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Feel The Ground Shake (Pokemon - Ground-type specialist)

As for the prizes, wouldn't the King's Rock be worth taking if only to have as an 'investment' for anyone willing to trade a good 'mon in exchange for the required item to get a Slowking?

King's Rock is the most rare thing on the table. But if you don't have use for it, then you don't have use for it.


Remember all those Piloswine a couple chapters ago?
That came from our boys beast of a mon and most of them were below C

Bubbles the Mamoswine has poor potential. That's why Bradley was looking for a new one in the first place. Any Swinub progeny who are better either got good genes from their Momma or it's random luck.

You gotta introduce random luck as a factor or else the A rank simply doesn't exist in my system.
 
From the first chapter's brief monologue on what Brad knows about rankings, Bubbles the Mamoswine is probably level 47-48. Not exactly a monster though not a pushover either.

Also worth noting that last year's Conference Winner had a level 63 Electabuzz for an Ace and that was a C+ potential. So yeah, Mama and Vlad are ready for the Conference. There's certainly room for improvement and Brad will want to get them into the sixties first but they would not be out of place in the Finals right now.
 
I don't like how this doesn't take into account of EVs, it's set in pokemon reality so it shouldn't be restricted to the games coding and should be a way for low rank pokemon to make it up the level charts through sheer effort even if it takes time. Game stats for pokemon should work more along the lines as racial talents than just hard limit numbers where meta pokemon are just on top cos the spread of their stats are better in-game.
 
I don't recall typing that. I remember saying it was D- as a Swinub (as it was identical rank to the shiny daughter) but I don't think I went specific beyond that.
Yeah but in chapter 7 you said that some of his child at Mamoswine stage would be B tier and that it would be a superior stage than Bubble at peak so i interpret that as Bubble being B-, my bad
 
I'm…sorry? This is the story my fingers wanted to type.
Naw i meant it just feels there is no path forward for untalented pokemon where EVs could have been that difference, you don't need to apologize. The other aspects of the story are nice but that was my nitpick.
 
MY LIFE IS NOW YOURS!!!
More concerning than that, based on the feelings I'm getting from Ma Ma I think…oh boy…I think she…I think Ma Ma used to dominate this bear. If you can catch what I'm putting down. Please don't make me explain it.

Ma Ma grins with a mouth full of teeth and blows a kiss to the male Ursaring across the way who promptly…oh christ almighty…who promptly sits down on the field, faces away from her and hugs his own knees to his chest.

Didn't know Ma Ma was so 𝓕𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂
 
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Simon did fantastic in this tournament. And Ma Ma meeting a former side piece who instantly gave up is funny as hell.
 
From what's been revealed so far by trainer levels it seems it's a bit of a corrected scale to the games.

Seeing later but not end gym circuit trainers with levels 40s ish makes me think it is kind of referencing GSC; but more scaled off the Red fight than what's actually in game.

So far to me it seems:
Late Lv 50s is the end circuit, competitive with gym leaders. E4 mid 60- early 70s while strong Champions will be late 70- mid 80s. Because Red being so far ahead regardless of his hermitage… just doesn't make any real sense.
(I'm using Red here as a goalpost mostly because the level jumps with rematches are arbitrary and it makes more sense to have him be contemporary rather than head and shoulders above almost everyone who isn't a refight).

And that's assuming the level 100 cap is even a thing for S or above rank mons. Scaling seems to imply that isn't the end; and no reason for it to be without an arbitrary game system.

We may well see the Aces of champions be actual monsters who broke the standard caps - especially in the cases of Lance and Steven who you'd expect to have ridiculously well bred mons with their position/resources. Plus experience to back it up through challenges from being funneled the best of the best from their regions to train against?
It seems almost inevitable champions who manage to stay on top, *stay on top* so long as they don't get bogged down by other things.

As for what levels themselves mean… well, it can either be a strict general strength system that equalizes regardless of species or potential rating, or be just straight up 'how good is this relative to the species baseline' like the games.
It's still pretty vague. Or I missed a message detailing that.
Nidoking's whole schtick seems to imply the former somewhat, I think?
 
