As you may have read, Jowy and I will be there, and already a few tribunites have told us that they are looking forward to meeting us. It’s always fun/scary meeting fans, especially since I still can’t actually grasp the concept that we have fans in the first place. One person actually asked if we could have lunch with his family (I respectfully declined).

Another thing I’m greedily looking forward to is the giving away of free stuff that usually accompanies these events. They are even advertising a “Pokemon Platinum Plunge” where attendees dressed as Pokémon character get dropped into a ball bin and try to grab prizes, including an exclusive Giratina branded DS. Sounds like something they might only let the young’ns do, but I’ll come in my Team Rocket outfit, just in case.

There will also be showings of the newest Pokémon movie, Pokemon: Giratina and the Sky Warrior . Best of all, everyone has a chance to get a copy of the game autographed by Game Producer Junichi Masuda and Director Takeshi Kawachimaru.

Speaking of Matsuda, I’d just like to remind everyone about Masuda’s blog, “Hidden Power of Masuda”. I haven’t checked it in a while because he doesn’t usually update often, but in last two months it’s been pretty busy, so check it out.

Hope to see plenty of you at the party!

And lo, KC looked to the sky and it was a broken sky. Darkness tore it asunder and he knew the time of renewal was at hand. Thus, KC herded the pokémon two by two onto the ark so they might weather the storm and find a brighter future when the storm subsided.

Okay, enough of that bible talk. What happened last week had me worried about the safety of quite a few of my mons. For about six months now, my Wii has had a problem where bright backgrounds broke up and made black splotches in games. This had an effect similar to black pixelated vortexes tering open the sky, just like the contaminated fields in .hack.

I used to think this was caused by my old TV, but since recently buying a new one, the problem persisted and I knew the Wii was at fault.

Luckily, I bought my Wii less than a year ago, so it was still under warrantee. Nintendo is very accommodating in how easily you can set up a repair on their website. I didn’t have to pay shipping, just box it up and slap on a sticker. But when it came time to actually pack the old girl up, I suddenly thought in a panic, “What’s going to happen to My Pokémon Ranch? And what about my Miis other saved data?”

A while ago I sent Nintendo a faulty DS and they simply exchanged it for a new one. The same thing happened with my busted PSP. So I did the only reasonable thing: I unloaded all my ranch pokémon back onto my DS (I barely had enough space). I couldn’t get the ones Haley brought there, or the ones I had traded her, but I guess they could be considered acceptable losses should anything happen. I also stored a bunch of Miis on my controllers (10 can be saved on each, no memory card needed).

The biggest problem, however, was the fact that you cannot copy your Battle Revolution data onto a memory card. Neither could I copy my Mario Kart data for that matter. This ticked me off, but I couldn’t help it. So then I packed up the Wii and sent it off wondering if I would ever see my ranch again…

While Nintendo says the process may take 2–6 weeks, I actually got my Wii back within five days. Nice work guys! I was also grateful that instead of just replacing the Wii, they fixed the problem and sent it back with all the data in tact. The ranch survived the storm, and now my pokémon are all back in Haley’s gentle care.

I didn’t think much of it at the time, but at one point the Nintendo site asks you if you are concerned about keeping your data. That may be the only reason I didn’t get a brand new Wii and my ranch was spared. So while my caution was not necessary in the end, it is still feasible to lose everything due to some simple carelessness. Hence…

KC’s rule #3 : A trainer always knows where his pokémon are.

Do you know where your pokémon are?

[Nintendo.com ]

Every now and then, I find local news articles about Pokémon card tournaments for both the video game and TCG, and the excitement they bring to small towns.

It’s just funny to me that after more than a decade of worldwide popularity, all of these articles have to explain the game from scratch again, including what “Pokémon” means and its pronunciation. I also find it funny that you hear many of the same explanations of the game like, “It’s easy to get into, but difficult to master.”

But what I found most striking is how big some of these tournaments get – some of them have 80 players. That’s more than I see at the comic shop King’s Games in Brooklyn. I hope this doesn’t sound like a knock, but maybe in the smaller towns people have less to distract them, so it’s easier to get them dedicated to something like this. But there is a misconception, I think, that all of these articles fail to help clear up: most competitions like this are organized by ordinary people. And that’s what brings me to…

KC’s rule #2: If you can’t find competition, create competition.

Many people have emailed us that they can’t find opponents because they live someplace where people don’t play as much, or that they have no tournaments like we get in New York. Well, I say that’s because you haven’t started one yet. It’s really not that hard and you don’t need to run a comic shop to do it.

