Beyond the Ball

Hello, we're back after a brief, unplanned break and it's time to find out how many tentacles Tentacruel has! Follow along with the entries below:

Red & Blue: The tentacles are normally kept short. On hunts, they are extended to ensnare and immobilize prey.

Yellow: Its 80 tentacles can stretch and contract freely. They wrap around prey and weaken it with poison.

Gold: Its 80 tentacles absorb water and stretch almost endlessly to CONSTRICT its prey and enemies.

Silver: In battle, it extends all 80 of its tentacles to entrap its opponent inside a poisonous net.

Crystal: When its 80 feelers absorb water, it stretches to become like a net to entangle its prey.

Ruby: TENTACRUEL has large red orbs on its head. The orbs glow before lashing the vicinity with a harsh ultrasonic blast. This POKéMON’s outburst creates rough waves around it.

Sapphire: TENTACRUEL has tentacles that can be freely elongated and shortened at will. It ensnares prey with its tentacles and weakens the prey by dosing it with a harsh toxin. It can catch up to 80 prey at the same time.

FireRed: It has 80 tentacles that move about freely. They can sting, causing poisoning and sharp, stabbing pain.

Emerald: It lives in complex rock formations on the ocean floor and traps prey using its 80 tentacles. Its red orbs glow when it grows excited or agitated.

Diamond: With 80 tentacles for ensnaring victims, it prevents escape until the prey is weakened by poison.

Pearl: It alerts others to danger by stridently flashing the red orbs on its head.

Platinum: It extends its 80 tentacles to form an encircling poisonous net that is difficult to escape.

Sun: Normally, it has 80 poisonous tentacles. The longer one has been alive, the fewer tentacles it will have.

Moon: Although these Pokémon are rare, when a large outbreak of them occurs, all fish Pokémon disappear from the surrounding sea.

Ultra Sun: It fires off ultrasonic waves from its red orbs to weaken its prey, and then it wraps them up in its 80 tentacles.

Ultra Moon: It communicates with others of its kind by lighting up the red orbs on its head. When the orbs are blinking, it’s a warning sign.

Sword: When the red orbs on Tentacruel’s head glow brightly, watch out. The Pokémon is about to fire off a burst of ultrasonic waves.

Shield: Its 80 tentacles can stretch and shrink freely. Tentacruel ensnares prey in a net of spread-out tentacles, delivering venomous stings to its catch.

Legends Arceus: It has 80 tentacles, each with a venomous tip. These tentacles are also extendible, lengthening when Tentacruel attempts to catch prey. Use caution.

Photodex: Tentacruel use ultrasonic waves to investigate their surroundings and emit light from their heads to signal danger. They seemed to react to the NEO-ONE’s scans—maybe they felt familiar to them!

BTB: The ocean's ultimate gamer, it can wipe out all competition with it's vast repertoire of weakening tools. Use caution!

Cover design by Kwesi Phillips

Music by Junichi Masuda and Go Ichinose

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Our exploration of Pokemon at the beach continues as we cover the Zubat of the sea, Tentacool! Get ready for beams! Follow along with the entries below:

Red & Blue: Drifts in shallow seas. Anglers who hook them by accident are often punished by its stinging acid.

Yellow: It can sometimes be found all dry and shriveled up on a beach. Toss it back into the sea to revive it.

Gold: When the tide goes out, dehydrated TENTACOOL remains can be found washed up on the shore.

Silver: It drifts aimlessly in waves. Very difficult to see in water, it may not be noticed until it stings.

Crystal: As it floats along on the waves, it uses its toxic feelers to stab anything it touches.

Ruby: TENTACOOL’s body is largely composed of water. If it is removed from the sea, it dries up like parchment. If this POKéMON happens to become dehydrated, put it back into the sea.

Sapphire: TENTACOOL absorbs sunlight and refracts it using water inside its body to convert it into beam energy. This POKéMON shoots beams from its crystal-like eyes.

FireRed: Its eyes are as transparent as crystals. From them, it shoots mysterious beams of light.

Emerald: Its body is almost entirely composed of water. It ensnares its foe with its two long tentacles, then stabs with the poison stingers at their tips.

Diamond: Its body is virtually composed of water. It shoots strange beams from its crystal-like eyes.

Pearl: It drifts in sea currents. Countless fishermen are hurt by its poison stingers.

Platinum: Because its body is almost entirely composed of water, it shrivels up if it is washed ashore.

Sun: They can be found lying dehydrated on beaches, but they are often still alive. When soaked in water, they will revive.

Moon: It drifts in shallow seas, such as the areas near beaches. If you get bitten or stabbed by its toxic tentacles, rush to the hospital.