Went and chewed through this because I've been on a desperate binge for pretty much any decent Pokemon fanfics after Evil Trainer finished. Honestly, this is pretty interesting, I appreciate people not starting at the beginning of a journey and just getting on to the good stuff, since it seems this tournament's wrapping up soon.

I'm pretty curious on MC's relationship with Team Rocket -- him being a ground type trainer aside being pretty funny considering Giovanni, as much internal shit that the MC talks, he has to know that this relationship cannot end well, especially since while he's working on it, he doesn't have any actual "time to cover my shit" or "I need to bug out" quickly options besides tunneling and praying, which is a lot more tricky than just flying out (which he's working on with Golurk) and teleportation (Baltoy => Claydol). He has extremely big stick options with Grundy the rest of his aces (as well as the Quagsire, but that seems to be as much of a suicide option than anything else), but Team Rocket has absolute resource superiority and this isn't a xianxia, enough upper end rocket dudes with level 40+ pokemon will mog him to death if need be.

Criminal activity needs to have a set goal, either limited by time or limited by resource gain, and Rocket will get wrecked repeatedly, one way or another. Sure, he's "just" doing contract work, but he has to know what he's aiding and abetting, and he also evidently wants to somehow get a relationship with Lorelei again, and he's pretty hard on the "this is a sugarcoated deathworld," so while Rocket isn't the death cult or similar that the other "Teams" pre-gen... 7? I think are, he has to know the consequences will come soon for associating with Rocket. It doesn't even have to be a fuckup on his part, a busted operation that he's tied to somehow or another could potentially have been cut off as a "loose end." He knows a significant amount of their underground bases or similar, since he's the one that's been tunneling them out, after all. I guess that's one more reason why he has the GODsire in his pocket, and why he's chasing strength so hard.

If I was an extreme paranoiac, I'd figure that's what his constant calls to Lorelei are as a contingency -- so that someone, anyone, will think "hey, that's weird, isn't it" if he drops off the grid entirely, and maybe he's been seeding secret messages or similar to her as a dead man's switch or something like that. But yeah, I figure that as profitable as it is for him, he knows he's going to have to terminate this relationship sooner rather than later, especially if he's going to become a public figure with the Silver Conference. Preferably amicably, but hopefully he has some kind of dossier that he can turn in if need be and some non-Rocket connections he can work with. Depending on how advanced Porygons are and if Rotoms are prevalent, probably needs to be dead tree or something, albeit a Baltoy/Claydol will help with this a lot.

Simon is a hell of a Chekov's gun too, he's looking to be the most explicitly moral of Bradley's team, and one that I think will be the least okay with anything worse than what Bradley's doing right now, and if he finds out what Rocket really does... That name is pretty telling, and considering his S-rank potential, he's probably going to eventually be able to dogwalk any of Bradley's team if push comes to shove when he fulfills his potential, so that'll be an interesting dynamic.

Silver Conference honestly feels like a cinch for him if he can train up all his dudes to at least Ma Ma's level, if not Grundy's, and if he can get Godsire under control and Simon up to par, it's going to be a sweep. Gligar's at 52 and still hasn't evolved, Ma Ma's at 58 and still hasn't fully evolved, Grundy is at a cracked out 70 and an Alpha, K-Rool is hungry and still hasn't fully evolved, and Simon just is going nuts at his growth and is finally motivated to some degree.

That being said, I think while Bradley has the brute strength to win him the conference, I think what he needs to take him to the next level is proper skill and refinement. "Levels" seem to be a conjunction of battle experience and physical conditioning (or whatnot), and are absolutely a statcheck, but I think while the Pokemon are there, the Trainer themselves need to be up there too. Pokemon Adventures can be a little bit weird, but there's absolutely some weird fucking shit you can do with Pokemon, Lance's invisible bubble nonsense in the manga felt like some JoJo stand battle nonsense. Bradley seems to still be operating on basic game plays, which to be fair so are his opponents, but his stuff just feels pretty much like "buff up, punish mistakes, wreck with unrelenting power since 3 of my guys outlevel all of my current competition if need be."

