Rare Article: Gimmicks

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The world of competitive Pokémon is an odd one. While there are over six hundred monsters from which to choose, it seems that there are only a few basic strategies, namely walls and sweepers. Because of this, players have tried to do different things, explore the boundaries of the game. A well executed baton pass strategy can rip through an opponent, and a weather combo can be deadly. The same is true of the TCG. That one rogue deck can win a tournament, just because it was unexpected.

We at PKMNcast love that sort of stuff. You know how much we oppose just blindly following the "accepted" ways to play Pokémon. However, not all of these strategies are as successful. Just ask me about my Normal Monotype team and you will understand that all alternative strategies are not very useable. So what is it that distinguishes a legitimate strategy from a gimmick? Why, these three headings, of course!
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Rare Article: Revisiting Gen III: Part One

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As those of you who have been listening to It's Super Effective for the duration of my tenure there know, Gen III is my least favorite generation. I've never liked the region, I thought the Pokémon designs were lackluster, and I thought it did away with a lot of advancements introduced in Gen II.

But a lot of you list Gen III as your favorite, so I decided that I'd give it another chance by making Sapphire the version on which I will perform my first Nuzlocke Challenge (For those unfamiliar, Nuzlocke is simply a way to make Pokémon games more challenging.) I'm going to write about what my second impressions of Gen III are so far, and one more time once I have completed the game. For an idea of where I am, I have three badges and I am in Fallarbor Town.
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Rare Article: Leads

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A three legged dog walks into a bar and says, "I wanna know the guy who shot my paw."

Ok, bad joke. And a terrible thing to lead with for this article. Speaking of leads...

In Pokémon it is imperative to get off on the right foot. A slow start can be debilitating and cost you the match. That's what a good lead Pokémon should prevent. Leads come in many varieties, and this week I'll highlight a few.
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Rare Article: Double Battle Strategy and VGC 2012

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First off, thanks to Tyson for suggesting this topic! The rules for VGC 2012 have been announced, and it's going to be crazy. It'll be double battles again, but this time players aren't limited to Unova Pokémon. That's right, all Pokémon from #1-#646 are usable, except for a number of banned Pokémon. Numbers 647-649 are unreleased as of now so they won't be included. I'm going to focus on a few things that I think are going to be central in this year's VGC.
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Rare Article: CTMs

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I'm sure that there is a name for what I'm going to describe. Am I going to actively look to see what that is? No. I call them CTMs, or Common Threat Managers, Pokemon that, on their own, aren't fantastic but are able to take out a large number of the metagame's most common players, and especially threats that give the rest of your team trouble. I think people call those "techs." That's a dumb word. I'm going to call them CTMs. Wanna fight about it?
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Rare Article: Keeping Pokémon Fun

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We all play a whole lot of Pokémon. Some people play more than others, granted, but on average, Pokéfanatics like ourselves play Pokémon a bunch, because we wouldn't be Pokéfanatics if we didn't. An unfortunate side effect of this is that the game can become monotonous. It stops being fun when one plays it too much. Sure, we love the game, but we've seen pretty much all the game has to offer. That's where I come in. I'm going to show you ways to get a newfound fervour for the games.
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Rare Article: 3 Common Mistakes of New Competitive Players

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Many of us in the PKMNCast community have been recently decided to start getting a little more in depth in the battling scene now that we have a community of nice people to battle. Heck, even I wasn't really into battling until I became a fan of the show. That means that we have many fans that are new to the game. And that means that we make a ton of mistakes. I'm going to focus on some of those mistakes that are based on team building, because to learn prediction and some of the other in-battle techniques require practice, not me blabbering to you. So, without further ado, three common mistakes of players new to the competitive scene:
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Four Pokémon You Should Consider: Part II

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Exactly one year ago today I posted one of PKMNcast's most famous artilces. Some say that it's the article that put us on the Google map. Well... I thought today would be a great follow up to that article since their are over 600 Pokémon now. Honestly, it's been over 6 months since I wrote an article myself. Sure, I post letters for you guys to read about the site and how all of you are awesome, but I think it's time to get my keyboard dirty again... at least for today.
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Rare Article: Writing about Pokémon

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SBJ recently launched the "Laboratory" section of PKMNCast. For those unaware, the Laboratory is a way for you to get your own Pokémon articles on the site. I know all of you are as excited as a Pachirisu on Arbor Day to get started, but how about you sit down with me for a while, and we'll chat about how to write effectively on the Poggeymans.
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Rare Article: 3 Reasons People are Reluctant to Play Pokémon

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While the audience of Pokémon is ever growing, there are still some misconceptions about it that keep people from Snorlax's warm, soft embrace. I figured that I'd let you readers know a few of these misconceptions that I have noticed, and that way you can know what you are up against when trying to convince someone that Pokémon is enjoyable to people other than their 8 year old nephew.
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