Back when I used to play the .hack//Enemy TCG, my roommate got certified to hold tournaments simply by sending an email to the company that made it. The only requirements were that we had to have a minimum of about 6 contestants, and we had to upload the results to their website so competitors could be ranked. After we held one or two of these at a local cyber cafe, they started sending us prizes to give out to winners including t-shirts and boxes of booster packs! I personally did something like this for the miniatures game Mage Knight, and I was treated to free pieces and other cool things to help get people started.

If you like the TCG or the TFG, I strongly recommend you visit Go-Pokemon.com and look into organizing your own league. I’ll probably start a thread in the forums for anyone who wants to share advice on how to run or maintain one.

While I don’t know of any official equivalent for the video games, you can still set-up your own ladders or tournaments like we did on this site (of course, you can also try to just get your friends to join our competitions).

So go out there, get people excited to play again, and maybe you’ll make local headlines for finding the next World Champion!

[Go-Pokémon.com (Leagues)] [Kansas City Star] [Marin Independent Journal]

It was the first time I’ve tried to get my DS online since I moved, and apparently my wireless router’s security settings aren’t compatible with the game. I had to jump a few hoops to get it to work with all my different laptops, so I didn’t want to mess with it in the spur of the moment. So, I whipped out the old dongle after having spent a year in the bleakest corners of my junk drawer for about a year. After dusting it off and popping it in I was honestly surprised to see the green light still came on. But that was the only good sign, as my DS told me something about not being able to acquire an IP address. So, with frustrated indignation, I resigned to my opponent.

It’s only fair to mention that I wasn’t the only one who had troubles. Looking through the forums, several people had similar problems to me (even in the 3rd round), some had battery issues, others just couldn’t make the time to battle. While these glitches weren’t the norm, they were enough to frustrate a few people who I hope will come back to the arena and try again.

Overall, the people seemed to be very competitive, but in the friendly kind of way that I like to see; plenty respect with just a touch of trash talk. I really liked one comment someone made that their opponent just gave them a great idea for a new strategy. ‘Atta boy! (Pats him several times on the back)

I may try to organize a Battle Revolution tournament one day, since I have no problems getting my Wii online, and there are generally fewer problems that can occur with the console.  And how else am I going to show off my spiffy avatar?

So, with this I want to try starting a new tradition where I’ll end each of my blogs with a “KC Rule”. So…

KC Rule #1: Don’t accept a challenge if you don’t have a ride to the arena.

I’m very glad to see all of this. Now I guess we gotta step up to the plate and keep things going. I’m trying to post everywhere that interests me as well as handle my already overwhelming number of friend invites. I’ll also have to dust off Pokemon Ranch and see what I need to trade for to finish my pokedex.

I’m sure I’ll get deeply involved in a few of the threads, but I’m still feeling out where I’ll pay the most attention to.

And most importantly, I should probably pick a few fights – Pokémon battles, not trolling – just to get the rust off the old strategy gears in my head.

“Just a little more, Paras. You’re not ready to give up yet,” I tell my pokémon in a reassuring and calm voice.

From where I’m standing, where the tall grass just ends and there is a short strip of beach dividing land from sea, only a silhouette of the larger pokémon can be made out, as the sunset over the ocean is blocked out behind it. Just a shadow with a long neck and horns.

Paras braces itself – a stream of water shoots from the top of the shadow into the sand, sending a thick, muddy ball to swallow my paras. Usually, when this happened, Paras came out on its back, or passed out on its belly. I’ve become accustomed to the site.

I just hope Paras is becoming accustomed to it himself.

As the swirling black mud passes, Paras, having learned to roll with the attack, stood firmly in place, though dripping with sand and mud.

Apparently he is. “Good job, Paras.”

The gastrodon, not impressed by the smaller and weaker pokémon’s effort, began closing the space between then, dragging its body thought the sand with its soft, spongy appendages that crept out from the bottom of its spiked shell. Paras, despite barely having the energy to stand with the brace around its legs, stands defiantly. Gastrodon builds up to launch another attack, and I touch the tip of my black hat.

Out from the grass shoots a blur that passes directly in front of the towering shadow. Paras’ spotter, a kricketune that evolved from a kricketot I caught on my first day in this region. With a swipe of its two blade-like arms, crossed like an “X,” the large beast falls, revealing the pink coloration of its skin as it lays on the beach, fainted.