So when the levels cap out, I think "technique" will be the thing that will take presumably take individuals like Grundy even further -- properly harnessing his Sheer Force so to speak. Maybe more refined elemental manipulation (since Nidoking, although not as ridiculous as Gligar, have insane coverage for no goddamn reason), Simon gets boxing manuals and flight school with Gligar when it comes to it, etc, while Bradley is going to be studying up what other Ace / Elite / Champion grade trainers do and think on so he pulls his weight on that high of a level. Aura is great, and he's certainly helping them train, but he's also their leader, and managing them properly and planning out proper gameplans is part of his job.

Again though, I figure that's what the GODsire arc is going to be about.
 
I think the stuff about Rocket is overblown. He helps them set up their underground architecture, he doesn't do active jobs for them. I have no idea how a 'busted operation' or anything of that nature could have them going 'yeah off that guy'. As for goals, he does have clear goals regarding Team Rocket. He uses them to get items he can't get any other way such as the Life Orb, and he's trying to get a Peat Block through them. He has never been shown to be receiving money from them for other kinds of work. As for mogging him with level 40's... eh, that requires a bunch of suicidal idiots willing to jump into the meat grinder after seeing the last guys get slammed. Big question of whether they even have that many pokemon even of that level. Team Rocket has never been shown to be that tough on the battling front.

As for skill, not sure what you're reading that makes it look like his team are a bunch of cavemen. Vlad and K-Rool have both shown skill before. And they've shown a certain amount of cleverness with the meta too what with the whole Resto-Chesto lure stunt with the Ninetails. Vlad switching seamlessly from one kind of Type energy to another while still biting a Skarmory, Simon in this most recent chapter utilizing Ice Punch while catching a Rollout. The levels help, sure, but they aren't the only thing this team has going for them.
 
I NEED that Ursaring in the team, if not for the potential, then for the lulz.

Also, if the MCs plans fall apart or something similar for whatever reason, he can be the BEST breeder in the world with his gifts.

Barring being coerced by team rocket..
 
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I think the stuff about Rocket is overblown. He helps them set up their underground architecture, he doesn't do active jobs for them. I have no idea how a 'busted operation' or anything of that nature could have them going 'yeah off that guy'. As for goals, he does have clear goals regarding Team Rocket. He uses them to get items he can't get any other way such as the Life Orb, and he's trying to get a Peat Block through them. He has never been shown to be receiving money from them for other kinds of work. As for mogging him with level 40's... eh, that requires a bunch of suicidal idiots willing to jump into the meat grinder after seeing the last guys get slammed. Big question of whether they even have that many pokemon even of that level. Team Rocket has never been shown to be that tough on the battling front.
I think that's fair, but that's also just the actual risk of running with criminal operations. Underground architecture is arguably one of the most significant things for Rocket - their biggest bases are underground, it's how they can actually manage their operations and remain covert. I don't expect him to have done stuff like the Celadon Game Corner or whatever, but he's evidently been setting up smuggling routes or similar. Sure, I doubt they're going to nuke one of their assets off of a suspicion, but he's a loose end with significant information in his end that isn't part of their organization. Depending on the timeline, Rocket Admins can be pretty factional too -- Petrel planned to set up the other admins for Silver's attack so Giovanni would be furious and destroy them, leaving him as the successor in the manga, iirc, so a solid relationship with one doesn't necessarily translate to others too. The author's beat the drum of this interpretation of Pokemon being a "sugarcoated deathworld" and dealing with organized crime is riding a tiger. I don't think all or necessarily any of these consequences I've proposed are going to happen, but they have to be actual real considerations that the MC has or I'd be very surprised. Fair enough on suicidal meatgrinder stuff, but while Rocket's battling front isn't that hot, they're hardened, practiced criminals. Ghost, Poison, and Psychic types give them a lot of asymmetrical options to target rather than just pure battle.

