Ultimate Champion
The Great Pokémon Master
[video=youtube;5LUBRppjK9s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LUBRppjK9s[/video]
The famous English Astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle once stated that for our universe to even exist in its current form, it must be the case that "a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature."
If this "superintellect" in question has "monkeyed" with the laws of this universe at the time of its creation, but has not interfered with such ever since then, then He would be transcendent, as God is often said to be. However, many others also argue that God is immanent, if not both immanent and transcendent at the same time.
The question of whether the Creator of our universe is immanent, transcendent, or perhaps both is widely debated. However, the answer to the equivalent question about the one that created the Pokémon universe is clear.
Mythology describes Arceus as the Pokémon which shaped the universe with its one thousand arms. A universe in which only fifteen elements originally existed. Although the Psychic element proved to be a force of imbalance initially, the immanence of the Creator was soon revealed through the creation of the Dark and Steel elements, alongside the modification of several elemental constants in order to rectify this problem. Sometime in more recent history, the immanence of God was demonstrated once again as He descended upon the Pokémon world while donning the Pixie Plate, to herald the creation of a new element which served to counter-balance the ever-increasing power of the Dragon element.
In the creation of the Pokémon world that took place in the first generation, as well as through the modifications of its constants through both the second and sixth generations, the Pokémon universe has been fine-tuned for the purpose of creating an environment in which all powers and elements are kept in balance amongst each other. A world in which the very art of Pokémon battling can be performed in the way that we know it. A world in which there exists no such power that can appropriately be called "ultimate."
However, all of this fine-tuning goes completely out of the window once the universe is turned upside down. The world of Inverse Battles is a strange place. It is a bizarre environment in which Fire beats Water, and where type immunities no longer exist. A world in which most elements are inherently self-destructive, yet neither Dragons nor Ghosts possess the ability to slay their own kind. A world in which one power can certainly not only be called "ultimate," but also surpassing what both Dragon and even Psychic used to be. An element which once depended on its abundance of overwhelmingly powerful moves in order to make up for its lack of advantages against other elements, the Normal type... that which is usually a plain, barren and ordinary element in the world of Pokémon, can certainly be called "the ultimate power" in the world of Inverted Balanced Hackmons. A world in which not only are the properties of elements flipped around, but also one in which any Pokémon can possess even the most useful and powerful attacks in existence. Such moves, of course, include the blazingly fast Fake Out and Extreme Speed as well as the destructively strong Boomburst and Facade, all of which draw their energy from the ultimate power in this universe.
(All the names circled in red are me)
Welcome to the Rate My Team thread dedicated to The Master of the Universe [Immanent Being of Thought Mix], my team for Pokémon Online's Inverted Balanced Hackmons metagame. Across space and time, Pokémon trainers far and wide have known me as a player of numerous different metagames throughout the generations. A very consistent, though not exactly universal theme among the metagames to which I dedicate most of my time and energy is that such metagames allow the use of Pokémon and strategies of unnatural power. However, "unnatural power" in this context is a vague term which can mean several different things, all of which are significantly different in scale. In some cases, this term may simply refer to the fact that almost all, if not all of the strongest legendary Pokémon are allowed to be used in many of the metagames in which I battle. This term, however, may refer to something on a grander scale, such as a metagame in which absolutely any kind of Pokémon or strategy within the legal limits of the game may be used. But "unnatural power" can also denote a power that exists beyond the boundaries of legality within the game, such as a metagame in which Pokémon may possess pretty much any Ability that their trainer desires. Ascending even higher in scale, this term may reference metagames in which Pokémon possess near-unlimited options not only in terms of their Ability, but also in regards to their moves, while possibly even transcending the 510 EV limit that normally binds each individual Pokémon.
The reason why the use of "unnatural power" is a common theme among the metagames that I play is simple. While living life to me is like creating a work of art, and I live and act to satisfy my own sense of aesthetics, there is one thing which I have always viewed to be aesthetically pleasant, and that is sheer, overwhelming power. Reducing all of creation to ashes with a blast of harsh sunlight-fueled holy flames. Smiting the opponent's toughest walls with a catastrophically powerful wave of fire or ice. Crushing all opposition with the mere mind of that which Dr. Fuji would regard as the most powerful Pokémon, before grasping victory under the endlessly snowing heavens. Smashing the opponent's paralyzed Pokémon to pieces with the devastating attacks of my very signature Pokémon, famous for possessing the highest Attack stat of all Pokémon in the distant past. Overwhelming the opponent's defenses with an endless wave of luck, which is arguably the most powerful element one can have at their side in the game of Pokémon. Drowning foes with a devastating blast of water amidst a vast, moonlit and tranquil sea. Passing judgment upon enemies with the combined, absolute power of three deities, while watching as the foes succumb to the poison which enters their body from beneath their feet. Annihilating the opponent with a combination of speed and raw power before they have the chance to react. Or simply obliterating any foes that may stand in my path with a destructively loud soundwave explosion, fired from a Mega legendary Pokémon in possession of the highest base stat total in the game.
