Ultimate Champion
The Great Pokémon Master
"Familiar to us are the two great heavenly bodies that watch over us, but even more familiar to us is the very planet on which we stand. Drawing power from the radiant Sun during the day, as well as the mysterious Moon in the night, this earthly sphere which we call home is the most direct source of life. From the oxygen contained within its atmosphere, to the water that fills this planet, and the fertile grounds on which agriculture is made possible, all of that which this land enables is truly a wonder to behold. Regarded as a necessary product of an infinitely large universe by some, the work of a deity according to others, and revered as a sacred gift from their spiritual ancestors by certain groups, the land however is not as benevolent as many may believe. Exploiting every living being's dependence on it, the ease with which it punishes those who overuse its resources is remarkable. From simple movements of its surface to the ejection of the magma flowing within its interior, the planet is itself a dangerous weapon, whose very destructive power this team utilizes in order to smite all that stand in its way!"
Greetings, people of Serebii. I am but one of the countless Pokémon trainers in the world. Yet, one as I may be, I am and have been known by a myriad of names throughout different eras across my Pokémon career. However, as much as the name by which anyone calls me may vary, one fact about me remains constant and unarguable: I am the single Greatest Pokémon Master to have ever walked this Earth.
The proof of such can be observed in the spoiler tag below:
In my two previous Rate My Team threads, The Master of the Universe [Transcendent Being of Power Mix] and The Master of the Universe [Immanent Being of Thought Mix], I did state that those were going to be my final Rate My Team threads for Generation VI. However, I changed my mind, for two reasons.
Firstly, for reasons that I do not intend to reveal, there is a chance that this may be my final Rate My Team thread ever, at least under the identity of LANCE. But of course, I will not say that this will definitely be the case, for the same reason why I have never, at any point in my life, declared that I would be leaving Pokémon, despite having felt like doing exactly that innumerable times in the past. I cannot predict what I may want or feel like doing in the future, so if I declared that I would be leaving Pokémon, or stated that a certain thing that I did would be the last in my life, I would simply be limiting my own options in the future. I am certain that the countless people who have stated that they were leaving Pokémon, and made goodbye threads on the Smogon or Pokémon Online forums only to return later understand exactly what I am talking about here. However, because there is a chance that I may be prevented from making more Rate My Team threads under this current identity of mine, I feel that I should take this opportunity to make one now that Generation VI has come to a close.
Secondly... the Greatest Pokémon Master I may be, but exactly who am I, more specifically? People have all heard numerous legends about me: DracoMaster|LANCE, Leader of the short-lived, yet glorious, albeit controversial Dragon Masters clan. PTR, the troll who singlehandedly fought a grand war against the authority figures in Pokémon Showdown!'s Ubers room. Heavenly Dragon Gods Leader, and author of A Guide To Ethics. The world of competitive Pokémon may regard any, several, or all of the aforementioned descriptions as my identity, but what defines me when I am doing what I am best known for - participating in Pokémon battles? Am I Master of DaUniverse, the kid who was famous for spamming Übers (or, more appropriately for the time, 00bers) and one-hit KO moves on Pokémon NetBattle? Dragon Champion, the dragon trainer? CHAMPION LANCE of Pokémon NetBattle Supremacy's POKéMON LEAGUE server? Dragon Rush Leader LANCE, the DW Ubers/No Preview Ubers/BW2 Ubers player famous for specializing in the use of the Magic Sun strategy? The guy who shamelessly abused SwagPlay in several different metagames before Swagger was banned from them? The man famous for using stall in both eras of Generation VI Übers? LLW, the the legend who peaked the Anything Goes ladder with a 63-1 win-loss record? That "tian long shen" guy who dominated Pokémon Online's ORAS Balanced Hackmons ladder by occupying all five of the top spots, while reaching top 10 on that server's ORAS Hackmons ladder within one week of playing that metagame and peaking it soon after, despite the fact that many other trainers on that ladder spent five months and yet still struggled to reach 1500 points? Or Immanent God LANCE, the one who seemed to effortlessly conquer every Other Metagame he ever bothered to grace?
"Übers Legend PTR." "God of Hackmons Lance." "AG Master LLW." Different people throughout different communities have addressed me by those titles many times. But if there existed an objective way to define me as a Pokémon trainer... then what would that be?
In truth, I am all of the aforementioned. But in a traditional sense, my main tier was Übers. If one were to step back and look at my Pokémon battling career as a whole, they would notice that throughout the bulk of my time as a Pokémon trainer... I have been an Übers player. This is because traditionally, Übers has been the highest tier in Pokémon - regarded as a banlist rather than an actual tier by some. That is why I have always loved it. The thought of commanding Pokémon of god-like power, such as Kyogre, Groudon, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Mewtwo and Rayquaza... while defeating opponents who utilized equally powerful Pokémon has always made me feel like a grand deity, and given me an unparalleled level of satisfaction, Pokémon battling-wise. Furthermore, it was the tier with the fewest number of rules - the closest one to a metagame in which absolutely everything is allowed, something that greatly appealed to me.
