u/ScienceTeacher1994

I've been encountering this core quite a lot on ladder and having quite a bit trouble with it. It's very telegraphed what their game plan is, but that doesn't mean it's easy to stop it.

- They almost always lead with Raichu next to Espathra

- Raichu mega evolves into Mega Raichu X, which activates Espathra's Electric Seed with the Electric Terrain

- After one Calm Mind and Speed Boost, Espathra Baton Passes into bulky Archaludon

- Usually, Raichu switches out into Pelipper and Archaludon clicks Electro Shot

I don't know if this core existed prior to M-C, I had never encountered it before. I have encountered Espathra and Archaludon many times, but not the Mega Raichu X variant. But I'm seeing it a lot now, which I'm guessing has to do with the addition of Electric Seed.

The comments about the President of Blizzard as she did the opening of Blizzcon were absolutely vile and disgusting. Didn't your momma teach y'all to stay quiet if you have nothing nice to say? You aren't even paying a dime to watch this event, the least you could do is to not demean someone who's just doing their job.

In case you didn't know, Alolan Persian is in the game, and it is quite good in the current meta.

While it doesn't appreciate taking a fairy type move from Mega Gardevoir, it completely shutdowns every other popular Expanding Force user in M-C.

It can also comfortably take fighting and bug type moves from pokemon like Mega Galisopod thanks to its great ability, Fur Coat, which halves the damage taken from physical moves.

I've been running my Alolan Persian with max health and max speed EVs, with a Focus Sash and a moveset of Fake Out, Parting Shot, Snarl, and Foul Play. You wanna run it next to a fast poison or steel pokemon that can counter Mega Floette and Mega Gardevoir. Mega Gengar, Choice Scarf Toxtricity and Choice Scarf Gholdengo, for example, are all good partners. There are probably others, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Unlike Incineroar, it is quite fast, and being a pure dark type, it also doesn't have as many weaknesses.

I think a lot of people are sleeping on this pokemon right now.

edit: extraordinary*

I feel like this pokemon could carve out a niche in the meta. We don't have many good specially offensive poison type pokemon, and not that many electric type pokemon in general. This pokemon has both typings, a decent special attack stat at 114, and a good ability in Punk Rock. Unfortunately, its 75 base speed puts it in an awkward speed tier, too fast for Trick Room, but slow enough that it needs Tail Wind and Choice Scarf to outspeed other threats. How do we feel about Toxtricity?

So I haven't watched Hermitcraft in a few years but I remember that there used to be a FeedTheBeast (FTB) Modded server where Hermits such as X, Etho, Hypno, and xBCrafted would play regularly. There seems be no trace of this server in the current season. Have they decided to shut down the FTB server for good?

I remember at the beginning of M-B, everyone was hyping up Mega Eeelektross because of its good two-in-one ability, its ground immunity, and its lack of weaknesses.

A few months later, it's nowhere to be seen. I've only faced it a handful of times on ladder. The only pro player (that I know of) to make a team with it was Michael der beste, but he never took that team to a tournament anyway, it was just a youtube showcase.

What happened? What caused it to not live up to the initial hype?

I like to play hard Trick Room with Farigiraf. Lately I've been having a team that has Silk Scarf Last Resort Kangaskhan and Mega Golurk, and today I encountered a team that seemed to be specifically designed to counter hard TR teams.

They were running Tinkaton with Fake Out and Mold Breaker, meaning it could ignore Armor Tail, as well as Tsareena to block out priority moves. To make matters worse, the Tinkaton was holding a Shuca berry. I was never able to set up Trick Room, and my Mega Golurk couldn't even kill their Tinkaton with a ground move.

Is there anything I could have done here, or I was just unlucky to face an anti-Trick Room team?

Since this pokemon has been introduced, I've seen almost no one talk about it or play it.

It's very slow and bulky, making it a decent Trick Room setter.

Its ability is not as good as Armor Tail, but it having Telepathy means that you can pair it alongside users of moves such as Earthquake, Parabolic Charge, Surf, etc., which enables some strats in Doubles.

Is it seldom used because it's outclassed by Oranguru? I know Oranguru also has access to Telepathy, but I've traditionally seen people use Inner Focus on him.

I became aware of this today while playing this team (see screenshots below) that was featured by GeordiVGC on youtube, but Mega Raichu Y and Wide Guard Araquanid feel really great to play together.

In its base form, Raichu protects Araquanid from powerful electric type attacks from opposing Raichu or Rotom, thanks to its Lightning Rod ability. Conversely, Araquanid doesn't really fear any of Garchomp's attacks (even supereffective Rock Slide crit can't OHKO it), and can protect Raichu from Earthquake with Wide Guard.

While Mega Raichu Y is fast, Araquanid is slow and can wall Farigiraf with Bug Bite, meaning that this pairing can work well even if the opponent sets up Trick Room.

Finally, you can hit just about anything for at least neutral damage with a combination of Zap Cannon, Focus Blast, Liquidation, and Bug Bite.

While I don't think this team specifically is competitively viable, being mostly a fun ladder team, it did made me realize that Mega Raichu Y/Araquanid might be a really good pairing.

What do you all think?

https://preview.redd.it/6kogdjrqk2kh1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=f13fb69b5908eb77d5f9c1b23967bc16f77c54e3

https://preview.redd.it/akwxhd3sk2kh1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=cb2f038c81d19a5ea6ec9cbf8b9294fc81e59cf1

I'll start off by saying that there are obviously many exceptions, which is natural given the large number of people who play video games. Some people are incredibly smart and successful in spite of the fact that they play video games. But when I look at your average gamer, I basically see a useless idiot, as my title implies. And to make matters worse, statistically speaking, many of these individuals are medically obese, use illicit drugs, and consume alcohol regularly, so they end up being burden on their own society's healthcare system in the long term.

I'm about to turn 32 and I'm also getting married tomorrow to a woman that I love and who loves me. I have a college degree from a good college and a job that pays well and which I enjoy for the most part. We have plans to start our family next year. I should be rejoiced, and in a way I am rejoiced, but at the same time, I can't help but ask myself: is this it? I will get married, work for the next 40-45 years, have children, retire, and then die? Surely there has to be more to this one life than just that, right? Maybe I'm just overthinking all this, but I can't help but feel like something is missing to this 'perfect' life. I have already travelled a lot and seen so many of the wonderful things that this world has to offer, so maybe I should just up and be thankful for what I have.