However, one can say that people's interest in things go around in a cycle. By indulging in one pleasure for an extended period of time, one inevitably ensures that that ceases to be a pleasure until one stops being exposed to it for long enough. Towards the end of Generation VI, I experienced a state of mind very similar to that which I went through in the final months of Generation V: I more or less lost interest in most of the metagames I battled in, while that which I remained with interest had no EV limit, as well as almost no restrictions on what Pokémon may be used and what moves and Abilities said Pokémon may possess. And just as my feelings towards Pokémon at the end of Generation V gave rise to my tenth anniversary Rate My Team thread, the way I have approached this game in the months leading up to the release of Pokémon Sun and Moon has led me to create a pair of Rate My Team threads, each dedicated to a team of mine in one of the two remaining Generation VI metagames I still play. Two metagames which can be considered to be polar opposites of each other, in which the theme of "unnatural power" once again reoccurs on multiple different levels.
Not only are ORAS Balanced Hackmons and Inverted Balanced Hackmons on Pokémon Online both arguably tied as the second highest metagames in terms of the level of power one can wield in them, being second only to classic Hackmons, but partially thanks to the Pokémon Online mechanics that allow the Pokémon Arceus to be any type regardless of its item or Ability, the "unnatural power" that these teams embody can be observed by merely looking at the Pokémon that make up said teams. The▲Absolute▲Power▲'s holy trinity of three Arceus returns in the two teams, which also happen to both be the first Rate My Team threads of mine to include at least one of the Alpha Pokémon yet at the same time having the statistically strongest Pokémon in that team, at least prior to any kind of transformation, be something other than an Arceus itself. In my Rate My Team thread for The Champion's Glory Team, I explained in Deoxys-S's section that with very few exceptions, I arrange the Pokémon in my teams in ascending order of base stat total, meaning that the Pokémon with the lowest base stat total in my teams occupies the first spot, while the Pokémon with the highest base stat total rests at the sixth spot. In both teams presented by this pair of Rate My Team threads I am posting today, the Pokémon that occupies the sixth spot in the team happens to be a Mega form of a super legendary Pokémon, one of my favorite Pokémon ever from an aesthetic point of view, a Pokémon that happens to utilize the moves Boomburst, Extreme Speed and Fake Out, as well as one of the Pokémon with the highest base stat total in existence. Additionally, each of the aforementioned Mega Pokémon happens to be of a type that was, at certain points in Pokémon history, considered to be the "ultimate" type, and consequently either a new type or a pair of new types had to be introduced later to balance out its power. In my mind, this further highlights the statuses of specialness, ultimateness, power and nobility associated with the Pokémon that occupy the final spots of both teams. Witnessing such, as well as the fact that both teams are strikingly similar in their inclusion of an Imposter Chansey, three Arceus as well as a Pokémon with a 780 base stat total, was what led to my decision to celebrate the end of Generation VI by posting not one Rate My Team thread as I did at the end of Generation V, but rather, taking a page out of Game Freak's book in the way they like to release two versions of pretty much the same Pokémon game at once, by releasing a pair of Rate My Team threads, which I have named after two polar opposite characteristics which are both ironically yet commonly associated with the Judeo-Christian God.
The team at a glance:
Team building process:
I was first inspired to get into Inverted Balanced Hackmons when my friend fsk introduced me to it. Since I am an experienced Balanced Hackmons player who has been playing this metagame since the BW2 era in 2013, I figured it wouldn't be very difficult to learn Inverted Balanced Hackmons, as it was pretty much just the very same metagame I've been very experienced with, only in Inverse Battle format.
