Greenlit: Why you shouldn't use Ambipom

Hi. bobandbill / others have suggested I take these pieces about garbage Pokemon to the Daily, so here I am.

I have noticed that competitive Pokemon on this site is beginning to experience a bit of a surge in popularity, what with PCL going on, tournaments, etc. However, other tiers (such as Ubers, UU, RU) are underrepresented, which bothers me. These articles would help people who are interested in these tiers teambuild by advising of what to steer clear of. I can write confidently for ORAS RU and ORAS Ubers, and, to a lesser extent, BW2 Ubers... although dog knows how many people besides myself and Sweep play the latter metagame.

Ideally, this would be a series released every so often. Format would be like this:

• small overview
• the set everyone runs
• the appeal of the Pokemon
• why it actually sucks
• what to use instead

which is identical to the format I currently use in my blog entries. Of course, if you have suggestions as to how I can make that set-out more effective, they are absolutely welcome. I want to make these as accessible as possible.

For example, this article would talk about Ambipom, which is a Technician attacker used to chip away at threats. Ambipom happens to suck in the tier it's currently in, which is ORAS RU, for many reasons: it's too weak, it's walled by a plethora of Pokemon, it's frail, and it's very easily revenge killed once it uses Fake Out by anything with priority or anything holding a Choice Scarf. These things make it a waste of a teamslot in many situations.

Other things I could write about:

• Cinccino (RU)
• Various Arceus formes, such as Arceus-Flying, Arceus-Fire, Arceus-Psychic (Ubers)
• Dusclops / Claydol in BW UU
• Bulk Up Scrafty (RU)
• Venusaur (BW Ubers)

I've already asked you to do this, so yes I'd like to see this! gimmepie's Eevee article is kind of similar so they could be part of the same series, once we come up with a good name.

Given it was raised in another thread, would it be useful to include any battle videos of Ambipom in action and, uh, being bad? Haha.

I can write confidently for ORAS RU and ORAS Ubers, and, to a lesser extent, BW2 Ubers... although dog knows how many people besides myself and Sweep play the latter metagame.

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The last one is rather niche I'd think, haha. But certainly am for more articles on other tiers!

gimmepie's Eevee article is kind of similar so they could be part of the same series, once we come up with a good name.

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Indeed. Let's think on that now... For one, an indication we're talking about battling would be useful to indicate within the title (ideally outside of the tier name, which can be included in article excerpts which show up with every article title).

Terrible Pokemon to battle with: ____
Terrible Pokemon in battling: ____
Why ____ Sucks at battling
???

Various Arceus formes, such as Arceus-Flying, Arceus-Fire, Arceus-Psychic (Ubers)

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This bunch sounds like best within a single article, probably.

Typloshion (RU) and Ninjask (DPP OU) are some of my ideas for this.

If we make this a series I'd love to help contribute occasionally. In particular the meta I play is OU but I'm branching out into Ubers and Little Cup and I'm probably going to get back into monotype properly.

So yeah seconding that I really want this series, especially if I can contribute sometimes.

Article series is approved! There's an alternate name we'll go with for the time being: 'Why you shouldn't use ____' (credit to Christos there). Still suggests using it in battling so that works for me.

I'd like to see if there's any more feedback to be supplied on the first article re: Ambipom first, but that can get approval afterwards if everything is in order. =)

Any advantage in using replays in the article to show it... uh, sucking? :V

Looks fine to me. Replays are always nice, but I don't think they're necessary for this if Aurora doesn't have any on hand. After all, I doubt she wants to go through the trouble of getting high on the ladder while using shitty Pokemon. x)

Fortunately, I procured one excellent replay of Ambipom doing exactly nothing while laddering tonight.

http://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/ru-342413156

Ambipom is meant to bother offensive teams with its great Speed tier and ability to do at least some damage to the frail Pokemon that populate these teams. Unfortunately, if you bring along a defensive backbone and a Choice Scarf, Ambipom cannot even do anything then. In this replay, Aromatisse and Ferroseed leave it unable to do anything while Choice Scarf Flygon comes in for the revenge kill later in the game. Granted, the set is even worse than the standard set (Fling with King's Rock) but even if it had Life Orb, its damage output would still have been pitiful (and it would have worn itself out even more quickly).

if only ambipom learned swords dance

ambipom is cool in STABmons though

Ambipom is terrible. Incredibly predictable since everyone knows its first attack will be Fake Out. This allows a free switch to a Steel or Rock type or a physical wall. Even with coverage moves to hit these Pokemon Ambipom usually isn't strong enough to OHKO even with Fake Out damage and they can usually OHKO back with any strong STAB move or Fighting-type move.

The lack of objections despite the new posts leads to an approval for the Ambipom article as well! Aurora, you can find your workshop thread for drafts here: http://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=365221