Pokémon Review: Fraxure

Fraxure is one of the few dragon-type Pokémon in NU, and is like Haxorus for NU.
While it's an extremely good Pokemon, it has it's flaws -- Below average speed and a bad movepool.
However, it is capable of sweeping both prepared and unprepared teams which makes it awesome.
Of course it's not something you'd want to use in OU since it has Haxorus, but it is actually usable in UU despite being an NU!

I always use eviolite for items, but life orb will work too.
A move I ALWAYS use on Fraxure is Dragon Dance, which is extremely helpfull.

It has a very nice ability in Mold Breaker, which prevents effects of abilities such as Wonder Guard, Heatproof, Storm Drain and Sturdy.
For EVs on Fraxure, I would almost always go with 252 Atk, 4 Def & 252 Spe.

The only set I would use on Fraxure is Dragon Dance, credit to Smogon for this:

Dragon Dance
Fraxure @ Life Orb/Eviolite
252 Atk/4 Def/252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Mold Breaker
Moveset: Dragon Dance, Outrage, Dragon Claw/X-Scissor, Taunt/Swords Dance

In the TCG:
Card I am reviewing: Fraxure - 87/101 - Noble Victories

In the TCG, I wouldn't recommend using a deck with Fraxure and no Haxorus - it's just not worth it.
I would recommend that when you put Axew in play, you evolve it as soon as possible and then evolve it again as soon as possible.

If you cannot evolve it, your best of using Dual Chop, which lets you flip 2 coins and do 30 damage times the number of heads.
If your opponent's active Pokémon only has 20 HP however, you can use Scratch, just hope your opponent can't evolve their active Pokémon that turn!

Link to card scan: http://pokebeach.com/scans/noble-victories/87-fraxure.jpg

Pokémon Review: Keldeo

Keldeo was released in Japan a few days ago, and it is AWESOME!
If you didn't know, Keldeo has a new form which is available in Black 2 and White 2 called the "Resolution Form" and it looks amazing: http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/f/f4/647Keldeo-Resolution.png
Unlike the other 5 new legendary forms, Keldeo keeps the ability of Justified on both forms, though I would've rather it gotten something new.

It is definitely best to use Keldeo as a Special Attacker rather than a Physical Attacker because it has a SpA base stat of 129!
As for EVs on an offensive CM set, I'd probably go with 4 HP, 252 SpA, 252 Spe.

A good set for Keldeo would be this:

Keldeo @ Leftovers/Life Orb
4 HP/252 SpA/252 Spe
Nature: Timid
Ability: Justified
Moveset: Calm Mind, Hydro Pump/Surf, Hidden Power Ice, Secret Sword

In the TCG:
At time of writing, Keldeo has no English TCG card and so I cannot review it.


Overall I give Keldeo a rating of 9/10!

Pokémon Review: Klinklang

Despite being in the RU tier, Klinklang is a very good Pokémon that can certainly be deadly when in the right hands.
First off, the Klinklang evolution family has 2 signature moves being Shift Gear and Gear Grind.
Shift Gear is what makes Klinklang a usable Pokemon -- what it does is give +2 speed and +1 attack with no drawbacks whatsoever. This makes Klinklang a very solid Pokemon in RU, I almost beat a full team with only Klinklang once.

As for abilities, I would go with Clear Body... but it's unreleased, so for now you'll have to go with Plus or Minus, unfortunately.
I don't really have much to say about stats, as there is only one set that's ever used for Klinklang, so let's get to it:

Shift Gear
Klinklang @ Life Orb/Leftovers
100 HP 252 Atk 156 Spe
Nature: Adamant/Naughty
Ability: Plus/Minus
Moveset: Shift Gear, Gear Grind, Return, Substitute/Hidden Power Ground/Hidden Power Fire

Credit to Smogon for that.

In the TCG:
Klinklang [Black & White] is a fairly good Pokemon in the TCG, and like Durant - there is also a Klinklang deck that is used quite a bit.
So the deck has loads of EX cards and more.
I'm not going to get into talking about the deck, so I'll just talk about the card itself for now.
It has the ability Shift Gear, here is what it does:

As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may move a Metal Energy attatched to one of your Pokémon to another one of your Pokémon.

It also has a very nice move in Gear Grind, which lets you flip 2 coins, and do 80 damage times the number of heads.
If you want to see a scan of the Klinklang card, check it out on PokeBeach: http://pokebeach.com/scans/black-and-white/76-klinklang.jpg

Overall I would give video game Klinklang a 6.5/10 and TCG Klinklang a 7.5/10

That is it for this Pokémon review, see you guys next time!