Around 2013 however, things changed considerably for both myself as well as the world of competitive Pokémon. As Classic Hackmons (which I did not play until this year, as I was greatly turned off by the idea of Wonder Guard) and Balanced Hackmons became playable metagames on Pokémon Showdown!, I began spending more time playing that metagame, though I never completely abandoned Übers. Despite Übers having traditionally been the highest tier, the amount by which it satisfied my power-loving self was nonetheless insignificant compared to a metagame in which Pokémon can transcend the limits of legality and have 252 EVs in every stat, while having the option of possessing almost any move or Ability their trainer desired... much like some of Lance's Pokémon in the actual games. Then, shortly after Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were released... a new tier above Übers was made - Anything Goes. As it was the tier I have always wanted Übers to be, I saw no reason to stay in Übers, and moved on to Anything Goes.
But although I moved, others around me did not. Many people, including friends and clanmates of mine apparently loved Übers for reasons different from my own, and thus remained in this tier despite the creation of Anything Goes. This, combined with the fact that I remembered who I was upon participating in several Übers tournaments such as the Ubers Premier League, albeit in past-generation Übers metagames as opposed to ORAS Ubers, resulted in me moving towards a certain direction.
At the time when I was contemplating these thoughts, I had reached #1 on 48 different ladders. During that period, I was also thinking to myself that I will, for a complex reason which I don't feel like revealing, turn that 48 into a prettier-looking number before the release of my book, Purity Before Existence. As such, I aimed for two more ladder peaks in order to achieve a grand total of 50. Looking at my most recent ladder peaks around that time, I found that those ladders were mostly Anything Goes as well as several variations of Hackmons on the Pokémon Online server - namely, ORAS Balanced Hackmons, Inverted Balanced Hackmons and ORAS Hackmons. Nothing surprising really, considering most of those were my primary metagames for the ORAS era. The power levels in ORAS Ubers may not be quite as high as those in Anything Goes and especially the Hackmons metagames, but I felt that it would be fitting to end my quest for 50 ladder peaks not in my primary ORAS metagames, but rather in the ORAS version of the tier with which I have traditionally most closely identified. Book Ends are aesthetically awesome in my eyes, after all. And it truly has been a while since my last Übers Rate My Team.
In any case, before I begin talking about my team, I would like to offer my readers three things:
1. A piece of art, by me:
2. A piece of art, by LucosDICampos:
3. A nice song which goes well with this team in my opinion:
4. Respect points for anyone who successfully identifies the connection between the following three Rate My Team threads of mine: Flames of the Heavenly Light, ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾ and Gaia☯Force.
The team at a glance:
Team building process:
Gaia☯Force actually began as an XY Ubers team named Ghost Stories, made by a person known as ZoroDark.
Somewhere during the XY era, Seele, the leader of the famous Chinese clan CS took that team and replaced Mega Tyranitar with a Judgment/Recover/Stealth Rock/Will-O-Wisp Arceus-Fairy, while making various other small tweaks to it, such as replacing Clefable's Moonblast with Toxic.
Finally, I took Seele's version of the team and replaced Arceus's Pixie Plate with a Stone Plate, while making numerous other changes of my own to the team, most notably replacing Giratina's Sleep Talk with Shadow Ball to deal with Taunt Mewtwo. In doing so, I created what I personally believe, even up to this day, to be by far the single best XY Ubers team ever.
A few months after I made that team, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were released. As covered at a certain point in my The Master of the Universe [Immanent Being of Thought Mix] *Rate My Team thread, whenever I get into a new metagame, the method by which I build my first team very often involves looking back at what gave me success in similar metagames with which I am familiar, and then modifying that team in order to adapt it to the new metagame. Sometimes, this results in a long and slow process in which I gradually tweak the team until it looks nothing like what it started as, as exemplified by the way my BW2 Balanced Hackmons team, Mirages of the Frozen Wasteland, slowly transforming into ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾ back when I played XY Balanced Hackmons in mid-2014. But other times, the remnants of my old team are still clearly visible in the end product of my new team, such as when I morphed my pre-Swagger ban XY Ubers team In Luck We Trust into my Anything Goes team, In Luck We Trust II [إحْياء من الآس البستوني]. In any case, the first version of Gaia☯Force was quite similar to the team it started as: it retained the Pokémon Clefable, Tentacruel and Arceus-Rock in their exact forms, while also keeping Giratina but changing its moveset to Dragon Tail, Rest, Toxic and Will-O-Wisp in an attempt to adapt to Primal Groudon's overwhelming presence in the ORAS Ubers metagame. The changes I made to the team were replacing Ferrothorn and Kyogre with Lugia and Primal Groudon, respectively. The former had Dragon Tail, Roost, Toxic and Whirlwind, with the first move being used as I was still very paranoid of Taunt users such as Mewtwo and Mega Gengar, since such Pokémon were very dominant in the first half of the Generation V Übers metagame. As for Primal Groudon, I used a moveset I personally invented for it - The Great Pokémon Master's Awakening Infernal Dinosaur, as I believed at the time that it would be perfect for a stall team, especially since my team already had a Stealth Rock user in Arceus-Rock anyway.
