Smogon Wi-Fi's Secret Santa #6!!!

[Max. Optimizer]

My recipient is none other than Buckert, my longest-standing friend here in Smogon Wi-Fi, as well as my mentor since Day 1.
I know that Buckert likes the color red and I knew from the questionnaire that he has a predilection for Steel-type Pokémon.
Knowing that Buckert's favorite car is red and is affectionately nicknamed ❝Elmo❞, I had the idea for the following project:

(#649 - Max. Optimizer's ❝Ｅｌｍｏ❞ ⚲

)
❝the Wish Granter❞
(Injected Wonder Card) - Nicknamed by Max. Optimizer - NFT
⑤

OT: えいがかん | ID: 07133 | Unova (Black)
Hasty | Download | RNG: Wonder Card
IVs: 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 (HP Dark)
EV'd: U-turn, Iron Head, Ice Beam, Flamethrower
{252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe}

​

When Genesect moves around, it reminds me a little of bit of Buckert's favorite car (especially with the eyes resembling headlights)

The Genesect was RNG abused by myself, as well as the savefile necessary in order to nickname it.

The second part of my gift consists in a personal poem that I wrote for Buckert.
He is free to post it if he wants, but, from the reaction I saw earlier, I think that he'll keep it private.

Shout-outs to you, Buckert.
I wouldn't be where I am now if it hadn't been for your help and generosity from the moment I joined Smogon Wi-Fi.
Here's to many more years of friendship.

(Also, also, wow. You nickname your car, but not your Pokémon?)
(Just kidding, he nicknamed a Pokémon as a gift for me, but I won't spoil what it is.)

Stay safe and healthy everyone!
Merry Christmas to all of my fellow Wi-Fiers and their loved ones!

 

[BlizzardHero]

My recipient is Lionyx. From their questionnaire, I extrapolated the perfect combination: Flying, (Soul) Silver, Luxury Ball, Green-ish, Timid, and most importantly, POWERFUL! As such there was only one Pokemon who could dare to fit such a daunting combination! It's.....

Xatu!

...

What, Xatu is powerful! Terrifying beast of the skies! At least, she looks powerful? Okay, I got 5/6 of aspects correct, just squint a bit. Good enough for Blizz work. Without further delay:

(#178 - Xatu "Qamaits" ✵)
Ⅳ

OT: Blizz | ID: 17221 | Ruins of Alph (Johto)
Timid | Magic Bounce | SSR Method
IVs: 31 | 7 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31 (HP Dark)
Ev'd: Psyshock, Heat Wave, Calm Mind, Roost
{252 HP / 240 Def / 16 Spd}

Additional Information
Named after Qamaits, the warrior goddess of the indigenous Nuxalk people along the central coast of B.C. in Canada. She is the goddess of death and the beginning, with various creator diety themes. She also sends her pet snake to do her destructive bidding.

Her name plays primarily off the totem pole influence of Xatu. Indigenous cultures in the coastal Northwestern United States and parts of Western Canada carve totem poles, such as the Nuxalk people. Bird mythology plays a large part in these cultures (typically either the Raven or the Thunderbird), however none quite fit Xatu's design and are generally referred to as male.

Additionally, Xatu is influenced by the Aztec (and Mayan) practice of sun gazing. With this comes another influence: the legend of Tenochtitlan. As prophesized, their legendary city would be founded where the wandering tribe saw the an eagle with a snake in it's beak atop a cactus. The eagle represented Huitzilopochti (the Aztec god of war) while the snake represented Quetzalcoatl (feathered serpent god with connotations of wisdom). Both aspects (War and Snake) relate back to Qamaits's mythology as a war god with a snake.

Finally, Xatu is influenced by the resplendent quetzal, a bird found in Southern Mexico and Central America. This bird is heavily linked to Quetzalcoatl, which subsequently links back to the second aspect.
​

 

[Lionyx]

Merry Christmas everyone! This time my recipient was BlizzardHero, who I've met on the forums this year via his amazing Ditto giveaway and chatted more with later on within this community. Here's a presentation of his gift :)

Hendrik the shiny Gurdurr

IVs: 31/31/31/0/31/HT - Adamant
EVs: 252 HP / 198 Atk / 60 Def
Moves: Bulk Up / Knock Off / Mach Punch / Drain Punch

​

To be frank, it was not so easy to choose a Pokémon, because I wanted to offer him one that he did not have, yet his thread is filled with so many amazing Pokémon that it literally makes my smartphone or my older laptop lag when I try to view it from these devices

Having noticed in Blizz's sign up post that he liked Fighting types, Sinnoh, Lure Ball, Jolly nature and the color blue, my first choice was to give him a Jolly shiny Gallade in a Lure Ball, but then I noticed that he already had this exact combination. Since my goal was to contribute to his collection, or at least help him obtain a Pokémon that he did not already have, I chose a Unovan Fighting-type instead, since that region was also mentioned in the post, and noticed that Gurdurr was not in his collection. Brown was also among Blizz's top-liked colors, so that was another motivation behind the choice of Gurdurr.