Pokémon Review: Durant

While it's very popular in the TCG, Durant didn't really stand out too much in the games. :[
But honestly, I really like it's design so I might aswell review it! :P
So before I begin, many people get confused by the tier Durant is in -- BL2.

So WTF is BL2?

It's pretty much an ubers list for RU & NU -- Too powerful for RU but not used much in UU (And regular BL is the same, but is an ubers list for UU)

Durant has 3 abilities, which are Swarm, Hustle and Truant (WTF Gamefreak why Truant? D:)
While it looks extremely underpowered and like it should be NU, it can actually pack a punch in UU.
It's base speed is a whopping 109, so it's pretty fast -- definitely deserves 252 Speed EVs for just about any set.

As for the abilities, I would always go with Hustle which makes physical moves do 50% more damage, but at a cost of only 20% accuracy.

As for sets, I'd go with either of these in UU... Credit to Smogon for these:


Hone Claws
Durant @ Life Orb
4 HP 252 Atk 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Hustle
Moveset: Hone Claws, X-Scissor, Rock Slide/Stone Edge, Iron Head

Choice Band
Durant @ Choice Band
4 HP 252 Atk 252 Spe
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Hustle
Moveset: X-Scissor, Rock Slide, Iron Head, Thunder Fang

In the TCG:
Yup, new section. This won't be for every single review though, only for those with modified format TCG cards at the time of writing.

For a while, Durant [Noble Victories] was a very popular card in the TCG, it even had a deck named after it!
This is due to it's move called Hustle, which lets you discard the top card of your opponent's deck for each of your Durant in play.
If your planning on using the Durant deck, be sure to get a Rotom from Undaunted aswell! :]
If you want the whole decklist for Durant, google it.

Pokémon Review: Politoed

In 5th gen, Politoed is something you see in OU everyday.
In 4th gen, Politoed & Ninetales were almost never used, sitting in the NU tier.
So what caused them to go straight up to OU for 5th gen?

The dream world.
They gained abilities that are now essential for sun and rain teams -- Drought and Drizzle.
As for Drizzle, the ability was originally exclusive to Kyogre and as for Drought, that was originally exclusive to Groudon -- However, they could only be used on an Ubers tier team.
A lot of rain teams use it to set up rain and then do whatever it can.
Also, Drizzle+Swift swim on the same team is banned in OU as it's a bit overpowered, so I'll get that out the way.

Politoed has a lot of different sets, so the EVs you want will vary.

Here are a few recommended sets for Ptoed, credit to Smogon for these:

Defensive
Politoed @ leftovers
252 HP 252 Def 4 SpD
Nature: Bold
Ability: Drizzle
Moveset: Scald, Hypnosis/Toxic, Encore/Perish Song, Protect/Ice Beam/Focus Blast

Choice Specs
Politoed @ choice specs
252 SpA, 4 SpD, 252 Spe
Nature: Modest/Timid
Ability: Drizzle
Moveset: Hydro Pump/Surf, Ice Beam, Focus Blast, Hidden Power Grass

For more common sets, go to http://www.smogon.com/bw/pokemon/politoed


Also, I'm not back yet, I just have internet today. :/

Lots of new Pokemon news and my thoughts on it!

So... Pokemon Smash just aired, and with it came 2 new trailers!
The 2nd one only tells us stuff we already know, but the 1st one gives us some awesome info!

Ghetsis will be in Black & White 2 -- I definitely did not expect that.
I also think N will be a "good guy" in Black & White 2 and you'll know why if you've beaten B/W 1.
The trailer also shows 3D-Style Black Kyurem and White Kyurem, which is awesome and as ZephyrSonic said "blew my mind".
I don't really have much else to say about it, but I highly recommend you watch the trailer!

And yeah, this is the last you'll hear from me until I get internet in my new house.
Till I get it sorted out, see you! :]

Pokemon Review: Lucario

Lucario is one of the OU Pokemon that you rarely see, but that doesn't stop it from being able to kick ass.
It has good physical attacks aswell as good special attacks, so it can run both Swords Dance and Nasty Plot.
It is immune to Toxic Spikes, and has a 4x resistance to stealth rock, so you don't have to worry too much about entry hazards.
The EVs you should use for it are nice and simple -- If your using mainly physical attacks, go with 252 Atk and 252 Spe and if your using mainly special attacks, go with 252 SpA and 252 Spe.
It has a nice ability in Inner Focus, which prevents flinching -- And believe me, that can be useful at times!

Overall, Lucario may not seem like an amazing Pokemon at first sight, but if you know how to use him then he can be amazing! :]

EDIT: I guess I should also add that this will be my last blog post for a few weeks, and I will not be uploading for a few weeks either since I'm moving house, but I'll be back soon enough! :]