Sometime early on in the ORAS era, I reached #1 on Pokémon Online's ORAS Ubers ladder with this team. However, I do not consider such an achievement to be reflective of the quality of that team, since it was very early on in the ORAS Ubers metagame back then, and the metagame had yet to become stable. I remember that I later replaced my Arceus's Stone Plate with an Earth Plate, believing that greatly strengthening my team's matchup against the single and by far most dominant Pokémon in the ORAS Ubers metagame was well worth it in exchange for making it weaker to Ho-Oh. However, I replaced my Arceus's Stealth Rock with Stone Edge in order to prevent it from being complete Ho-Oh bait, while at the same time replacing my Primal Groudon's Sleep Talk with Stealth Rock. Simultaneously, I also replaced Lugia's Dragon Tail with Ice Beam upon noticing that Taunt Mewtwo and Mega Gengar were nowhere near as prominent in Übers as they were prior to the release of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
Around this time, the tier Anything Goes was made, so I left ORAS Ubers since Anything Goes "replaced" that metagame for me. As such, for about two years, the evolution of my ORAS Ubers stall team came to a complete halt.
However, the time I spent playing Anything Goes indirectly gave me some ideas which I would much later use to perfect my ORAS Ubers team. I noticed an Anything Goes stall team made by a friend of mine known as Sage Hane/hexandwhy. I was inspired to try that team myself, since it was good enough to peak the Anything Goes ladder, after all, while I have had extensive experience using stall in Übers before. As I used that team, I made some changes to it - namely, replacing Darkrai and Arceus-Normal with Tentacruel and Lugia respectively, with the former utilizing the exact same moveset as in my XY and ORAS Ubers stall teams, while the latter shared the same moveset as the Diving Pokémon in my first Anything Goes team, The▲Absolute▲Power▲.
Additionally, I also changed Arceus-Steel to a Judgment/Recover/Stealth Rock/Will-O-Wisp set, and replaced Giratina's Will-O-Wisp with Toxic in order to deal with Primal Groudon better. After making such changes to Sage Hane's team, I now had a team with a Rapid Spin Tentacruel and a Defog Giratina. Previously, I had thought that including both of the aforementioned in one team would be a waste of moveslots, but after extensive experience with using that team, I realized that that was not necessarily the case at all, as both moves were useful in different situations - Rapid Spin can be used even while the user is Taunted, and does not remove entry hazards from the user's side of the field, while Defog cannot be blocked by a Ghost-type Pokémon. Additionally, Tentacruel and Giratina both wall and are threatened by different Pokémon, meaning that having both of the aforementioned entry hazard removers in one team gave me far more control over the entry hazards aspect of the game. For example, I can send out Tentacruel to Rapid Spin on a Stealth Rock Arceus-Fairy, or Giratina to Defog against a Primal Groudon while the latter gets worn down by poison damage.
Aside from that, I also had another belief of mine changed in using Sage Hane's team: Previously, as demonstrated in this post of mine in Sage Hane's Rate My Team thread, I had believed that Toxic was generally superior to Moonblast on an Unaware Clefable, but I later realized that Moonblast was more helpful in more situations. Finally, although this was already evident to me back when I used The▲Absolute▲Power▲, using my modified version of Sage Hane's team nonetheless reminded me of just how devastating Substitute Lugia can be when used in a team with Toxic Spikes support. Around that time, I went back to play some ORAS Ubers for fun, utilizing this stall team by Exiline, upon hearing that Sage Hane's stall team was originally inspired by that ORAS Ubers team. As Exiline's ORAS Ubers stall team gave birth to Sage Hane's Anything Goes stall team, which in turn gave birth to my own Anything Goes stall team, all three teams shared countless similarities, including the exact same movesets for both Clefable and Ho-Oh. However, in using both my own stall team in Anything Goes and Exiline's team in ORAS Ubers alongside each other, I could not help but notice just how incredibly helpful the Substitute technique of the Lugia in my Anything Goes stall team was, as well as how often I wished the Lugia in Exiline's ORAS Ubers stall team had that move. Substitute was simply amazing not only for its ability to protect the Psychic/Flying-type Pokémon from Leech Seed and status, but also because it allowed Lugia to stall for significantly longer than it normally would be able to, since it is usually able to take a hit and then make a Substitute before Roosting back to full health and reactivating Multiscale instead of having to Roost repeatedly every turn. And the move Roost only has 16 PP, after all. Although in the end, it is completely understandable why an ORAS Ubers stall team would want Ice Beam Lugia far more than an Anything Goes stall team would, since Refresh + Roost Mega Salamence is a massive threat in ORAS Ubers, while Mega Salamence in general is mostly regarded as a Pokémon rarely-used and outclassed by Mega Rayquaza in Anything Goes.
Anyway, as mentioned in the introduction of this thread, I eventually reached a point in time where I wanted to peak two more ladders in order to reach a grand total of 50 peaks, and chose ORAS Ubers as the metagame for my final two peaks - one on Pokémon Online and the other on Pokémon Showdown!. I tried the previously-mentioned stall team by Exiline, various teams made by my friend Sandglass/ybss1993, Lord Outrage/Executive Archer's Absolute Control, a Sticky Web team which Astounded/Arsenal regarded as his single best ORAS Ubers team, and these two teams by Lacus Clyne, including a variation of the former made by Mask of the Ice with Ditto over Yveltal. However, none of those teams suited my style at all, so I eventually went back to my first ORAS Ubers team. Applying various pieces of wisdom I gained during my time playing Anything Goes, as explained above, I modified that team, changing Clefable's Toxic to Moonblast, replacing my old Giratina set with the same one used in my Anything Goes stall team, and finally, replacing Lugia's Ice Beam with Substitute as well as Arceus-Ground's Stone Edge with Ice Beam. With these changes, I created a truly excellent as well as by far the most consistently successful ORAS Ubers team I have ever known, with which I achieved a 58-2 win-loss record, as seen on the screenshot above.
