ginganinja
It's all coming back to me now
This concept by Jibaku was approved for discussion. Is this concept worth pursuing? If so, what questions could we ask? How could we improve this? Everyone is free to discuss the following submission as if this was a concept discussion.
Name: Demon Jester
General Description: A Pokemon that seeks an edge over its enemies not through force or raw bulk, but with a hefty number of "underhanded" tactics and psychological warfare. This mon is intended to leisurely toy with its prey and drive it to insanity with every last second of its dying breath.
Justification: A lot of Pokemon nowadays can be classified as fighters - they take hits, and they hit back. Because of this binary interaction, battling has become rather simplified - it's really just "I understand this mon's extent of damage and I'll respond with this and that" and whatever. By introducing this concept, I seek to explore mindgames over brute force. For instance, Zoroark's Illusion concept can do so, but players often prefer Pokemon with more straightforward approaches because they're much easier to calculate. But perhaps, it's time to try a Pokemon that makes both the user and the enemy think outside the box.
Questions to be answered:
Let's all remember SwagPlay. Remember the frustrations that came along with it. That's kind of the stuff I'm talking about. Except something...less luck based. But it should still induce headaches and frustrations, yet somehow still fun to play as and against. Idk what kind of cheap tricks you guys want to pull off - there are many in the book. Unexpected trapping, random moves to take out certain mons, unexpected stalling, random Baton Pass, or something that just abruptly shifts the momentum of the game. It doesn't even have to be move-specific - things like Protean, Stance Change, and Illusion can sometimes force mind games if used correctly.
Why do I want something like that? Well let's just say I'm a twisted guy who likes watching other battlers suffer. And also I like seeing some creativity. Unfortunately, the game's biggest movepools are not quite capable of delivering what I want, mostly because the Pokemon's stats skew the selection of viable moves. I don't know exactly how we'll balance out this mon so it has a crazy number of surprises, but that's where the community can explore, right? One thing is clear, however. This Pokemon should be a highly opportunistic Pokemon.
Think about this mon as your trap card.
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I'm just going to approve this. As much as I would hate battling this, the concept is fun and allows for a ton of different options between movepool/abilities etc etc. It brings me back to this thread in Showdown where someone bitched that they wanted a Regeneration Clause because the tactic was borderline "cheating". This sort of mindset, ie a pokemon that encourages people to post those wonderful OU threads bitching about X, is something that could be fun to do.
Name: Demon Jester
General Description: A Pokemon that seeks an edge over its enemies not through force or raw bulk, but with a hefty number of "underhanded" tactics and psychological warfare. This mon is intended to leisurely toy with its prey and drive it to insanity with every last second of its dying breath.
Justification: A lot of Pokemon nowadays can be classified as fighters - they take hits, and they hit back. Because of this binary interaction, battling has become rather simplified - it's really just "I understand this mon's extent of damage and I'll respond with this and that" and whatever. By introducing this concept, I seek to explore mindgames over brute force. For instance, Zoroark's Illusion concept can do so, but players often prefer Pokemon with more straightforward approaches because they're much easier to calculate. But perhaps, it's time to try a Pokemon that makes both the user and the enemy think outside the box.
Questions to be answered:
- How does one teambuild around, with, and against a Pokemon so indefinite?
- How do we give this Pokemon numerous options and keep them all equally viable?
- How do we clearly create weaknesses for a Pokemon with so many options?
- A potential roadblock to the concept is Magic Bounce as it renders a lot of status moves ineffective, and a lot of indirect combat lies on those moves. There are two common Magic Bouncers in OU. Do we intend this to be a primary weakness, or will we find ways around it?
Let's all remember SwagPlay. Remember the frustrations that came along with it. That's kind of the stuff I'm talking about. Except something...less luck based. But it should still induce headaches and frustrations, yet somehow still fun to play as and against. Idk what kind of cheap tricks you guys want to pull off - there are many in the book. Unexpected trapping, random moves to take out certain mons, unexpected stalling, random Baton Pass, or something that just abruptly shifts the momentum of the game. It doesn't even have to be move-specific - things like Protean, Stance Change, and Illusion can sometimes force mind games if used correctly.
Why do I want something like that? Well let's just say I'm a twisted guy who likes watching other battlers suffer. And also I like seeing some creativity. Unfortunately, the game's biggest movepools are not quite capable of delivering what I want, mostly because the Pokemon's stats skew the selection of viable moves. I don't know exactly how we'll balance out this mon so it has a crazy number of surprises, but that's where the community can explore, right? One thing is clear, however. This Pokemon should be a highly opportunistic Pokemon.
Think about this mon as your trap card.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm just going to approve this. As much as I would hate battling this, the concept is fun and allows for a ton of different options between movepool/abilities etc etc. It brings me back to this thread in Showdown where someone bitched that they wanted a Regeneration Clause because the tactic was borderline "cheating". This sort of mindset, ie a pokemon that encourages people to post those wonderful OU threads bitching about X, is something that could be fun to do.
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