Pokemusings, week 50

There were big anti-legend and anti-uber sentiments during the first few months of Diamond/Pearl's release. A lot of trainers wanted nothing to do with these powerful Pokemon and scoffed at anyone using them in battle. As people got their fill of all the new non-legendary Pokemon, their attentions finally shifted to the new breed. This turned out to be a great thing as the new legendaries have injected new blood into the "uber" tier of competitive play. Giratina is arguably the greatest physical wall in the game. Heatran's unique typing presents some nasty match-up problems. Cresselia is a fantastically balanced defender. Darkrai is nasty, nasty sweeper. And Manaphy still rules.

Slightly less exciting than new Pokemon are new TMs (technical machines). It seemed everyone was amped for Energy Ball. People were thinking, "Finally! A grass move that doesn't suck and can be used by a variety of Pokemon!" Energy Ball is certainly a formidable attack, but people learned quickly that Grass Knot is more effective in most cases. Diamond/Pearl really upped the complexity of the game with its sheer amount of moves. The attack, countering, and counter-countering (we've been playing Disgaea again) have led to the deepest battling Pokemon has ever seen. That said, people were gimmicky with a lot of the new moves and have gone back to the old standbys, implementing a few of the newer moves with great success.

We're going to start our giveaway a page early, since it's a very special one. To commemorate the 50th issue of Pokemusings, we're going to give away five special Pokemon to five lucky readers. Want to see what the giveaways are? Well you'll have to go to the next page for that!