Greetings, people of Serebii. I am but one of the countless Pokémon trainers in the world. Yet, one as I may be, I am and have been known by a myriad of names throughout different eras across my Pokémon career. However, as much as the name by which anyone calls me may vary, one fact about me remains constant and unarguable: I am the single Greatest Pokémon Master to have ever walked this Earth.
The proof of such can be observed in the spoiler tag below:
Between Generation V and Generation VI, I have reached #1 on fifty different ladders across ten different servers and seventeen different metagames (BW1 DW Ubers, BW2 No Preview Ubers, BW2 Wifi Ubers, Pure BW2, Global Showdown, BW2 Balanced Hackmons, XY Ubers, PokeBattle's 1000 PBV tier, XY Balanced Hackmons, Almost Any Ability, 350 Cup, ORAS Ubers, Anything Goes, Inheritance, No Preview Anything Goes, ORAS Balanced Hackmons (on Pokémon Online, without an EV limit), Inverted Balanced Hackmons, and finally, ORAS Classic Hackmons) throughout Pokémon Online, Pokémon Showdown! and PokeBattle.
Chronologically, they are:
Generation V:
1. The Gen5 Ubers ladder on the old Pokémon Online's PokéBattleCenter server, under the name "PLASMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" (I didn't take a screenshot of this, unfortunately)
2. The DW Ubers ladder on the old Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "Th3 R0ck3r" (All five of the names circled in red in the top 10 of that ladder are me)*
3. The Ubers ladder on the old Pokémon Online's Reborn server, under the name "Th3 R0ck3r" (I didn't take a screenshot of this, but I reached #1 on this ladder within the space of only a few hours, and never lost a single battle on my way up there)
4. The DW Ubers ladder on the old Pokémon Online's Pokémon México server, under the name "[DR] The Champion"
5. The DW Ubers ladder on the old Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server after a ladder reset, under the name "[DR] CHAMPION LANCE" (the top four names on this ladder are all me)
6. The No Preview Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "Tr4nsc3nd3nt R0ck3r"
7. The DW Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online's Pokémon México server, under the name "Tr4nsc3nd3nt R0ck3r"
8. The No Preview Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online's PokéBattleCenter server, under the name "Tr4nsc3nd3nt R0ck3r" (I didn't take a screenshot of this)
9. The Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online's Reborn server, under the name "Tr4nsc3nd3nt R0ck3r"
10. An old Ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Ultimate Champion" (I am also #2 and #3 on that screenshot)*
11. Another old Ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "D1v1n3 R0ck3r" (I am also #6 and #18 on that screenshot)
12. The Ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server just prior to the OHKO Clause test, under the name "FinalEliteMaster"
13. The Wifi Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "Rick Wheeler"*
14. The Uberssuspecttest ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, *during the OHKO Clause test, under the name "1337 Champion"
15. The Uberssuspecttest ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, during the Evasion Clause test, under the name "Skyless World" (I am also #18 on that screenshot)*
16. The latest Ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Holy One" (I am also #8 on that screenshot)
17. The 无规则 ladder on Pokémon Online's 口袋吧官方服务器2.0 server, under the name "Without Heavens"
18. The Uberssuspecttest ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, during the Sleep Clause test, under the name "Warlock PAUNCHER"
19. The Global Showdown ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Descartes’ Demon" (so far, I have won 48 times and have not lost even once on this ladder)
20. The Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "VirusMetalGreymon" (#2, #3 and #6 on that screenshot are also me)*
21. The Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s The Battle Tower server, under the name "DracoMaster LANCE" (#2 on that screenshot is also me)
Generation VI:
22. The pokebankubersbeta ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "DracoMaster Dice" (#2 and #27 on that screenshot are also me)
23 The Gen 6 Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Gen 6 Beta server, under the name "DracoMaster|ワタル"
24. The XY Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "DracoMaster|ワタル"*
25. The XY Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Brasil server, under the name "DracoMaster|ワタル"
26. The ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Ace of Spades 1337"
27. The 1000 PBV ladder on PokeBattle, under the name "Transcendent God Champion"*
28. The Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Immanent God LANCE" (#2, #3 and #4 on that screenshot are also me)*
29. The Uberssuspecttest ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server during the Gengarite suspect test, under the name "KYAPUTEN FARUKON"
30. The XY Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online server after the Geomancy Test Ban ladder reset, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
31. The Almost Any Ability ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "LLW【天龍神】" (#22 on that screenshot is also me)
32. Another XY Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online server, under the name"【天龍神】 ワタル"*
33. The 350 Cup ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "LLW【天龍神】"
34. The ORAS Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
35. The Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "LLW"*
36. The Inheritance ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "1337 Champion"
37. The ORAS Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 Eclipse"*
38. The Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 Eclipse"*
39. Another Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "MirajaneSatanSoul"
40. Another XY Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 Eclipse"
41. Another ORAS Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 Eclipse"
42. Another Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 Eclipse"
43. Another Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Ace of Spades 1337"*
44. The Inverted Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル" (#2, #7, #11 and #14 are also me)*
45. Another ORAS Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル" (#2, #3, #4 and #5 are also me)*
46. The ORAS Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
47. The current ORAS Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
48. The current Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
49. The current ORAS Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
50. The ORAS Ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "NightmaresMassacre"
I would also like to mention that I may have reached #1 using multiple names at different points in time on some of the above ladders. For example, on the very same ladder on which I have reached #1 using the name "Holy One", I was also #1 under the name "Th3 R0ck3r" at one point, as well as #1 under the name "Butterfly Aizen" at one point. But I did not mention those instances in which I have been #1 separately, as they do not count as a "new" ladder on which I have reached #1, since I have already occupied that position on the ladder under a different name before.