Unfortunately, Gurdurr is not renowned for its speed prowess, so I went with the Adamant nature over Jolly, in order to maximize the damage it would deal. As a fun fact, it was able to earn its Battle Royale Champion ribbon on its own without me needing to send out my other two Pokémon, and it also defeated two of Red's three Pokémon during the battle for the Tree Master ribbon. Well, these having been Snorlax and Lapras surely helped, but it would be wrong not to spam Bulk Up as much as possible when an occasion arises anyway! The set is the standard Gen 8 ZU set, which is satisfying to play with even in the in-game formats.

This Pokémon was obtained as an egg in Ultra Sun, where I abused the preset egg RNG that comes along owning the Shiny Charm and using Masuda Method (fun fact: the Ditto used for this was obtained in Blizz's Ditto Dynamo). I picked an egg whose PSV matched my Sun TSV, then traded it to Sun and hatched it there, at the Altar of the Sunne. It was then traded back to Ultra Sun, trained and levelled up before obtaining its ribbons, then moved to Sword where it got another two ribbons. This Pokémon also comes with the French language tag, as I play my games in that language.

As for the nickname, Hendrik is a character from Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, one of my favorite games. He is a fierce knight renowned for his uncommon strength, matching Gurdurr, but also for his kind heart and loyalty, matching Blizz. He's nearly always seen with his sword, which can be compared to Gurdurr's permanent wielding of its girder. Hendrik makes a major apparition in the Altar of the Yggdrasil Tree, the most important location in the world of Dragon Quest, which is why I've decided to hatch it in the Altar of the Sunne, the most important location in Alola.

I hope that Blizz can enjoy this gift as much as I enjoy his, hopefully with the next few years seeing the release of both Gurdurr and Xatu in Paldea, and as I write the last sentences of this post, I'll welcome the opportunity to thank Light Sanctity for hosting this year's Secret Santa, as well as the Smogon Wi-Fi Discord community for being such a nice place to spend time in. Wishing everyone the best and may your 2023 be filled with many more completed Pokémon projects!

 

[Sephirona]

Merry Christmas! My secret Santa giftee was Xen \o/

Xen's always been a super thoughtful and kind fixture of our community and I was really happy to be able to work on a gift for him. While brainstorming what the gift would be I realized that this would tick several boxes in his prompts (Bug, Unova, Dive, Blue, and both cute+powerful!) and I also was happy that it could immediately be useful in-game since we'd both started SV a bit later than others. Then, while breeding in the flawless stats for the gift I got a surprise shiny version without the shiny charm yet, so I decided to give both n_n

(Also, Volcarona has my name in it so that's kind of neat. Heheh.)



[ Archaeas ★ ] [ Lv. 100 ]
Retail Scarlet

Dex: #637 | Species: Volcarona
Nature: Modest | Ability: Flame Body
IVs: ( 31 / 0 / 31 / 31 / 31 / 31 )
EVs: ( 252 HP / 252 SpAtk )

Name inspired by a character from Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt fantasy series.
In the books, Archaeos is a member of the reclusive Moth-kinden, a people with powers
that are themselves inspired by those of moths. I uh...already gave my gift to Xen so I don't
remember the moveset I put on it, it's meant to be useful in raids as a Bug/Fire special attacker
with Quiver Dance and also to be useful for hatching eggs with Flame Body. :D


[ Skryra ★ ] [ Lv. 100 ]
Retail Scarlet

Dex: #637 | Species: Volcarona
Nature: Modest | Ability: Flame Body
IVs: ( 31 / 31 / 31 / 31 / 31 / HT )
EVs: ( 252 HP / 252 SpAtk )

Name inspired by a powerful and secretive faction of rulers from the Moth-kinden society
in the Shadows of the Apt series. I managed to hatch this before getting the shiny charm within the
first couple of days getting the game, so that was great \o/ Also meant to be useful in raids as
a special attacker and for hatching eggs in-game!

Thanks Xen for being an amazing friend!! Also thanks as well to Light Sanctity for hosting this Secret Santa and being a wonderful friend also n_n
​

 

[Xen]

Merry Christmas, everyone!