Tonfa, as I have named him, stands on the beach, the surf just coming up to its small, stubby brown feet. He grooms his mustache proudly, and chirps a victory song with its flapping wings.

“Yes, yes, Tonfa, you’re very impressive. Now, check on your brother, Paras.”

Tonfa has gone through the drill a hundred times before, but he never gets tired of showing off to my newer pokémon.

Experienced trainers often have their more powerful pokémon spot for their weaker ones when training. This lets the trainer send their pokémon against extremely tough opponents, pushing their pokémon to its limit. Then the spotter comes in and finishes the job before the weaker pokémon gets seriously hurt. The brace is like a boxer wearing weighted gloves, it forces them to put more effort into every move and fosters faster growth.

Tonfa brushes the dirt off Paras with its arm and chirps some words of encouragement. He holds his arm up and waves it back and forth, trying to see if the bug/grass type’s protruding eyes follow. But Paras just sways back and forth with Tonfa’s movement, eventually rolling over on its side. Tonfa jumps back a step, looks at me and shakes his head.

“Well, you have had a pretty rough day, Paras. Time to rest.” I pull a pokéball from my long black coat and point it at the overturned pokémon, its legs moving as if it were walking on the ground. The red beam shoots out of the ball, but Paras rolls out of the way, tumbling over several times before landing on its legs. Any other time, a look of contempt like the one Paras gave me now would be cause for a reprimand. But, getting its meaning, I couldn’t complain.

Just then, I hear a high pitched beeping from the inside pocket of my coat. I unzip the jacket about half way to retrieve the pokéradar within.

Looking at it, I can see the radar has located another spot I can find a gastrodon. “Alright, you want one more, I’ll give it to you. Tonfa!”

The kricketune flourishes and bows with its arm, the disappears with a buzz back into the tall grass.

Sometimes I do feel bad, but I’ve seen where the training can lead, and I know Paras and I won’t regret the work. Pokémon have a natural desire to battle and become stronger, but not all of them have the desire to be the best. When they don’t, then this level of training is just wrong, cruel even. That’s my greatest fear, and the way Paras held on today quelled the fear completely. He’ll be a fine member of the team some day.

I want to have my new team ready for the meetup, so I’ve been hitting the recruitment hard. Just the other night, one of our awesome allies traded me the Kyogre I needed with some amazing IV, and named it Big Whale. I’ve also bred the stock of Paras I need for the next member of my team. In fact, just to show our visitors how stats can carry even in lower levels, below I’ve included the stats for all the ones I bred. I attached berries to each just to tell them apart. These are all Impish nature at level 25:

BERRY      HP  ATK  DEF SATK  SDEF SPD
Pecha:        59    45     39      27       39      24
Lum:          58    45      41     26       37      21
Cheri:         58    45     39      26       37      21
Leppa:        57    43     41      27       38      21
Aspear:       57   44      37     26       35      25
Grepa:        57    43      41      31      38      18
Oran:          55    45     37      26       40      21
Persim:       55    43     39      26       35     18
Mago:          55    47     40      26       40      21
Figy:           54    42     44      26       35     18
Sitrus:         54    45     35      26       35     18
Wiki:           53    47     41      29       37      21
Iapapa:       53     41    36       27       38     24
Chesto:       53    45     40      28       36      25
Bluk:           52     41    44       27      37      21

The idea for my Paras (to be named Rosa) is my support/defense pokémon and it has the Aromatherapy I always wanted in a pokémon. I also gave it the egg move Light Screen. I only recently learned that Spore (which only Paras and Breloom can learn) is a 100% accuracy sleep ability. WOW! That leaves me with only one slot to pick an offensive move. Though I’m not sure what to choose yet.

All this, with Dry Skin ability, and Paras is a perfect fit in team “Red Wings”. Sure it’s not going to have the massive HP of a Chansey, but I don’t like Chansey, so there. I’m still deciding which of the ones above I want to keep. I want HP and defensive stats primarily. I don’t need SATK at all. In fact, I don’t even know what offensive ability I’m going to give it, so I don’t know if it even needs plain old ATK. Let me know if any of you have opinions on this.

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So now I’m in a strange position. I not only have to check other people’s Kyogre for an acceptable nature (and I have to be a lot less picky about that), I have to then apply berries to reduce EV to zero so I can accurately compare IV. I don’t know how many times I can repeat this process before just settling for whatever happens to be available. I guess that’s how they make up for the naturally great stats of legends; you only get one shot at them having great IV.