You may have also noticed that fifteen of the above ladder peaks have been italicized, with a red asterisk at the end of them. Those are what I would personally consider to be the greatest of all of my ladder peaks, for various reasons such as the incredible length of time I held on to the #1 position on that ladder, the huge number of points by which I outclassed the person who was #2 on that ladder, the sheer number of names I have high up on that ladder simultaneously, the sheer difficulty of that ladder itself due to the skill of the other trainers battling on it, or a combination of the aforementioned.
Chronologically, they are:
Generation V:
1. The Gen5 Ubers ladder on the old Pokémon Online's PokéBattleCenter server, under the name "PLASMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" (I didn't take a screenshot of this, unfortunately)
2. The DW Ubers ladder on the old Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "Th3 R0ck3r" (All five of the names circled in red in the top 10 of that ladder are me)*
3. The Ubers ladder on the old Pokémon Online's Reborn server, under the name "Th3 R0ck3r" (I didn't take a screenshot of this, but I reached #1 on this ladder within the space of only a few hours, and never lost a single battle on my way up there)
4. The DW Ubers ladder on the old Pokémon Online's Pokémon México server, under the name "[DR] The Champion"
5. The DW Ubers ladder on the old Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server after a ladder reset, under the name "[DR] CHAMPION LANCE" (the top four names on this ladder are all me)
6. The No Preview Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "Tr4nsc3nd3nt R0ck3r"
7. The DW Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online's Pokémon México server, under the name "Tr4nsc3nd3nt R0ck3r"
8. The No Preview Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online's PokéBattleCenter server, under the name "Tr4nsc3nd3nt R0ck3r" (I didn't take a screenshot of this)
9. The Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online's Reborn server, under the name "Tr4nsc3nd3nt R0ck3r"
10. An old Ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Ultimate Champion" (I am also #2 and #3 on that screenshot)*
11. Another old Ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "D1v1n3 R0ck3r" (I am also #6 and #18 on that screenshot)
12. The Ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server just prior to the OHKO Clause test, under the name "FinalEliteMaster"
13. The Wifi Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "Rick Wheeler"*
14. The Uberssuspecttest ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, *during the OHKO Clause test, under the name "1337 Champion"
15. The Uberssuspecttest ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, during the Evasion Clause test, under the name "Skyless World" (I am also #18 on that screenshot)*
16. The latest Ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Holy One" (I am also #8 on that screenshot)
17. The 无规则 ladder on Pokémon Online's 口袋吧官方服务器2.0 server, under the name "Without Heavens"
18. The Uberssuspecttest ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, during the Sleep Clause test, under the name "Warlock PAUNCHER"
19. The Global Showdown ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Descartes’ Demon" (so far, I have won 48 times and have not lost even once on this ladder)
20. The Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "VirusMetalGreymon" (#2, #3 and #6 on that screenshot are also me)*
21. The Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s The Battle Tower server, under the name "DracoMaster LANCE" (#2 on that screenshot is also me)
Generation VI:
22. The pokebankubersbeta ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "DracoMaster Dice" (#2 and #27 on that screenshot are also me)
23 The Gen 6 Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Gen 6 Beta server, under the name "DracoMaster|ワタル"
24. The XY Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "DracoMaster|ワタル"*
25. The XY Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Brasil server, under the name "DracoMaster|ワタル"
26. The ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Ace of Spades 1337"
27. The 1000 PBV ladder on PokeBattle, under the name "Transcendent God Champion"*
28. The Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Immanent God LANCE" (#2, #3 and #4 on that screenshot are also me)*
29. The Uberssuspecttest ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server during the Gengarite suspect test, under the name "KYAPUTEN FARUKON"
30. The XY Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online server after the Geomancy Test Ban ladder reset, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
31. The Almost Any Ability ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "LLW【天龍神】" (#22 on that screenshot is also me)
32. Another XY Ubers ladder on the Pokémon Online server, under the name"【天龍神】 ワタル"*
33. The 350 Cup ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "LLW【天龍神】"
34. The ORAS Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
35. The Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "LLW"*
36. The Inheritance ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "1337 Champion"
37. The ORAS Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 Eclipse"*
38. The Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 Eclipse"*
39. Another Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "MirajaneSatanSoul"
40. Another XY Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 Eclipse"
41. Another ORAS Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 Eclipse"
42. Another Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 Eclipse"
43. Another Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "Ace of Spades 1337"*
44. The Inverted Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル" (#2, #7, #11 and #14 are also me)*
45. Another ORAS Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル" (#2, #3, #4 and #5 are also me)*
46. The ORAS Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
47. The current ORAS Balanced Hackmons ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
48. The current Anything Goes ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
49. The current ORAS Ubers ladder on Pokémon Online's Pokémon Online server, under the name "【天龍神】 ワタル"
50. The ORAS Ubers ladder on Pokémon Showdown!'s Smogon University server, under the name "NightmaresMassacre"
I would also like to mention that I may have reached #1 using multiple names at different points in time on some of the above ladders. For example, on the very same ladder on which I have reached #1 using the name "Holy One", I was also #1 under the name "Th3 R0ck3r" at one point, as well as #1 under the name "Butterfly Aizen" at one point. But I did not mention those instances in which I have been #1 separately, as they do not count as a "new" ladder on which I have reached #1, since I have already occupied that position on the ladder under a different name before.