When fsk first talked to me about this metagame, I already knew right off the bat that at high levels, battles would be dominated by the Pokémon Arceus-Normal, Slaking and Regigigas, not only because Normal is by far the best offensive type in this metagame, but this type also boasts some of the best attacks in existence, such as Boomburst, Extreme Speed, Fake Out and Facade. In that conversation, fsk revealed a very interesting idea to me, that being a Spooky Plate-holding Protean Mega Mewtwo Y with the moves Boomburst, Extreme Speed, King's Shield and Judgment, used primarily for its ability to KO Slaking and Regigigas in a single hit with Judgment, while being able to deal more than 90% damage to Arceus-Normal with that move. I found that idea to be very appealing, and that, combined with the fact that Mewtwo is one of my favorite Pokémon ever, which I have not had the pleasure of using in any excellent team of mine since Mirages of the Frozen Wasteland, I decided to make that Mega Mewtwo Y the starting point of my team.
However, I personally found fsk's idea of using King's Shield to be strange, since a Protean Pokémon using that move would turn it into a Steel-type Pokémon, which would make it weak to Extreme Speed, a very common move in this metagame. And while King's Shield would halve the opposing Pokémon's Attack stat if they were to attempt to hit Mega Mewtwo Y with a contact move such as the aforementioned Extreme Speed on that turn, the opponent's Pokémon's Attack being halved would be negated on the next turn anyway by the fact that Extreme Speed would now hit Mega Mewtwo Y super effectively. And this is not even beginning to touch on the possibility that the opponent's Pokémon may set up with a move such as Belly Drum, Swords Dance or Shift Gear on the turn Mega Mewtwo Y uses King's Shield, putting its trainer at a massive disadvantage. As such, I decided to replace King's Shield with Fake Out, in order to turn the Genetic Pokémon into a potent revenge-killer when that move is paired with Extreme Speed. With Boomburst, Extreme Speed and Fake Out, I intended for my team's Mega Mewtwo Y to function a lot like the standard Aerilate Mega Rayquaza and Pixilate Mega Diancie which should be familiar to anyone who has ever played ORAS Balanced Hackmons on Pokémon Online, or even simply Balanced Hackmons on Pokémon Showdown!, while at the same time serving to vaporize Normal-type Pokémon with its powerful Ghost-type Judgment.
One can call it sloth on my part all they want, but whenever I get into a new metagame and have no idea of how to make progress in building my first team, my first solution is always to employ strategies, or even entire cores of Pokémon that are very similar to or based on what has worked for me in another metagame. That "another metagame" in question is always a metagame I am familiar with and which I have judged to be most similar to the metagame I happen to be trying to get into. In fact, I sometimes do this when building a new team in a metagame I am already familiar with, too.
For example, the earliest versions of Mirages of the Frozen Wasteland, my very first BW2 Balanced Hackmons team ever, employed strategies from BW2 Ubers, a metagame I was very experienced with beforehand, most notably the concept of a Deoxys-S lead, as well as the Pokémon Extreme Killer Arceus. I had replicated the latter's Swords Dance + Same Type Attack Bonus Extreme Speed strategy with Pokémon like Slaking, Regigigas, and Arceus-Normal itself, while enhancing the effectiveness of one of them with the Ability Simple, giving one of them Belly Drum instead of Swords Dance, and also giving one of them Drought in order to enhance the power of Sacred Fire, a move used by most members of my team back then, and a move whose catastrophic power under harsh sunlight I had come to appreciate from playing BW2 Ubers, as evident from my very first two Rate My Team threads.
In Luck We Trust, though hardly my first XY Ubers team, had Choice Specs Kyurem-W in its early versions to deal with eliminate Pokémon which I thought would give SwagPlay, the primary strategy of that team, trouble, such as Groudon, Hippowdon and Amoonguss. My decision to choose Choice Specs Kyurem-W for that role, as one would probably be able to guess, came after I had witnessed the effectiveness of that Pokémon in the previous generation, as shown in my second Rate My Team thread.
Not only did ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾, my very first XY Balanced Hackmons team ever originally start off as Mirages of the Frozen Wasteland itself, but even the very structure of that team's final form resembled the end product of the team to which my tenth anniversary Rate My Team thread was dedicated, with both teams featuring a Stealth Rock lead that each served anti-Shedinja purposes in their own ways (besides setting up Stealth Rock, of course); an immensely bulky Psychic-type Unaware wall with Whirlwind; a Prankster Ghost-type Pokémon; a Poison Heal sweeper with Quiver Dance and a sleep-inducing move; as well as a bulky Magic Bounce Pokémon with Rapid Spin, Recover, Spikes as well as an attack which threatens Giratina-A, the most common Spin-blocker in both metagames.
