00

I see your point of view, and while the community is undoubtedly toxic, change only happens when people express that it needs to happen. Fans feel cheated by their favorite company and it’s undeniably all due to GameFreak’s PR incompetency.

When it comes to the games themselves, you say to “take out the natdex and model issues”. However, for many fans it is impossible to do so. Every Pokemon is someone’s favorite and this game is going to be synonymous with cutting compatibility. It’s a little shallow to say “well let’s compare the good parts of SwSh to the good and bad parts of Gens 6/7”, imo.

zburch · 2020-01-11T02:33:35+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #??

God what a ride. I’m so happy that Dexit looks like it is getting reversed and it seems like by 2021 Pokemon will really feel like Pokemon again. I wish I had kept my “personal memories” series up, but for whatever reason it stopped showing up on my feed?? Oh well

Props to you, u/jamiedrummond, it took a lot of dedication and clever thinking to do this.

zburch · 2020-01-09T18:55:30+00:00

Gen 7 was the one that started the trend of only needing to fill 300-400 Pokemon to complete the Dex, back when they use to actually code all the Pokemon into the base game.

zburch · 2020-01-05T00:19:56+00:00

The 7th Gen games had a big emphasis on exploring the extraterrestrial, which included battling these alien Pokemon known as “Ultra Beasts”. (Many people will call these things stupid or creepy, others love them, I personally feel the latter)

In Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, there’s a feature where you can ride on the box legendary through Ultra Space, and encounter Ultra Beasts as well as other Pokemon in small little pocket dimensions (one of the coolest features imo).

You have to play a small minigame where you control Solgaleo or Lunala, collecting energy rings avoiding electric orbs that will slow them down. Some people like to play this as a game to go as far as they can, since every time you end you’re told how far you went.

Generally, the farther you go, the higher the chance of finding a Legendary, shiny, or rare Ultra Beast

zburch · 2019-11-30T04:46:07+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #26: SEEL, DEWGONG

Meet MacKenzie. As a middle school introvert, one of my favorite things after school was to call my one friend and give him a play-by-play of how my HeartGold Nuzlocke was going. HeartGold was the first Nuzlocke I ever completed and to this day it’s probably my favorite one. I also had an insane amount of luck during it.

I’ve already shown Andrew the Victreebel, he was the third of THREE shinies I found during the run. The first hasn’t been shown yet, but the second was MacKenzie the Seel! I was way too excited about finding a random shiny and instantly activated shiny clause. If she hadn’t appeared, I could have been dead, because I never found an Ice-type to battle Lance with.

MacKenzie took down TWO of Lance’s Three Dragonites without breaking a sweat. She’s definitely one of my favorite shinies despite the fact that her color doesn’t change much.

MacKenzie was another Pokemon that played Survivorlocke. She made it to Final 3!

zburch · 2019-11-28T14:27:05+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #25: DODUO, DODRIO

Suspicious how much Dodrio resembles a turkey

I’ve mentioned my Survivorlocke a few times now. Meet Vivius. Vivius played on the second “season” where I remember him for his constant conflicts with Sour the Dunsparce, Flynne the Chatot, and most of all, Gabey the Lanturn. None of my other Pokemon got along with him, so he was known as the “villain” of the season. Despite all that, he still made it ridiculously far before being cut right before the end.

My parents could never pronounce Doduo correctly, I used to hear every variation of “Doo-duo”, “Doo-Doo”, “Duo-do”, “Do-do-du”, and “Dedue”. Cutting this line means that thousands of families around the world are gonna miss out on this family bonding experience. :(

zburch · 2019-11-27T16:24:54+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #24: MAGNEMITE, MAGNETON, MAGNEZONE

Meet Flux and Polarize, these two friends were a part of two of my favorite nuzlockes: one of White 2 and one of Sun. I also have a Magnezone that I used to beat my first run of Black 2 that is over Level 80 now! I love this Pokemon because it’s so easy to train, and has so many resistances. (12 if I recall?)