You may have also noticed that fifteen of the above ladder peaks have been italicized, with a red asterisk at the end of them. Those are what I would personally consider to be the greatest of all of my ladder peaks, for various reasons such as the incredible length of time I held on to the #1 position on that ladder, the huge number of points by which I outclassed the person who was #2 on that ladder, the sheer number of names I have high up on that ladder simultaneously, the sheer difficulty of that ladder itself due to the skill of the other trainers battling on it, or a combination of the aforementioned.
In my two previous Rate My Team threads, The Master of the Universe [Transcendent Being of Power Mix] and The Master of the Universe [Immanent Being of Thought Mix], I did state that those were going to be my final Rate My Team threads for Generation VI. However, I changed my mind, for two reasons.
Firstly, for reasons that I do not intend to reveal, there is a chance that this may be my final Rate My Team thread ever, at least under the identity of LANCE. But of course, I will not say that this will definitely be the case, for the same reason why I have never, at any point in my life, declared that I would be leaving Pokémon, despite having felt like doing exactly that innumerable times in the past. I cannot predict what I may want or feel like doing in the future, so if I declared that I would be leaving Pokémon, or stated that a certain thing that I did would be the last in my life, I would simply be limiting my own options in the future. I am certain that the countless people who have stated that they were leaving Pokémon, and made goodbye threads on the Smogon or Pokémon Online forums only to return later understand exactly what I am talking about here. However, because there is a chance that I may be prevented from making more Rate My Team threads under this current identity of mine, I feel that I should take this opportunity to make one now that Generation VI has come to a close.
Secondly... the Greatest Pokémon Master I may be, but exactly who am I, more specifically? People have all heard numerous legends about me: DracoMaster|LANCE, Leader of the short-lived, yet glorious, albeit controversial Dragon Masters clan. PTR, the troll who singlehandedly fought a grand war against the authority figures in Pokémon Showdown!'s Ubers room. Heavenly Dragon Gods Leader, and author of A Guide To Ethics. The world of competitive Pokémon may regard any, several, or all of the aforementioned descriptions as my identity, but what defines me when I am doing what I am best known for - participating in Pokémon battles? Am I Master of DaUniverse, the kid who was famous for spamming Übers (or, more appropriately for the time, 00bers) and one-hit KO moves on Pokémon NetBattle? Dragon Champion, the dragon trainer? CHAMPION LANCE of Pokémon NetBattle Supremacy's POKéMON LEAGUE server? Dragon Rush Leader LANCE, the DW Ubers/No Preview Ubers/BW2 Ubers player famous for specializing in the use of the Magic Sun strategy? The guy who shamelessly abused SwagPlay in several different metagames before Swagger was banned from them? The man famous for using stall in both eras of Generation VI Übers? LLW, the the legend who peaked the Anything Goes ladder with a 63-1 win-loss record? That "tian long shen" guy who dominated Pokémon Online's ORAS Balanced Hackmons ladder by occupying all five of the top spots, while reaching top 10 on that server's ORAS Hackmons ladder within one week of playing that metagame and peaking it soon after, despite the fact that many other trainers on that ladder spent five months and yet still struggled to reach 1500 points? Or Immanent God LANCE, the one who seemed to effortlessly conquer every Other Metagame he ever bothered to grace?
"Übers Legend PTR." "God of Hackmons Lance." "AG Master LLW." Different people throughout different communities have addressed me by those titles many times. But if there existed an objective way to define me as a Pokémon trainer... then what would that be?
In truth, I am all of the aforementioned. But in a traditional sense, my main tier was Übers. If one were to step back and look at my Pokémon battling career as a whole, they would notice that throughout the bulk of my time as a Pokémon trainer... I have been an Übers player. This is because traditionally, Übers has been the highest tier in Pokémon - regarded as a banlist rather than an actual tier by some. That is why I have always loved it. The thought of commanding Pokémon of god-like power, such as Kyogre, Groudon, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Mewtwo and Rayquaza... while defeating opponents who utilized equally powerful Pokémon has always made me feel like a grand deity, and given me an unparalleled level of satisfaction, Pokémon battling-wise. Furthermore, it was the tier with the fewest number of rules - the closest one to a metagame in which absolutely everything is allowed, something that greatly appealed to me.
Around 2013 however, things changed considerably for both myself as well as the world of competitive Pokémon. As Classic Hackmons (which I did not play until this year, as I was greatly turned off by the idea of Wonder Guard) and Balanced Hackmons became playable metagames on Pokémon Showdown!, I began spending more time playing that metagame, though I never completely abandoned Übers. Despite Übers having traditionally been the highest tier, the amount by which it satisfied my power-loving self was nonetheless insignificant compared to a metagame in which Pokémon can transcend the limits of legality and have 252 EVs in every stat, while having the option of possessing almost any move or Ability their trainer desired... much like some of Lance's Pokémon in the actual games. Then, shortly after Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were released... a new tier above Übers was made - Anything Goes. As it was the tier I have always wanted Übers to be, I saw no reason to stay in Übers, and moved on to Anything Goes.
