u/ShotandBotched

#1: 51 Romans saw "10_ Dalmatians" with raccoon (7)

DEFINITION: >!"Concept". We're looking for a synonym for this.!<

FODDER: >!"Bhutanese" and "ocean".!<

INDICATORS: >!"Near Eastern" and "sound of". "Wakes to" can also be a construed as a rather loose indicator.!<

LETTERS: >!N!< >!O!< >!T!< >!I!< >!O!< >!N!<

NARRATIVE: >!Bhutan is a landlocked country, so the idea of a Bhutanese person waking to the sound of the ocean would be a strange concept indeed (let's pretend that traveling abroad doesn't exist...)!<

Dead simple one today. (EDIT: Fucked up the letter count. Don't write clues while high.)

#1: Maine's borders contained slaughter of teaming by anti-gravity drones (9)

This week's mini is a big large as the title implies but all the answers share a common theme which should be easy to suss out. Here's a short clue to wind you up first.

#1: Pokémon met with 32 friends destroyed I.B. Imports (9)

Here's the mini. Enjoy!

https://crosswordlabs.com/embed/punch-out-3

It's time to step it up a notch. I spent quite a bit of time refining my clues and cleaned up a lot of the fluff. I made them more "Ximenean" if you will. So no more hints and no more answers (I may reconsider the former if I feel the clue is particularly difficult).

In an effort to drive up engagement I encourage you to post your answer in the comments. Enjoy!

#1: Placidly tidied up around hectare while watching this channel once a day (10)

Somebody has a case of the Morndas. Let's shake it off with a warm-up.

#1: Sold a million modifications in Japan; may be a hack? (8,5)

ANSWER: >!PLATINUM KAIZO!<

Now let's get heated.

#2: Victory! 106 shaken Roman martinis, please...but not for that galactic jerk. (7)

DEFINITION: >!"Victory!" The Victory Pokemon is the answer here.!<

FODDER: >!"106" and "martinis". We'll have to figure out how to modify both of these to find our answer.!<

INDICATORS: >!"Shaken", "Roman", and "not for that galactic jerk". So we're making substitutions, anagrams, and deletions in this clue.!<

ANSWER: >!VICTINI!<

Hold onto your butts, because like a suppository this will be a pain in the ass. But let's get warmed up first, shall we?

#1: Hi! Per Qatar, you cannot charm wild Krabby, they say (5,6)

ANSWER: >!HYPER CUTTER!<

#2: Flannery's Camerupt devours butchered Old English equid to satisfy ascended princess (9)

DEFINITION: >!"Ascended princess". There is simpler word for this, and we will find it when we construct our answer.!<

FODDER: >!"Flannery" and "Old English equid". We'll use most of these letters to form our answer.!<

INDICATORS: >!"Camerupt", "devours", and "butchered". One of these is a containment indicator, so the rest of our letters will be surrounded letters determined by the next indicator "Camerupt". "Camerupt" is being used as a rather devious homoglyph indicator; Camerupt's design is based on a very specific type of camel. Finally, the third indicator is a standard anagram indicator.!<

ANSWER: >!nidoqueen!<

Saturday, the kids go out and play, yo I was up in my room, I let Angas Tiernan play

Alright, same deal. An easy warmup, followed by the main event. Let's get started.

#1: Spooner said "de boeuf" means "of plump mouse" (6)

ANSWER: >!BIDOOF!<

And now our feature presentation:

#2: Caring for recycled loam (9)

DEFINITION: >!"Caring". There is indeed a Pokemon whose Pokedex category is "caring".!<

INDICATOR: >!"Recycled". That's right, it's our first letter bank indicator. "Recycle" the fodder to construct your answer.!<

FODDER: >!"Loam". Yes, our fodder is significantly shorter than our final answer. What could it mean?!<

ANSWER: >!ALOMOMOLA!<

You can do this first one in your sleep:

#1: Motor backfired; gave up the ghost (5)

ANSWER: >!ROTOM!<

I've got a bit of a nutty one here, but I couldn't resist making a reference to one of the more infamous moments in pChal history.

#2: Odd Sun-boosted Solar Beam departed southeast, disfigured husband and father, leaving Petalburg in this state? (8)

DEFINITION: >!"Husband and father leaving Petalburg in this state?" The definition features a play-on words, and the anwer is also a play-on words, hence the question mark.!<

FODDER: >!"Sun-bosted Solar Beam" and "southeast". We'll be using the letters of one word (and perhaps not the other) to construct our answer.!<

INDICATORS: >!"Odd", "departed", and "disfigured". Standard selection, deletion, and anagram indicators.!<

ANSWER: >!NORMLESS!<

EDIT: After some agonizing on the way to work I decided to change a word in the second clue to make it a little bit less vague.