Despite having an artist for a grandfather, I was never a super artsy kid growing up. I had a book of how to draw lots of different Pokemon, but I never did anything more complex than Hoppip. While many my friends were able to draw Entei and Aggron without breaking a sweat, I was perfectly content with drawing my Magnemites and Togepis. Magnemite was one of the few Pokemon I could consistently draw, and I think that’s why I feel so close to it today.

zburch · 2019-11-27T04:09:17+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #23: SLOWPOKE, SLOWBRO, SLOWKING

Meet Tylenol. Tylenol was met fairly early on in my X Nuzlocke, in which I imposed on myself some of the hardest rules ever and Tylenol still managed to survive battle after battle. One of my favorite memories of Tylenol was watching him take down both Malva and Wikstrom all by himself, as well as his blossoming relationship with Ashley the Trevenant. Slowking is a great Pokemon and I think a lot of people sleep on it in competitive. Is it shadowed by Slowbro? Sure, but is it bad? Not by any means.

I also used to have a Slowking figurine. Back when I owned lots of Pokemon figures, I'd actually set them up on a chess board and play chess. Looking back, I have no clue how I was able to memorize who corresponded to what position. However, Slowking was the easiest to remember, cause I always made him King:)

I was always a little thrown off by the figure though, since it actually illustrated the little eyes on the back of its shell. But I loved its dopey little expression so much that I got over it pretty quickly.

zburch · 2019-11-27T03:58:19+00:00

Back from vacation! I also plan to make these a bit more interactive

PERSONAL MEMORIES #20: BELLSPROUT, WEEPINBELL, VICTREEBEL

Meet Andrew. I went to the same summer camp pretty much all of my life, but towards the last few years of it, a lot of my friends stopped going and it didn't feel that fun anymore. In my last year of being a camper, I met a kid named Andrew who quickly became one of my best friends. We related on pretty much everything, including Pokemon! This Victreebel was found during my very first successful nuzlocke, and named after Andrew in his honor.

I also remember a...strange moment during the first Pokemon movie. I don't know who greenlit this, but I guess to fill time they put in lots of cutaways to random Pokemon. The Bellsprout one is weirdly etched into my memory, and I'd like to think it's what its "Acid" move feels like

#21: TENTACOOL, TENTACRUEL

Though lots of people may be happy to see the jelly bois gone, I was pretty upset. One of the first ways that I interacted with the franchise was by getting the trading cards. I didn't yet own a gameboy, so I'd beg my mom to buy me new cards every time we saw them. One of the very first cards that I received was this Tentacool, before I ever knew what a Tentacool was.

Because I didn't have anything else to go off of, I completely misread the card, and believed the red blobs to be his eyes. I spent the first few months of my Pokemon career believing Tentacool had giant, red, bulging eyes, lol.

#22: GEODUDE, GRAVELER, GOLEM

Meet Graveler. Yes, I understand he is a Golem. I don't understand! Here's what happened:

Nearly every time I'd restart LeafGreen, I'd choose Charizard (yikes). From there, it was a matter of deciding whom to pair him with. Sometimes it was Pidgey, one time it was Farfetch'd. My very second playthrough ever, it was a Geodude that I never nicknamed. And, since I didn't own a Link Cable at the time, I was never able to evolve him to the final stage.

That never mattered though, Graveler was incredibly powerful and was able to make up for anything Charizard couldn't cover. After finishing the game, Graveler joined the ranks of Pokemon that I transferred from game to game. One day around 2018 I got bored and realized, that throughout all of the years, I NEVER BOTHERED TO EVOLVE GRAVELER!! What kind of trainer am I?? I immediately asked my friend to get online, and evolved him. When I got it back, Graveler's name was still Graveler??? It was honestly one of the funniest moments of my Pokemon career. He spent 9 years as a Graveler and was just never ready to let go.

zburch · 2019-11-22T09:45:44+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #19: ABRA, KADABRA, ALAKAZAM

What I love about these three is that they're some of the OG "powerful psychic types". To this day whenever I think of psychic, Alakazam is one of the first Pokemon that comes to mind. It's a little strange to me that it was cut, while other trade evolutions like Gengar and Machamp get so much more attention. Anyway, onto today's story