But although I moved, others around me did not. Many people, including friends and clanmates of mine apparently loved Übers for reasons different from my own, and thus remained in this tier despite the creation of Anything Goes. This, combined with the fact that I remembered who I was upon participating in several Übers tournaments such as the Ubers Premier League, albeit in past-generation Übers metagames as opposed to ORAS Ubers, resulted in me moving towards a certain direction.
At the time when I was contemplating these thoughts, I had reached #1 on 48 different ladders. During that period, I was also thinking to myself that I will, for a complex reason which I don't feel like revealing, turn that 48 into a prettier-looking number before the release of my book, Purity Before Existence. As such, I aimed for two more ladder peaks in order to achieve a grand total of 50. Looking at my most recent ladder peaks around that time, I found that those ladders were mostly Anything Goes as well as several variations of Hackmons on the Pokémon Online server - namely, ORAS Balanced Hackmons, Inverted Balanced Hackmons and ORAS Hackmons. Nothing surprising really, considering most of those were my primary metagames for the ORAS era. The power levels in ORAS Ubers may not be quite as high as those in Anything Goes and especially the Hackmons metagames, but I felt that it would be fitting to end my quest for 50 ladder peaks not in my primary ORAS metagames, but rather in the ORAS version of the tier with which I have traditionally most closely identified. Book Ends are aesthetically awesome in my eyes, after all. And it truly has been a while since my last Übers Rate My Team.
In any case, before I begin talking about my team, I would like to offer my readers three things:
1. A piece of art, by me:
2. A piece of art, by LucosDICampos:
3. A nice song which goes well with this team in my opinion:
[video=youtube;wb9Ix1FgUt0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb9Ix1FgUt0[/video]
4. Respect points for anyone who successfully identifies the connection between the following three Rate My Team threads of mine: Flames of the Heavenly Light, ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾ and Gaia☯Force.
The team at a glance:
Team building process:
Gaia☯Force actually began as an XY Ubers team named Ghost Stories, made by a person known as ZoroDark.
Somewhere during the XY era, Seele, the leader of the famous Chinese clan CS took that team and replaced Mega Tyranitar with a Judgment/Recover/Stealth Rock/Will-O-Wisp Arceus-Fairy, while making various other small tweaks to it, such as replacing Clefable's Moonblast with Toxic.
Finally, I took Seele's version of the team and replaced Arceus's Pixie Plate with a Stone Plate, while making numerous other changes of my own to the team, most notably replacing Giratina's Sleep Talk with Shadow Ball to deal with Taunt Mewtwo. In doing so, I created what I personally believe, even up to this day, to be by far the single best XY Ubers team ever.
A few months after I made that team, Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were released. As covered at a certain point in my The Master of the Universe [Immanent Being of Thought Mix] *Rate My Team thread, whenever I get into a new metagame, the method by which I build my first team very often involves looking back at what gave me success in similar metagames with which I am familiar, and then modifying that team in order to adapt it to the new metagame. Sometimes, this results in a long and slow process in which I gradually tweak the team until it looks nothing like what it started as, as exemplified by the way my BW2 Balanced Hackmons team, Mirages of the Frozen Wasteland, slowly transforming into ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾ back when I played XY Balanced Hackmons in mid-2014. But other times, the remnants of my old team are still clearly visible in the end product of my new team, such as when I morphed my pre-Swagger ban XY Ubers team In Luck We Trust into my Anything Goes team, In Luck We Trust II [إحْياء من الآس البستوني]. In any case, the first version of Gaia☯Force was quite similar to the team it started as: it retained the Pokémon Clefable, Tentacruel and Arceus-Rock in their exact forms, while also keeping Giratina but changing its moveset to Dragon Tail, Rest, Toxic and Will-O-Wisp in an attempt to adapt to Primal Groudon's overwhelming presence in the ORAS Ubers metagame. The changes I made to the team were replacing Ferrothorn and Kyogre with Lugia and Primal Groudon, respectively. The former had Dragon Tail, Roost, Toxic and Whirlwind, with the first move being used as I was still very paranoid of Taunt users such as Mewtwo and Mega Gengar, since such Pokémon were very dominant in the first half of the Generation V Übers metagame. As for Primal Groudon, I used a moveset I personally invented for it - The Great Pokémon Master's Awakening Infernal Dinosaur, as I believed at the time that it would be perfect for a stall team, especially since my team already had a Stealth Rock user in Arceus-Rock anyway.
Sometime early on in the ORAS era, I reached #1 on Pokémon Online's ORAS Ubers ladder with this team. However, I do not consider such an achievement to be reflective of the quality of that team, since it was very early on in the ORAS Ubers metagame back then, and the metagame had yet to become stable. I remember that I later replaced my Arceus's Stone Plate with an Earth Plate, believing that greatly strengthening my team's matchup against the single and by far most dominant Pokémon in the ORAS Ubers metagame was well worth it in exchange for making it weaker to Ho-Oh. However, I replaced my Arceus's Stealth Rock with Stone Edge in order to prevent it from being complete Ho-Oh bait, while at the same time replacing my Primal Groudon's Sleep Talk with Stealth Rock. Simultaneously, I also replaced Lugia's Dragon Tail with Ice Beam upon noticing that Taunt Mewtwo and Mega Gengar were nowhere near as prominent in Übers as they were prior to the release of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.