The▲Absolute▲Power▲, my first Anything Goes team, borrowed heavily from the only hyper-offensive XY Ubers team I have ever liked. And of course, the very name of In Luck We Trust II [إحْياء من الآس البستوني], another Anything Goes team of mine, gives away what its origins.
Needless to say, the metagame I am familiar with which most resembles Inverted Balanced Hackmons is ORAS Balanced Hackmons on Pokémon Online. I have two teams for that metagame: ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾ and The Master of the Universe [Transcendent Being of Power Mix], the latter of which having been made sometime before I got into Inverted Balanced Hackmons. The Master of the Universe [Transcendent Being of Power Mix]'s core is actually based on ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾'s as explained in the Team building process section of that Rate My Team thread, but I decided to base my Inverted Balanced Hackmons team's core on the latter team since I figured that an Unaware wall would simply be too useful in a metagame in which the Swords Dance or Belly Drum + Same Type Attack Bonus Extreme Speed combo is probably used a lot. So I put in a Teravolt Arceus-Normal, utilizing the same moveset and function as ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾'s Ho-Oh, except with the ever-useful Boomburst in place of V-create, and with a Rocky Helmet instead of a Lum Berry for extra insurance against Shedinja, since nothing is immune to Endeavor in this metagame. I put in an Imposter Eviolite Chansey, as Spooky Plate was not needed since Judgment Mega Gengar is not a relevant threat in Inverted Balanced Hackmons. I chose Arceus-Ice as my Unaware wall, as I thought it would be useful for that role due to its many resistances in this metagame, and I gave it the same moveset as my XY Balanced Hackmons team's Cresselia. In place of ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾'s Kyogre, I put a Poison Heal Arceus-Normal with Boomburst, Dark Void, Quiver Dance and Will-O-Wisp in this team, utilizing Boomburst's devastating power and perfect coverage, while Will-O-Wisp was used to annoy certain walls. And finally, I put in an Arceus-Dark with the same moves and Ability as ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾'s Xerneas, except with Dark Pulse over Moonblast. Unfortunately, I do not seem to remember why I initially chose the Dark Forme of the Alpha Pokémon for that role. The only Pokémon in my team which did not have a counterpart in ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾ was my Mega Mewtwo Y, while the only Pokémon in ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾ that did not have a counterpart in my Inverted Balanced Hackmons team was Aegislash. This was because I had judged that a Prankster wall would not be too useful anyway in a metagame in which nothing resisted or was immune to Extreme Speed, and I found Mega Mewtwo Y's sheer nuking power and revenge-killing abilities reminiscent of a typical Aerilate/Pixilate/Refrigerate Pokémon in any Generation VI Balanced Hackmons metagame to be better anyway.
Seeing that Arceus-Dark was not very useful, I replaced it with Arceus-Ground, running the exact same set but with Thousand Waves instead of Dark Pulse. This decision was to give the team a resistance to Ice-type attacks which threatened Arceus-Ice, while at the same time allowing my Magic Bounce wall to also serve the purpose of trapping and PP-stalling Imposters until they Struggle to death.
Upon noticing that my team was weak to Contrary Mega Mewtwo Y, I changed my team's Unaware wall from Arceus-Ice to Arceus-Fighting, due to its very important resistance to Psycho Boost. And while opting for Arceus-Dragon would give the Unaware wall a resistance to Draco Meteor, a move which can also KO an Unaware Arceus in two neutral hits if its user receives Same Type Attack Bonus for it, I found that resisting Psycho Boost was far more important than resisting Draco Meteor, for one very simple reason: Arceus is faster than Mega Rayquaza, Mega Latias, Mega Latios, and pretty much every Contrary Pokémon which would receive Same Type Attack Bonus for Draco Meteor, at least provided they have not attained a Speed boost with V-create. As such, an Unaware Arceus that does not resist Draco Meteor can at the very least Recover-stall Same Type Attack Bonus Draco Meteor-using Contrary Pokémon somewhat. However, Mega Mewtwo Y can simply hit a non-Psychic-resistant Unaware Arceus on the switch with Psycho Boost before outrunning it and knocking it out on the next turn with a second hit, making it far more threatening. Finally, the reason why I decided to use Arceus-Fighting instead of Arceus-Poison as a Psycho Boost-resistant Unaware Arceus was because the latter was weak to Leaf Storm, a move which Contrary Pokémon use very often.
However, I judged that Arceus-Ice's typing was way too good defensively in this metagame, so I made it into my team's Magic Bounce wall. I kept Thousand Waves though, as I really liked its ability to force Imposters to Struggle to their own doom.