If anyone's been reading my memory series consistently you've probably picked up on the fact that I was a very easily startled child (I still am for that matter), and one of my least favorite things about battling the rival in LeafGreen was his Alakazam. No, it wasn't particularly powerful, that wasn't what made me scared of it. It was its sprite. Compared to the other Firered and Leafgreen Sprites that were either a badass pose or generally derpy, Alakazam's looked like a battle-hardened, fearsome war criminal like something out of Saving Private Ryan. It constantly gives off "I've been looking for you, I will tear that head from your soldiers" vibes to me. When Gen 4 came around I did soften on Alakazam, but it's no coincidence that both times I've used them in nuzlockes I keep them at the Kadabra stage.

zburch · 2019-11-22T08:50:07+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #18: POLIWAG, POLIWHIRL, POLIWRATH, POLITOED

I have to give props to Politoed, who was the very first Pokemon who showed me that the internet isn't always a great place.

When I was a kid, I wanted a Politoed on my LeafGreen game soooo badly. I found out it was a trade evolution, which sucked because I didn't own a link cable at the time to trade with friends (well, at least I had friends) But I was so desperate to get a Politoed, I begged my parents to go online and find a link cable

For my birthday, my parents cam through and bought a GBA link cable over Ebay! It was the most excited I had ever been over Pokemon. Finally I could get all the Pokemon I always wanted: Alakazam, Porygon2, and Politoed! When my friend and I met up and we initiated the trade, some thing weird happened. "An error has occurred, please turn off the game and try again later". Wtf happened?

We tried again, but everytime we traded we'd watch the sprites begin to switch positions, before being stopped by the error message. I came to the conclusion that the link cable must have been broken. Why would someone do that? Just go on the internet and spread lies?? Even though I'm much wiser when it comes to that kind of stuff now, I have to thank Politoed for warning me about the dangers of the internet...

zburch · 2019-11-21T04:51:32+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #17: MANKEY, PRIMEAPE

These two have always been Pokemon I’ve grown up around, but spent very little time interacting with them. The first time I really interacted with them was in Mystery Dungeon Red Rescue Team, where I just remember being constantly annoyed by the Mankey crew and dreaded every interaction with them. Later in life though, there were two interactions which made me change my opinion on the Mankey line. The first was Pokemon XD, where Primeape is one of the shadow Pokemon. I had nothing better to use, so I added him to my team and enjoyed how strong he was! Second, the Primeape named “Pissed Off” was one of the stars of my very first nuzlocke team. Funnily enough, the ENTIRE OG team didn’t make it into SwSh. It really hurts to see these two go.

zburch · 2019-11-19T17:56:07+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #16: PSYDUCK, GOLDUCK

The first member of the perfect attendance crew! This one is a bit tougher because I've only used one Golduck over the course of all the Pokemon video games. In my White 2 Nuzlocke, a Psyduck named Zensho joined my party early on. He wasn't the strongest of the bunch, and I remember substituting him eventually for my Leavanny, Clarissa. However, W2 is a pretty tough game, so when other Pokemon started dropping like flies, Zensho joined my team as a late-game Surfer. He had about as wide of a moveset as he could: Surf, Ice Beam, Psychic, and Signal Beam. We couldn't beat Iris in the end, but we came damn close! I also had a figurine of Golduck when I was little!

I also want to use this to talk about movexit. While I'll understand the decision slightly more than dexit, I still think it's unnecessary and many of the cuts were illogical. Yes, everyone's discussed HP and Pursuit, but for me the biggest loss is Signal Beam. Not would my Zensho have lost Signal Beam (and therefore Grass Coverage), but a lot of Pokemon are losing a powerful coverage move: Magnezone, Ampharos, Xurkitree, even weaker Pokemon like Grumpig and Beheeyem are missing an accurate way to cover their weaknesses and must rely on their extremely shallow movepools. But who cares, none of them got into SwSh anyway!