My Secret Santa giftee this year was Sephirona! Rona's been both one of Wi-Fi's most esteemed users, and also one of my best friends here as well, so I was ecstatic to get the opportunity to be her SS this year! Admittedly, deciding on a Pokemon to gift took a while due to me being slow in playing through SV, and also wanting to gift something that was both sentimental and that she didn't already own in her collection. Eventually I decided to go with this:


[ Hogback ★ ] [ Lv. 100 ]
Colo RNG

Dex: #157 | Species: Typhlosion-Hisui
Nature: Timid | Ability: Blaze
IVs: ( 31 / x / 31 / 31 / 31 / 31 )
EVs: ( 252 SpA / 4 SpD / 252 Spe ) / PLA ELs: ( 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 / 10 )

Shiny Hisuian Typhlosion ticks off a lot of boxes in Rona's prompts, being both an iconic Johto Pokemon, the shiny being a nice blue hue, cool matching ball, a very cool and cute Pokemon, and (soon to be) usable in SV. But in addition to that, she loves Ribbon Masters and Colosseum RNGs, and I also remember her mentioning in passing one day in the Wi-Fi Discord that she eventually wanted to do a Typhlosion RM.

The Typh is named Hogback after one of the major antagonists from One Piece's Thriller Bark arc. Rona is a big One Piece fan, and when I was skimming through the wiki, Hogback in particular stuck out to me as bearing a striking resemblance to Hisuian Typh. Hogback is also pretty "ghostly" by nature, being a doctor that was skilled at reanimating an undead army in the series.

Hide

Thanks again for Archaeas and Skryra, Rona! And also thanks to Light for hosting SS again this year. Y'all rock! :xenglad:

 

[rufus drumknott]

It's nothing too special compared to other Pokemon here, but I decided to get Mr. SU a Hisuian Decidueye since they like Grass types, the colour green, the Sinnoh region (Hisui counts, right?), and Premier Balls. I think shiny Hisuian Decidueye looks amazing in a Premier Ball, so here it is.

#724. Decidueye 'Naganori'
Ability: Scrappy
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpD
IVs: HT/31/31/18/31/31
Adamant Nature
- Bulk Up
- Roost
- Triple Arrows
- Leaf Blade​

A PLA origin mark is unfortunately not possible for Premier Ball Decidueye, but I posed for a photograph with it in PLA so it will hopefully someday be 'Naganori of the Distant Past' when Home is compatible with Scarlet/Violet!

I chose the name 'Naganori' for Asano Naganori, a tragic daimyo whose death caused the historic event, The Treasury of Loyal Retainers, where the daimyo's ronin attempted to avenge his death. It's a very interesting significant historical event so I thought it would be a cool name for this very cool-looking ronin-inspired bird.

From Mr. SU's post history, I thought they might be a singles/OU player which I unfortunately don't know much about so I pretty much guessed this moveset, but I hope Naganori serves you well, Mr. SU! Happy holidays everyone!

 

[Mr. SU]

Merry Christmas!!
I'm fairly new to this section of these forums and I'm generally pretty on and off when it comes to pokemon both casually and competitively but I was nonetheless excited and enthusiastic to participate. My partner was Rufus and I decided I wanted to give her a fairy type out of her three favorite types (fairy, fire and dark) since it's a type I'm pretty fond of too. I also noted that her favorite color is cream-brown. there are no unovan fairy types other than whimsicott and none of the galarian fairy types are brown. I also figured since she's into doubles she likely already has a grimmsnarl and hatterene since they're really good in that format. So I decided to sandwich hunt for a brown fairy type shiny in Violet which narrowed it down to Dachsbun and Dedenne, Dachsbun is adorable but I found myself really taken by how cute Dedenne's shiny is so I went with them instead.

Introducing.... Roedulce!

It has the early riser mark too I think? I traded him right after I got him since I wanted the capture date to be on christmas.
I'm particularly fond of nicknames that are fitting but also fun and easy to say so I decided to combine the spanish words for rodent and sweet; roedora and dulce together. I find it a fun name to say myself!

Thank you so much for the Decidueye rufus! I absolutely love them and can't wait to transfer him to SV when it gets home support

 

[Buckert]

First of all, I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Second of all, I want to thank Light Sanctity for hosting this amazing giveaway. It's my first time participating in a Secret Santa, and I must admit, I very much enjoyed it!

I got paired with my dear friend Max. Optimizer. Both being an oldtimer on the forums, but a rookie in this giveaway, made it a fun challenge for the both of us. I can't imagine how hard it must've been for him to come up with something, since I already have everything. But he did an amazing job, surprised me completely and I couldn't be happier with Elmo the shiny Genesect! He knows me very well, also on a personal level, so that's a job well done.

Now! My challenge! I suck at giving nicknames and I don't like getting Ribbons on my Pokémon. Guess what I did for Max. Optimizer!

Umbriel the Great Friend

31.31.31.00.31.31 Jolly Keen Eye
Counter | Fake Out | Avalanche | Icicle Crash​

I was genuinely surprised how good the Lure ball actually looks on Sneasel. With that, I'm also ticking almost all the boxes for what Max. Optimizer wished for. Dark and Ice type were his favourites, Lure ball and a Pokémon from Johto. Also knowing him, he only wants nicknames on his Pokémon. I had to ask for help, but in the end my girlfriend helped me come up with a fitting nickname for this little monster. Quoting the text from Max. Optimizer's trade thread here, since I couldn't have worded it any better;

The nickname is a reference to Uranus' eponymous moon.
The nickname was chosen for Sneasel, since the surface is the darkest among Uranian moons and since it is partially differentiated into an icy mantle, thus matching Sneasel's Dark / Ice dual typing.

