BadPokemon

Diantha can be a challenge if you're not prepared for Mega Gardevoir, though.

Yeah basically :P the best will probably be the champ on either format; and everyone else will be elite / leaders based on placing.

Well, she is a champion of a region, after all.

Hey don't worry about it :P You're far from the only one who needs some time for this, there's a few people we're waiting on. ^^

No worries :P Mostly all of everyone else is singles too. And we've already started, but don't worry - we won't do placement until everyone's got a fair chance to have their battles. If you need until Monday, we can hold off the Showdown tourney til then. (Hopefully we can get everyone together for it)

Well, I also liked it for Cynthia, but Cynthia was really just eye candy for me, haha.

Pokemon.com is a good place to watch the older anime episodes. No commercials, legal, and guaranteed not to be taken down by a DMCA. It's limitations are that it runs 5 episodes a week for each of the previous 5 regions, though each episode has a 2 week lifespan (so, really the first week you watch a region, you've got 10 episodes to watch).

Oh shoot! My bad, thanks for letting me, and sorry about that. I'll change it right now.

And you can do singles or doubles, whichever you're more used to. If you and your opponent prefer different styles though, make sure you do one of each so neither side is at a disadvantage. (Shouldn't be a problem on Showdown, since I'm fairly certain almost the entirety of Showdown users do 6 v 6 singles.)

Well, do you have cable or satellite? You can catch it that way. Or Google a source for the subs so you can catch up to the English dub, since XY probably won't hit rerun status until December or later on Cartoon Network.

Most people don't have time to watch 800 episodes, haha. I only did it myself by multitasking most arcs as well as catching the episodes as they were uploaded to the official Pokemon.com TV site (I watched Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh all be uploaded, and then Unova about a year after it debuted through this way).

I found fifth gen okay, but I found it a letdown from 4th gen, which felt like it went to greater lengths to expand on character development. The Rockets being competent was refreshing, though.

I don't really have a favorite gen of the anime, myself. Though the Meloetta arc was fun for me. Bet you can't guess why. :P

Have you watched all 800+ episodes? :P

Of what you have watched, which is your favorite region and what was your favorite story arc?

Well... I kinda don't battle competitively... the card game, anime, and Pokemon Adventures manga are my massive Pokemon time-sinks that aren't the games.

As long as it doesn't take too much damage itself, anyway.

Oh, right, they brought back Tentacool as the ubiquitous surfing Pokemon for DPPt...

There'll be a different Water Pokemon you'll hate once you play ORAS, though.

I find Lucario alright, though any vitriol I have for it traces back to the fact that he replaced Mewtwo in Smash Brothers. :(

Staraptor was actually pretty beastly for me in Gen IV because of Brave Bird and Close Combat.

A lot also didn't like it because there was so much water.

Not having a phone was both a blessing and a curse for the game.

oh. i guess it can wait.

you're only missing out on like one of the bestest games in the series

Yes, there are, but only via emulators, iirc. You'd still have to find the ROM files for the emulator once it's installed.

Though I prefer the cartridges to emulation, myself.

You mean those GBA emulators for Android/iOS?

Play Emerald. It basically set the blueprint for how much content can be crammed into a 3rd game, and it's that postgame content formula that Platinum followed pretty well. Platinum's Battle Frontier is a little lacking compared to Emerald's ridiculous size, though (also, Emerald has a cloning glitch!)

whaaaaaaat really? oh wait it has been 7 years since the release of DP, hasn't it?

Diamond and Pearl make Gen IV generally be considered among the worst gens because of pacing and technical issues with them. In comparison, Black 2 & White 2 just feel so polished, even if the postgame level jump hurdle is still a nightmare to leap at times.

Did you at least play HGSS? The game that was the king of nostalgia for old farts like me?

Oh so you're young yet. I started in Gen I at 9, myself.

Well... not sure yet. I will be getting both games, though.