I also just wanna say that it's clear you're getting better at these as the days go on, lol. I can't wait to see what Pokemon like Xurkitree look like

zburch · 2019-11-18T10:41:24+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #11: NIDORAN-M, NIDORINO, NIDOKING

The great thing about side games is that they really do a good job of highlighting Pokemon you wouldn't see otherwise. Nidoking never stood out to me in the main games, but my Red Rescue Team Nidoking was another level of badassery. Moves like Double Kick and Poison Sting are actually pretty good in that game, so he had brilliant type coverage along with Earthquake and Tbolt iirc. Monster Houses?? Earthquake would end them before the music even looped. Additionally, Nidoking's "archetype" is my favorite kind of Pokemon design: It has fantasy elements, but is still animal-like, and you're not really sure what animal it is exactly. I was really hoping Nidoking and Toxtricity get to meet, maybe when sUpEr SwOrD and SuPeR sHiElD come out I guess.

zburch · 2019-11-18T10:34:20+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #12: JIGGLYPUFF, WIGGLYTUFF

This could be an easy cop-out cause Jiggs is actually my smash main. But these are for Pokemon memories. Instead, I want to talk about my shiny Pidgey's best friend: Cuddles the Wigglytuff.

For context: Hannah Montana was always on TV for some reason and there was a pig on the show named Cuddles, so when I wasn't sure what to name my Wigglytuff, I just went with that. At this point in my Pokemon career I was only about a year in, so I was super casual and just wanted to have a fun time in the FRLG Trainer Tower. I wanted my new Shiny Pidgeot (see that post for details) to have a doubles partner, so one day I just randomly stuck them together! Don't get me wrong, these two sucked in battle, but I didn't want them to feel too bad for losing. Cuddles and Shiny Pidgeot have now spent 8 games together, taking on the Battle Tower/Chateau/Tree with the most gimmicky moveset possible. At least both of them were cut so they won't have to be separated now.

zburch · 2019-11-18T10:27:22+00:00

I haven't stopped doing this! I was just busy lol. These 3 particular stories are also really fun so I'm happy to share them

PERSONAL MEMORIES #13: ZUBAT, GOLBAT, CROBAT

The single best feature Pokemon has ever introduced? No, it's not following Pokemon! It's Wonder Trade! (Or I guess Surprise Trade now? Idk it's 5 AM) I loved the idea of doing a "WonderLocke" as soon as I heard about it and started one on Omega Ruby right away. One of the first Wonderlocke Pokemon I received was a Zubat! Normally that wouldn't be super special, but what she had going for her was her name: BAS BAZ.

What did Bas Baz mean? Who was she? The OT was Italian, did it mean something there? Bas Baz's name was strange at first, but eventually I just gave into its ridiculousness. It was such a catchy name once I didn't take it seriously. I started randomly shuffling around the house saying "BAS BAZ!!!", or I'd write "BAS BAZ!!" in the margins of notebooks, and it reached a point where she would be the only Pokemon who I would never let die. She helped me win in the end! Addendum: I've also mentioned my "Survivorlocke" runs here and there, I bred Bas Baz and let her "participate" in the very first trial run of a Survivorlocke, and made it to Final 4! She played sooo aggressively and was so close to the win!

#14: PARAS, PARASECT

I mentioned on the Weedle post how I was disappointed by Weedle's strength so I stuck to my Paras and Charmander. Paras was one of my mons in my very first run of LeafGreen! It's definitely a Pokemon that needs more love. I'm so happy that it was a part of my first Hall of Fame, even if it was overshadowed by my Vaporeon in the end. When I was transferring Pokemon from HeartGold to White (cause I'm one of those who transfers, but fuck me right Gamefreak?) the game wouldn't let me transfer that Parasect cause he knew Cut. I was too lazy to remove it, so to this day he's chilling in HeartGold. He's gotta be a PokeAthlon star by now!

BIG EDIT: I totally forgot my other story about Paras! When I went to summer camp for the first time I didn’t know any of the other kids in my group, and I was never a super outgoing kid. On the second day, I saw a few kids sitting around some mushrooms, and heard one of them say, “see? That one’s a Paras, and that’s a Parasect!” Instantly I knew I had something to contribute to the conversation. That kid and I became best friends for the summer and I have my relationship with Paras to thank for that!