At that time, I noticed that my Poison Heal Arceus-Normal was taking too much damage from the Boomburst of Imposters for my own liking, so I replaced that Pokémon with a Poison Heal Regigigas with the moves Dark Void, Facade, Leech Seed and Shift Gear.
As much fun as it was to trap and slowly destroy Imposters with Arceus-Ice's Thousand Waves, I decided to replace that move with Whirlwind for two reasons. Firstly, it was to eliminate the stat boosts of Contrary Primal Groudon, as Arceus-Fighting could not wall this Pokémon since its V-create was way too powerful. And secondly, it was to prevent Arceus-Ice from being setup fodder for the very Regigigas set that this team runs, since this Regigigas has no true counters, and the only way to stop it from sweeping entire teams in this metagame is to make sure that almost no Pokémon in one's team can let it set up. For the purpose of not letting said Regigigas set up, I also replaced Arceus-Normal's Dark Void with Gastro Acid. Finally, I replaced Arceus-Fighting's King's Shield, which I didn't find to be useful at all, with Parting Shot in order to eliminate the stat boosts of Magic Bounce sweepers, while at the same time serving some momentum-grabbing or defensive utility.
Around this time, I began thinking of nicknames for my Pokémon. I immediately noticed the striking similarities and parallels this team had with my ORAS Balanced Hackmons team, The Master of the Universe [Transcendent Being of Power Mix], known as Immanence and Transcendence back then. As I had named the three Arceus in that team after the Trinity in Christianity, I decided to mirror it by naming the three Arceus in this team after the Trimurti in Hinduism. With the idea of those three Hindu gods in my mind, I remembered that two past Rate My Team threads of mine each had one Pokémon named after Hindu deities as well. One was Surya, the Lugia which wore the name of the Hindu God of the Sun in Flames of the Heavenly Light, while the other was Anumati, the Blissey which wore the name of the Hindu Goddess of the Moon in ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾. Seeing as the Chansey in my Inverted Balanced Hackmons team is an Imposter that abuses its incredibly high HP stat just like the aforementioned Blissey, I decided to give my Chansey the same name as it as a simple shoutout to it, especially since I actually did have a Chansey named Anumati in earlier versions of ☽Mare Tranquillitatis☾. At the same time, I also named my Regigigas after the Lugia in my very first Rate My Team thread, in order to include the Hindu deities of both the Sun and the Moon in this team as a sign of respect for the two upcoming new Pokémon games. Finally, I named my Mega Mewtwo Y after one of the most iconic goddesses of Hinduism.
I had already decided by this point that I was going to create a pair of Rate My Team threads to celebrate the end of Generation VI, with one titled The Master of the Universe [Transcendent Being of Power Mix] and the other The Master of the Universe [Immanent Being of Thought Mix]. I decided to choose the second name for my Inverted Balanced Hackmons team due to the nicknames of its three Arceus. The Trimurti represents creation, maintenance and destruction, which implies that those three deities collectively are immanent rather than transcendent in relation to this universe.
In all of my time laddering in Inverted Balanced Hackmons under the name 【天龍神】 ワタル up to that point, I have only ever lost twice. The first was to Battle Timeout since I left my computer after having forgotten that I had selected Find Battle. And the second was to a combination of a Soundproof Lugia with Heal Order, Perish Song, Taunt and Thousand Waves, paired with a Refrigerate Kyurem-B. Around the when when I faced that team, I did defeat, though experienced immense difficulty twice against a team which utilized the deadly combination of Choice Specs Refrigerate Kyurem-W and Mold Breaker Arceus-Grass with Sticky Web, with a Soundproof Arceus-Ice to counter the Boundary Pokémon in case it got Impostered. Through all of the aforementioned experiences, I found that my team had an exploitable weakness to Ice-type attacks, especially the immensely destructive ones of the Refrigerate Kyurem Formes, and especially if they came into my Arceus-Ice. In response to that realization, I replaced what I considered to be the overall least useful member of my team, Arceus-Normal, with an Arceus-Grass running the exact same item, Ability and moves, except with Recover over Boomburst. This ensured that aside from setting up Stealth Rock and checking Shedinja, as Arceus-Normal could do, this Arceus-Grass could also serve an additional and very useful purpose, that being to check Refrigerate Kyurem Formes. Arceus-Grass's ability to make Refrigerate Kyurem-B take damage every time it attacks the Grass Forme of the Alpha Pokémon with a contact move, thanks to its Rocky Helmet, proved to be very nice too.
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