Bradley's been pretty wary about this, if a little casual ("just work for Team Rocket a bit to get a moon stone" is a pretty wild jump, dude), so I'd expect someone as apparently cautious as him to have preparations to deal with this, especially as things get to a close. He's got a Life Orb for Grundy, and there's limits on Held Items apparently. He's getting that Peat Block. Gliscor is the only other item-specific evolution he's got left, but again, if he's aiming for the top of the Conference and associating with Champs and Elites, I think he can't afford continued criminal ties. I think he's currently aiming for a "hey it's business, thanks for scratching my back, hope I scratched yours well" and having a bunch of big stick pokemon behind him, and then cut ties, but narrative naturally complicates a lot of that. We'll have to see.

As for skill, not sure what you're reading that makes it look like his team are a bunch of cavemen. Vlad and K-Rool have both shown skill before. And they've shown a certain amount of cleverness with the meta too what with the whole Resto-Chesto lure stunt with the Ninetails. Vlad switching seamlessly from one kind of Type energy to another while still biting a Skarmory, Simon in this most recent chapter utilizing Ice Punch while catching a Rollout. The levels help, sure, but they aren't the only thing this team has going for them.
I don't think they're cavemen, I just think that they're still a growing team that aren't Champion-level yet. I think that's a pretty neutral take -- when they eventually cap out level-wise they're going to have to grind technique and other skills to keep improving, because Bradley and his 'mons have ambition and never want to stop getting better. It was just mainly a commentary on the above post, on possible level caps -- I think that's how Champ and Elite-level trainers take their teams to the next level even if their potential isn't top tier and can only go so far statwise, and that Bradley and co are going to need to study up on that if they want to win the conference / go beyond that.

Sorry if that came out otherwise.
 
Ehh, practiced, hardened criminals is probably taking it a bit far. Team Rocket is a group or organized pokemon thieves first and foremost. They do other stuff, especially in regards to scientific research- hence MewTwo- but they've never been shown to be a pack of assassins. There are a few individuals who are fairly competent- most of them are admins- but the rank and file are pretty clueless. As for Ghost Poison and Psychic types, Ghost and Psychic are pretty rare for Kanto/Johto. And Brad has his own Ghost and Dark types for dealing with them. Poison types are all over Kanto, but he's got that angle covered too. Not saying Team Rocket aren't worth bothering with, but they aren't a pack of incredible Hit Men either. They're certainly not strong enough to the point they can wantonly go up against Brad and not expect consequences for it.
 
Will the MC's ursaring evolve into a Bloodmoon. Or does it need to be an ursaring from a specific place?
 
Barring Legendaries, Alternate Forms, Mega Evolution and Paradox, either Camerupt, Palossand, and Gastrodon.

Considering the mini expo dump on why trainers tend not to own more than 6 mons I doubt we'll see more than one, if any new members for a long while.

But if there were to be more…
More than anything I'm surprised there's no Excadrill cuz Unova and all. Might be a more common pick, but seeing all this sandstorming with no sand rush abuser makes me sad. Also some pretty important steel coverage.

Claydol is also a strong option as a flexible all rounder type mon who can be another special attacker with access to tons of utility.

Palossand feels a bit redundant considering its overlapping typing with golurk and the fact plenty of the team already are or are set to be juggernauts, so it's potential niche for stalling feels a little odd.
Camerupt and gastro are definitely strong options that tend to be underutilized. Though with quag already here it's questionable if gastro gets considered unless quag eventually gets left behind.
 
Well, he's planning to trade a couple of Smeargle for a Baltoy and a Trapinch. Honestly though between the existing team, Junior the newcomer, and the potential desert types from the trade, that will probably be the limit given the lecture we were just given on team size. Not sure how much money Bradley has, although if he comes in first in this tournament that certainly helps. But we're also not sure just how much it costs to feed a team of that size.

Either way, that one-day Flygon and Claydol will probably be the last two for quite a while, and we have Junior, K-Roll and Simon to grow up before that happens.
 
Does he have a goal ? like apart from getting stronger to survive a death world ?
get rich ?
deal with idiots trying to wake legendries ?
have a relationship with lorelei ?
 

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