It's morning again in pChal land. I'll start you off with the pissiest easiest one of all time to warm you up, then we move on to the main event.

#1: EZ Unlock dismantled by difficult ruleset (8)

ANSWER: >!NUZLOCKE!<

And now for the main event. As the title implies I think I really cooked with this one as the zoomers say so I can't wait for you to solve it in seconds.

#2: Ekans' snake wraps around greeting sea slug (7)

DEFINITION: >!"Sea slug". It's time you started brushing up on your Pokedex knowledge because many of my clues will reference Pokedex descriptions.!<

FODDER: >!"Ekans" and "greeting". We'll need to use part of one word and a substitution for the other to find our answer.!<

INDICATORS: >!"Snake" and "wraps around". We have our first homoglyph indicator as well as our first container indicator.!<

ANSWER: >!SHELLOS!<

So the bad news is that I can't call these PokeCryptics anymore since that already exists (you can find that here). The good news is that I came up with another name which is just so clever: pChalCryptic. So going foward that's that I'll call these. So now you can get twice the Pokemon-themed Cryptic clues per day, and at least one of them is guaranteed to be good! Now on with today's clues.

The first one is a cheeky little warmup which also serves as our first Mini! You can find it at the link below:

https://crosswordlabs.com/embed/crobat-sample-moveset

ANSWERS: >!1: CROSSPOISON; 2: AERIALACE; 3: UTURN; 4: GIGADRAIN!<

And now for the main event:

Top level armed forces domain perhaps acquired analog panzer for scrappy ace (7)

DEFINITION: >!"Scrappy ace". We'll need to think of some Pokemon that could fit this definition.!<

FODDER: >!"Top level armed forces domain" and "panzer". We'll need to use the indicators to find some appropriate substitutes.!<

INDICATORS: >!"Perhaps" and "analog". Standard substitution indicators.!<

ANSWER: >!MILTANK!<

I'm back with another installment of the wildly popular PokeCryptic series. Today I have a trio of clues for you: two easy ones to warm up, and a difficult one to chill you out. Enjoy.

#1: First Squirtle, second Charmeleon, third Infernape...many starters hacked by this person. (3)

ANSWER: >!SHF!<

#2: Say Dre, ya know that sort of lobstered glove can help you hack four difficult ROMs in order? (7,8)

ANSWER >!DRAYANO GAUNTLET!<

And now for the main event:

#3: Almost stave off confused Chinese martial arts grandmaster to encounter specific wild Pokémon, briefly (5,5)

DEFINITION: >!"Encounter specific wild Pokemon". The rest of the clue will tell you exactly how to do that.!<

FODDER: >!"Stave off" and "Chinese martial arts grandmaster". Work with the indicators in conjunction with the definition to suss out who in the hell the grandmaster might be.!<

INDICATORS: >!"Almost" and "confused". "Stave off" could almost mean something else which is more closely related to our answer. "Confused" is being used as a reversal indicator here to reverse the answer to "Chinese martial arts grandmaster".!<

ANSWER: >!REPEL MANIP!<

Edit: I decided not to add the bonus clue after tweaking it some more but forgot edit the title, so there is no bonus. Sorry!

I got some good feedback from the first one. That clue was the very first one I wrote which kicked off several hours of clue-writing, so it was definitely rough around the edges. Hopefully I've worked out the kinks in the rest. So here's the second one. Enjoy.

Spooner said barn food and Pink Floyd album perhaps helped him climb sheer river (9)

INDICATOR(s): >!The word "Spooner" most often tells you that you'll have to perform a "Spoonerism" to some words to create the answer. The word "perhaps" is telling you that you'll probably have to sub-in some synonymous terms.!<

WHAT YOU'RE WORKING WITH: >!"Barn food" and "Pink Floyd album". Notice how I didn't label this section with the usual term?!<

DEFINITION: >!"Helped him climb sheer river." What in Pokemon could help you climb a sheer river?!<

ANSWER: >!Waterfall!<

I noticed the other person who was making Pokemon-themed Cryptic clues hasn't posted one in some time. I decided to spend my morning writing some clues. I originally intended on making a whole crossword, but I don't have the spatial awareness to put one of those together, so I'll just post individual ones here daily.

DISCLAIMER: I don't claim to be an expert at making these. Some of them will be shit. Some of them will be piss easy. Some of them might not even entirely work in the context of a cryptic clue. But I had fun writing them, so enjoy. So here goes:

What Madonna might dissuade Italian Pope battling a Clear Body Pokemon from doing (4,4,7)

Hint: >!It's kind of an &lit with a play-on words. Think of Madonna's greatest hits, then think of what sort of moves you might not be able to use on a Pokemon with the Clear Body ability.!<

Answer: >!PAPADONTSCREECH!<