Then again, as I type this, I wonder if you can capture a legendary, check it’s stats and reset hoping for better. The only problem there – once you reset, you can’t go back and keep a previous one you caught.

In keeping with something I had going a while ago, here’s another bio on a member of Team Twilight. Since this blog was about legends, lets see how my Giratina stacks up.

Sheraton (Giratina)
Nature: Sassy Ability: Pressure
Hidden Power: Fire Item: Berry

Stat Total EV IV
HP: 429 19
Attack: 248 255 0
Defense: 291 31
Sp. Attack: 249 255 0
Sp. Defense: 306 31
Speed: 182 18

Moves:
Shadow Force
Aura Sphere
Rest
Substitute

As my fail-safe of the team, Sheraton is equipped to take on anything. I noticed early on that she was more than well off in defense, so I trained her solely on attacking, since I didn’t want to have to rely on things like Toxic to deal damage. Remember, this was a team designed to be fun to fight, not necessarily effective. Raising Attack and Sp. Attack is the easiest thing in the world, since I only had to fight Unown to do it, and they are the only thing you encounter within the ruins.

In battle, Shadow Force is the natural default attack, but I also like Aura Sphere for it’s perfect accuracy, and the fact that it’s fighting type, which is unexpected. They also give me a physical and special type of attack. Still, Sheraton’s low attack stats make killing anything with a good defense slow. Thus she relies on substitute (and her huge HP pool) to give her all the time she needs, plus rest for that pesky Toxic every now and then.

Looking at the IV, though, I wonder if legends have a set IV value or are just very likely to have good IV in certain areas. I mean, two 31s and two 0s? Seems odd to me. Maybe my hunting for the perfect legend is a shorter one than I thought.

IV and Hidden Power Calculator:
http://www.serebii.net/games/iv-calc.shtml

In the meantime, let me talk to you about my first doubles team.
This team I am spending a little more time on planning the strategic teamwork of my group. Where my last team was based on a single type (which I very well knew would put it at somewhat of a disadvantage), this one is based around taking advantage of weather – rain in particular.

I have started by training my first rain-benefiting pokémon – one of my favorites that has not gotten a chance to be on my team before: Toxicroak.
I spent a couple of day just breeding croagunks with Cross Chop and Dry Skin, then leveling them all to 25 so I can compare stats. I thought this would leave me with some tough decisions; should I take the one with an extra point of speed or two points of attack?

However, as if the one destined for my team wanted me to work hardest for her, it was the last (out of more than 30 that I bred with the proper nature and ability) that had stats far above any of the others. It was no contest. I am confident I’ve bred one that has as good stats as I was going to get.
As I am naming this team after characters from my favorite RPG, this croagunk has been named Edge. More details on my team will come in the weeks to come.

Since this required so little concentration, it gave me about three hours every day which I could easily play Pokémon while driving (Not that anyone reading this should try that themselves!). Though keep in mind, I would usually spend this time doing equally simplistic things, like hatching eggs or hunting shinys (simplistic to me).

In addition, when I finished the rout, I had free reign to spend the rest of the day however I wanted, as long as the boss knew where to find me. And he did – on the beach, playing my DS. It was a sweet setup.

Now things seem to have changed a bit. In pursuit of my goal of becoming a video game journalist, I have had to take a job with a magazine covering mortgage banking. Not the most exciting thing, but it’s a necessary step up from garbage man.

And while the subject matter is one issue I have with the job, perhaps an even bigger one is the difficulty of playing games while here. While I do have downtime, it’s imperative that I keep looking busy or else my new boss will likely find more work for me to do. The upshot is that I have spent much of that ‘busy’ time working on this site. The downshot is that I’m not advancing in the Pokémon games.

I have found myself spending more time playing console games at least, so I have been considering picking up Pokemon: Gale of Darkness, but without multiplayer, it doesn’t seem very worth it. Then, I received an interesting email…

One of our fellow trainers informed me of a site called PokemonOnline.org. They host an independently developed and maintained free Pokémon MMORPG. I downloaded the client and visited the forums. Apparently this has existed since 1999, and it has a loyal following that has developed their own dungeons, guilds, even rivalries.

Naturally, as my excitement for this reached its peak, I discovered the servers for this game are down while they update to a new version. But, the idea has been planted in my head: With my laptop at my side, I can easily play this game, even at the office during those “busy” moments. I may yet be able to play Pokémon like I used to. I hope to give a full report when their servers are up.