Around this time, the tier Anything Goes was made, so I left ORAS Ubers since Anything Goes "replaced" that metagame for me. As such, for about two years, the evolution of my ORAS Ubers stall team came to a complete halt.
However, the time I spent playing Anything Goes indirectly gave me some ideas which I would much later use to perfect my ORAS Ubers team. I noticed an Anything Goes stall team made by a friend of mine known as Sage Hane/hexandwhy. I was inspired to try that team myself, since it was good enough to peak the Anything Goes ladder, after all, while I have had extensive experience using stall in Übers before. As I used that team, I made some changes to it - namely, replacing Darkrai and Arceus-Normal with Tentacruel and Lugia respectively, with the former utilizing the exact same moveset as in my XY and ORAS Ubers stall teams, while the latter shared the same moveset as the Diving Pokémon in my first Anything Goes team, The▲Absolute▲Power▲.
Additionally, I also changed Arceus-Steel to a Judgment/Recover/Stealth Rock/Will-O-Wisp set, and replaced Giratina's Will-O-Wisp with Toxic in order to deal with Primal Groudon better. After making such changes to Sage Hane's team, I now had a team with a Rapid Spin Tentacruel and a Defog Giratina. Previously, I had thought that including both of the aforementioned in one team would be a waste of moveslots, but after extensive experience with using that team, I realized that that was not necessarily the case at all, as both moves were useful in different situations - Rapid Spin can be used even while the user is Taunted, and does not remove entry hazards from the user's side of the field, while Defog cannot be blocked by a Ghost-type Pokémon. Additionally, Tentacruel and Giratina both wall and are threatened by different Pokémon, meaning that having both of the aforementioned entry hazard removers in one team gave me far more control over the entry hazards aspect of the game. For example, I can send out Tentacruel to Rapid Spin on a Stealth Rock Arceus-Fairy, or Giratina to Defog against a Primal Groudon while the latter gets worn down by poison damage.
Aside from that, I also had another belief of mine changed in using Sage Hane's team: Previously, as demonstrated in this post of mine in Sage Hane's Rate My Team thread, I had believed that Toxic was generally superior to Moonblast on an Unaware Clefable, but I later realized that Moonblast was more helpful in more situations. Finally, although this was already evident to me back when I used The▲Absolute▲Power▲, using my modified version of Sage Hane's team nonetheless reminded me of just how devastating Substitute Lugia can be when used in a team with Toxic Spikes support. Around that time, I went back to play some ORAS Ubers for fun, utilizing this stall team by Exiline, upon hearing that Sage Hane's stall team was originally inspired by that ORAS Ubers team. As Exiline's ORAS Ubers stall team gave birth to Sage Hane's Anything Goes stall team, which in turn gave birth to my own Anything Goes stall team, all three teams shared countless similarities, including the exact same movesets for both Clefable and Ho-Oh. However, in using both my own stall team in Anything Goes and Exiline's team in ORAS Ubers alongside each other, I could not help but notice just how incredibly helpful the Substitute technique of the Lugia in my Anything Goes stall team was, as well as how often I wished the Lugia in Exiline's ORAS Ubers stall team had that move. Substitute was simply amazing not only for its ability to protect the Psychic/Flying-type Pokémon from Leech Seed and status, but also because it allowed Lugia to stall for significantly longer than it normally would be able to, since it is usually able to take a hit and then make a Substitute before Roosting back to full health and reactivating Multiscale instead of having to Roost repeatedly every turn. And the move Roost only has 16 PP, after all. Although in the end, it is completely understandable why an ORAS Ubers stall team would want Ice Beam Lugia far more than an Anything Goes stall team would, since Refresh + Roost Mega Salamence is a massive threat in ORAS Ubers, while Mega Salamence in general is mostly regarded as a Pokémon rarely-used and outclassed by Mega Rayquaza in Anything Goes.
Anyway, as mentioned in the introduction of this thread, I eventually reached a point in time where I wanted to peak two more ladders in order to reach a grand total of 50 peaks, and chose ORAS Ubers as the metagame for my final two peaks - one on Pokémon Online and the other on Pokémon Showdown!. I tried the previously-mentioned stall team by Exiline, various teams made by my friend Sandglass/ybss1993, Lord Outrage/Executive Archer's Absolute Control, a Sticky Web team which Astounded/Arsenal regarded as his single best ORAS Ubers team, and these two teams by Lacus Clyne, including a variation of the former made by Mask of the Ice with Ditto over Yveltal. However, none of those teams suited my style at all, so I eventually went back to my first ORAS Ubers team. Applying various pieces of wisdom I gained during my time playing Anything Goes, as explained above, I modified that team, changing Clefable's Toxic to Moonblast, replacing my old Giratina set with the same one used in my Anything Goes stall team, and finally, replacing Lugia's Ice Beam with Substitute as well as Arceus-Ground's Stone Edge with Ice Beam. With these changes, I created a truly excellent as well as by far the most consistently successful ORAS Ubers team I have ever known, with which I achieved a 58-2 win-loss record, as seen on the screenshot above.
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