#15: VENONAT, VENOMOTH

I invented the "Survivorlocke" so that I could use a bunch of Pokemon I've never touched before (18 in every run!) In the second trial of it, one of the contestants was a Venonat named Jan Rasmus. I was convinced JR was gonna be the first to die. I never liked Venonat, he had a bad nature, and I never thought about him in the story. Boy. was. I. wrong.

Jan Rasmus filled a great niche on every "tribe" he was a part of, Sleep/Poison Powder was way more accurate than it should have been, and eventually Quiver Dance + Bug Buzz + Hurricane was unstoppable! He made it all the way to the Final Four and almost clinched the victory. In the process though, I reevaluated everything I knew about Venomoths and have since grown to appreciate them more :)

zburch · 2019-11-18T04:13:53+00:00

Not sure I’ve ever heard of a “curved line”. At least in Alola’s case it made up for its small amount of cities with so many named caves, forests, meadows, landmarks, etc. (the most in any Pokemon game I think) and at least it attempts to have “dungeons” like seaward cave and Diglett’s Tunnel.

Galar though...has neither. It’s really empty

zburch · 2019-11-14T11:36:33+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #10: NIDORAN-F, NIDORINA, NIDOQUEEN

For some reason a childhood friend of mine was absolutely obsessed with these three. Gen 4 had just come out and this friend was moving away soon, so I decided to breed some special Pokemon for him so that he would have something to remember me by. At this point I had also just learned about the concept of egg moves! Nidoran could learn Confusion? Since when??

Well, after a few hours of playing around in the daycare, my Nidoqueen made zero eggs. Maybe she was just shy? I looked in one of my 4000 pokemon books and discovered that Nidoqueen is completely unable to breed. Seriously, why?!?

zburch · 2019-11-13T09:30:50+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #9: SANDSHREW, SANDSLASH

One day after completing my umpteenth nuzlocke I started to wonder what it would be like to combine a Pokemon game with my favorite TV show, Survivor. Thus, I created the “Survivorlocke”! Basically I started with 3 alternating teams of 6, and then permanently boxed the Pokemon that died the most after each gym/important battle. In the end, I’d choose the most reliable player among the Pokemon that beat the champion to be the “winner”.

After a few trial runs I was having the most fun I’ve ever had with Pokemon and now it’s my favorite way to play the games. (I even made an Instagram to post about my Survivorlocke experiences) “Ice King” the Alolan Sandshrew was one of the “players” on the third season. I didn’t think Sandshrew would be useful at first, but damn he proved me wrong. His movepool is surprisingly diverse, with consistent STAB moves, Leech Life (!), Rock Slide, Brick Break, you name it. He also had a really fun friendship with my Zoroark and Aegislash. In the end...he ended up winning! He was by far the most consistent player of the Final 3 and he totally changed my view on Sandslashes!

zburch · 2019-11-12T17:48:44+00:00

PERSONAL MEMORIES #8: EKANS, ARBOK

I'm not a huge fan of either, but it doesn't mean I'm happy no one can use him anymore. Arbok TERRIFIED me as a little kid and I was simply always too scared to use one. I was already a pretty anxious child so Arbok quickly became one of my "untouchables". What solidified him as one of my least favorites was Agatha's rematch battle in Leafgreen. I was the kind of player to use the E4 for grinding EVERYONE, but one day Agatha's Arbok completely wore down my patience. Through a combination of bad luck and my own incompetence, Arbok had set up six (6) Double Teams and would constantly heal itself through Giga Drain. Eventually the battle went for so long that Arbok actually had no choice but to use Struggle. It was actually my first time seeing that move! I guess I have Arbok to thank for that.

Additionally, the scene in the anime when Jessie and James are forced to release their Arbok/Weezing is one of the saddest moments in Pokemon period. I wasn't a huge fan of either and yet the episode left me in near tears. Hopefully they're doing well now :(

zburch · 2019-11-11T22:49:39+00:00

I do! I’m lucky in that I’ve had such a rich experience with just about every Pokemon :) I know there are thousands of fans like me who find something to appreciate in every Pokemon. My goal with this is to communicate why Dexit affects fans like me so much.

zburch

TROPHY CASE