Ultra Sun: It drifts through the sea searching for prey. Its poisonous tentacles break off sometimes, but after a while, they grow back.

Ultra Moon: Its body is 99% water. The remaining 1% contains the organ that makes its poison.

Sword: Tentacool is not a particularly strong swimmer. It drifts across the surface of shallow seas as it searches for prey.

Shield: This Pokémon is mostly made of water. A Tentacool out in the ocean is very hard to spot, because its body blends in with the sea.

Legends Arceus: They fire beams from the glassy, magenta orbs that resemble eyes atop their heads, and they drift in shallow seas. During low tide, they can sometimes be found on beaches, desiccated.

BTB: Utilizing powerful beam energy and poisonous stings, this drifter Pokemon is a real menace to anything that crosses its path. Sports a questionable amount of eyes.

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Music by Junichi Masuda and Go Ichinose

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Sandygast was really just the warm up as things go off the rails almost immediately with its evolved form Palossand AKA the Beach Nightmare! Follow along with the entries below:

Sun: Possessed people controlled by this Pokémon transformed its sand mound into a castle. As it evolved, its power to curse grew ever stronger.

Moon: Buried beneath the castle are masses of dried-up bones from those whose vitality it has drained.

Ultra Sun: Each of its grains of sand has its own will. Palossand eats small Pokémon and siphons away their vital essence while they’re still alive.

Ultra Moon: Once it has whipped up a sandstorm to halt its opponents in their tracks, this terrifying Pokémon snatches away their vitality.

Sword: Palossand is known as the Beach Nightmare. It pulls its prey down into the sand by controlling the sand itself, and then it sucks out their souls.

Shield: This Pokémon lives on beaches, but it hates water. Palossand can’t maintain its castle-like shape if it gets drenched by a heavy rain.

Scarlet: The terrifying Palossand drags smaller Pokémon into its sandy body. Once its victims are trapped, it drains them of their vitality whenever it pleases.

Violet: From the hollows in its arms, it fires the bones of its victims, which are all dried up after being drained of their vitality.

BTB: The bone cannon is ready. Sucking souls and draining vitality, the Beach Nigthmare seems to delight in terrorizing its victims.

"Pikachu being sucked into a sort of quicksand whirlpool collapsing Palossand with big ol' X's for eyes implying death."

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Music by Junichi Masuda and Go Ichinose

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Shucks, it sure seems like the grudge-holding spirits of the deceased in the Pokemon world will inhabit just about anything! This time they've gotten hold of a heap of sand resulting in this episode's focus, Sandygast! Follow along with the entries below:

Sun: Born from a sand mound playfully built by a child, this Pokémon embodies the grudges of the departed.

Moon: It takes control of anyone who puts a hand in its mouth. And so it adds to the accumulation of its sand-mound body.

Ultra Sun: It likes the shovel on its head, so Sandygast will get serious and fight any children who come to take it back.

Ultra Moon: If you build sand mounds when you’re playing, destroy them before you go home, or they may get possessed and become Sandygast.

Sword: Grudges of the dead have possessed a mound of sand and become a Pokémon. Sandygast is fond of the shovel on its head.

Shield: Sandygast mainly inhabits beaches. It takes control of anyone who puts their hand into its mouth, forcing them to make its body bigger.

Scarlet: If it loses its shovel, it will stick something else—like a branch—in its head to make do until it finds another shovel.

Violet: It flings sand into the eyes of its prey and tries to close in on them while they’re blinded, but since Sandygast is so slow, the prey tends to escape.

Photodex: They say that a mound of sand became possessed by the grudges of the departed, giving birth to Sandygast. Think twice about going near any cute-looking shovels you see sticking out of the sand.

BTB: Experiments are ongoing looking for ways to cultivate strong and vibrant Sandygast. Studies suggest an excess of negative vibes and playfulness could yield high-quality results.

New Pokemon Snap pic

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We're talking about Cyrogonal this time so get ready to learn about snowflakes! And math! This one's kinda scary actually?? Follow along with the entries below:

Black: When its body temperature goes up, it turns into steam and vanishes. When its temperature lowers, it returns to ice.

White: They are born in snow clouds. They use chains made of ice crystals to capture prey.

Black & White 2: They are composed of ice crystals. They capture prey with chains of ice, freezing the prey at -148° F.

Sword: With its icy chains, Cryogonal freezes those it encounters. It then takes its victims away to somewhere unknown.

Shield: When the weather gets hot, these Pokémon turn into water vapor. Cryogonal are almost never seen during summer.

Scarlet: Cryogonal appear during cold seasons. It is said that people and Pokémon who die on snowy mountains are reborn into these Pokémon.

Violet: Cryogonal uses its chains of ice to constrict its opponents and then flash-freezes them where they stand.