Since Max. Optimizer is on of my best friends, I figured I get the Best Friend Ribbon on it. I really had no clue how to get it, took me quite some time to figure out I could just feed it a ton of berries. Also hatched it on Mount Lanakila (gen 7) for extra style points.

On top of this, I put in a small little extra. No fancy story, no nicknames, just my very first perfect MM bred Pokémon in generation 9!

Shiny Sprigatito

31.31.31.27.31.31 Jolly Protean
Leech Seed | Ally Switch | Sucker Punch | Petal Blizzard​

Hope you enjoy both Pokémon, my friend. Elmo the shiny Genesect and your poem will be cherished forever. Also big shoutout to everyone else that participated, great to see all these amazing creations. Most definitely looking forward to next year!

 

[Perriechu]

The recipient of my Secret Santa this year was Tatertot!

He stated his favourite region was Unova, he loved Ice types and his favourite colour is purple.

What lil' guy in Scarlet/Violet fits that bill? A wee shiny Cubchoo of course!

Cubchoo /
Slush Rush / Adamant / Male
31 / 31 / 31 / x / 31 / 31
Powder Snow / Yawn / Night Slash / Focus Punch
Level 1 / UT
Joe / 447062
Holding a Calm Mint
​

My competitive battling sensibilities wouldn't allow me to breed it with a Calm nature, so it's holding a mint. Got really lucky with this one with the IVs, too!

 

[Tatertot]

Merry Christmas everyone! Smogon Secret Santa is one of my favorite recent holiday traditions, it's so much fun seeing what everyone comes up with each year.

This year I was paired up with Perriechu, and after reading about their love for Dragon and Water types, Love Ball, cute Pokémon, and their burgeoning interest in VGC, I decided that a Love Ball shiny Horsea would be a great fit! It has all the ribbons available to it from Gen 7 onward, and is holding a Dragon Scale to make it easy to eventually evolve it into a Kingdra for competitive use.

#116 - Horsea () - ■
Nature: Timid | Ability: Swift Swim
IVs: 31.0.31.31.31.31
Moves: Hydro Pump, Surf, Dragon Pulse, Ice Beam
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
OT: Tate ID: 670172
Notes: Egg RNG in Ultra Sun
Lv. 100, holding Dragon Scale

​

 

[SpiritGuy]

Ok so because of some circumstances, my giftee dr00 and me weren't able to catch up until today but here we go:

"Iceburgh"

Avélig | 932296 | Heahea Beach (Alola)
Bold - Torrent
31 | 0 | 31 | 31 | 31 | 31
252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD

Ok so when I saw dr00's post, Piplup was an obvious choice for me. It's a water type, from Sinnoh, its shiny has teal and blue. Since dr00 prefers cute Pokemon, I decided to not evolve it. It may be Bold but Piplup itself is a sassy Pokemon by nature, so, it matches. And according to their reaction to my gift, I pulled the correct number.

As usual, I put all the possible Gen 8 non-doable ribbons on it, just in case dr00 wants to have full ribbons on it. Its name Iceburgh is a reference to the mascot of the Pittsburgh Penguins, a hockey team from Pennsylvania, United States.

 

[Sephirona]

A bunch of us worked together to get this Secret Santa gift for our esteemed Rain Moon!
Merry belated Christmas, Rain n_n


[ Asta ★ ] [ Lv. 65 ]
Pokemon White

Dex: #625 | Species: Bisharp
Nature: Adamant | Ability: Defiant
IVs: ( 31 / 31 / 31 / 31 / 31 / 31 )
EVs: ( 252 HP / 252 Atk )

Name inspired by Asta, the main character of the anime Black Clover, who wears
blue and wields a massive blade powered by a devilish entity. EVed to be useful as
a physical Dark-type attacker in raids! Err...sorry that screenshot of the ribbons is so large.


Originally I had tried to Raidcrawler one in SV so that it could be used more immediately in raids and so it could be caught in a Beast Ball, but that didn't work out so well. Thankfully, I managed to find my old Gen 5 RNGed Pawniard from over a decade ago and ribboned it up to be a nice Kingambit when HOME releases for SV. This was by no means a solo project, however! Thanks to my sis for helping with the Super Training ribbon, to Xen for transporting Asta up to Gen 8 and obtaining the BSS ribbon on him, and to BlizzardHero for helping Xen with Master Rank matchmaking! A community effort for a wonderful friend :xenglad:​