BTB: Cyrogonal forms around a piece of departed soul, like a snowflake forms around a particle of dust. They're doing secret awful things to their flash frozen victims.

Cover design by Kwesi Phillips

Music by Junichi Masuda and Go Ichinose

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Hey folks, we're postponing this week's episode in solidarity with the current week-long strike for Palestine. Thanks for your patience and please do whatever you can to show your support for a free Palestine.

https://www.protectpalestine.org/protests

https://gazaesims.com/

https://wck.org/

https://act.uscpr.org/a/callforgaza

https://act.uscpr.org/a/stop-funding-israels-massacres

https://bdsmovement.net/

https://decolonizepalestine.com/

https://publishersforpalestine.org/2024/01/10/16-free-zines-and-more-free-reads-for-a-free-palestine/

Shroodle has evolved and suddenly has so much more going on as the Toxic Monkey Pokemon Grafaiai! Plus, we watch the type of Pokemon video that we've always wanted! Follow along with the entries below:

Website: Grafaiai is a moody Pokémon with a fastidious disposition. It doesn’t form packs, preferring to roam alone. It’s constantly caught up in territorial struggles with other Pokémon.

Scarlet: The color of the poisonous saliva depends on what the Pokémon eats. Grafaiai covers its fingers in its saliva and draws patterns on trees in forests.

Violet: Each Grafaiai paints its own individual pattern, and it will paint that same pattern over and over again throughout its life.

BTB: This cool loner monkey can actually use its art to stay fed. Please do not touch the display.

Cover design by Kwesi Phillips

Music by Junichi Masuda and Go Ichinose

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We've got a fresh one this week as we discuss the Toxic Mouse Pokemon Shroodle! There's only two entries but you don't even need to worry because that just gives us more time to recount Braden's first escape room attempt, espouse our hot takes on Goldfinger, and read up on shrews. Follow along with the entries below:

Scarlet: Though usually a mellow Pokémon, it will sink its sharp, poison-soaked front teeth into any that anger it, causing paralysis in the object of its ire.

Violet: To keep enemies away from its territory, it paints markings around its nest using a poisonous liquid that has an acrid odor.

BTB: This stinky, little super shrew just likes to chill. Let it vibe or face the consquences.

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Music by Junichi Masuda and Go Ichinose

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Espurr has evolved into Meowstic and has acquired new Psychic capabilities! And gender! Follow along with the entries below:

X: When in danger, it raises its ears and releases enough psychic power to grind a 10-ton truck into dust.

Y: The eyeball patterns on the interior of its ears emit psychic energy. It keeps the patterns tightly covered because that power is too immense.

Sword (Male): Revealing the eyelike patterns on the insides of its ears will unleash its psychic powers. It normally keeps the patterns hidden, however.

Shield (Male): The defensive instinct of the males is strong. It’s when they’re protecting themselves or their partners that they unleash their full power.

Sword (Female): Females are a bit more selfish and aggressive than males. If they don’t get what they want, they will torment you with their psychic abilities.

Shield (Female): If it doesn’t hold back when it unleashes its psychic power, it can tear apart a tanker. Its unfriendliness is part of its charm.

Serena's Pokedex: When faced with trouble, Meowstic will raise its ears and create enough psychic power to demolish a ten-ton truck. Its appearance varies, depending on gender.

Goh's Rotom Phone: The male Meowstic has defensive talents, and when protecting itself or its partner, can produce power of the highest level.

BTB: Meowstic has really learned to focus its psychic powers more effectively, but can still grind some trucks to nothing under pressure.

Oak's Psychic torment

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Music by Junichi Masuda and Go Ichinose

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There's a weird cat outside and it keeps exploding with Psychic energy! That's right, we're talking about Espurr this time! Apologies for the bad Braden audio. Also: spoiler warning for Frozen! Follow along with entries below:

X: The organ that emits its intense psychic power is sheltered by its ears to keep power from leaking out.

Y: It has enough psychic energy to blast everything within 300 feet of itself, but it has no control over its power.

Sword: Though Espurr’s expression never changes, behind that blank stare is an intense struggle to contain its devastating psychic power.

Shield: There’s enough psychic power in Espurr to send a wrestler flying, but because this power can’t be controlled, Espurr finds it troublesome.

Photodex: If you happened upon a floating boulder in the forest, that was likely the work of Espurr training to get better control over their psychic powers!

Ash's Pokedex: Espurr's Psychic energy can travel hundreds of feet, blasting everything around it.

BTB: Espurr is trying its very best to NOT just start blasting™, but keep your distance lest it decide to Let it Go™. Just like Mob Psycho™.

Cover design by Kwesi Phillips

Music by Junichi Masuda and Go Ichinose

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