Sam, Toler, and Oliver are back and getting ready to roll out to Indianapolis for another year. Then we take a closer look at where the metagame is and what gambles are worth taking while building.   00:20 Intro 05:20 US Nationals 13:25 World Championship dates 16:10 Metagame 33:25 NPA 49:30 Questions

Sam and Toler are back to talk about naked air-guitar, QR codes, and stipends. Sam also went to his first MSS and we check in on how our pre-season predictions have panned out so far. Sam and Toler can't actually hear each other most of the time, but hopefully you won't be able to tell! Yay editing! 00.20 Intro 03:45 Bank and QR codes. 08:25 Australia and stipends. 13:00 Fidgets first MSS 26:55 Revisiting our pre-season predictions. 34:55 Dhelmise

We finally catch up to the metagame that won't slow down. This week Sam, Toler, Oliver, and Gabby try and process the vast array of teams from regionals, paying for online tournies and content, and if tiering Pokemon is even possible. 0:00:20 Intro, sandwiches. 0:05:40 Pokemon Bank. 0:08:10 Regional and metagame tangents. 0:13:00 Tiers. 0:24:00 AFK and more metagame stuff. 0:36:40 Melborne win a trip. 0:42:45 Oliver vs Sam in Dallas. 0:46:10 Question #1, Celesteela. 0:49:50 Q2, Underrated...

No visit from Santa this year, but visits from Tman, Cybertron, and Dim more than make up for it. This week we go over our favorite holiday foods, talk about all of London's many suprises, team sheets, money, and which Tapus are sniffing around your daughter. 00:20 Holiday Foods 02:20 London 07:30 Trends 14:50 Europe Circuit 20:30 Timer 26:30 Team Sheets 34:49 $$$ 37:55 Memento & Parting Shot 42:00 Questions

The time for VGC17 has come. Or is it gone? Sam, Toler, and Tiffany have 3 turns to figure it out. In doing say they also cover new cores, bigest early suprises, and what is the cutest new Pokemon. 0:00:20 Intro 0:03:40 VGC17 Rules 0:05:30 Timer 0:18:35 2016 0:23:00 Smeargle in 17 0:24:00 17 Teams 0:34:50 Underachievers 0:39:20 Silvally Colors 0:42:00 Suprises 0:44:47 London 0:47:56 Corrections 0:49:46 Questions 0:55:50 Cutest Pokemon 1:02:42 Outro

In this extra special spoilercast, DrFidget, JTK and Shiloh recount their trips through Alola. We go over our teams, evil teams, human and pokemon relationships, human and human relationships, human and cloathing relationships, etc. Did I mention there will be spoilers?

The days of VGC 2016 are coming to a close and a new format is begining. DrFidget welcomes back Dimsun, Bopper, and the cuss button to hit the ground running on this exciting new metagame. This episode is Sun/Moon spoiler free.   0:00:20 Intro 0:02:40 New Items 0:07:00 Z-moves 0:13:30 Best Rookie Pokemon 0:43:10 Best Returning Pokemon 1:00:25 Questions

Sam, Toler, and Tiffany are back with timers, demos, rules, and new pokemon. We also revisit bow-tie vs bikini top on our way to ninja town and depression. So you can go ahead and call this one a banger. 00:20 Intro, Board Games 03:30 New Timer 05:10 Ladder Updates 06:32 Battle Teams 09:35 Triples and Free for All 10:25 WCS17 Rules 16:00 Sun & Moon Features 26:00 Demo 31:00 Fees and Lines 35:00 New Pokemon 44:00 VGC16 Metagame Changes

Take your hat off and get ready to rock, VGC 2017 is here! This week Sam, Toler, and Tiffany are breaking down Championship Points, Prize $$$, and format changes. There was also a bunch of Sun & Moon news with double doses of wolves, monkeys and unevolved Z-Moves. 00:20 Intro, Zog 02:30 CP Bar 14:30 Prize $ 19:00 Format change in December 22:05 Pokemon Bank 25:20 Dress up is back! 27:00 Grooming 30:20 New Z-Moves 36:50 Passimian 38:55 Oranguru 41:55 Lycanroc 46:35...

Apologies for the audio this week, I let the auto tools in audacity loose instead of doing everything myself. The end result is a rather manically paced episode with a number of sentences cut off. HOWEVER, the rest of the episode is so good it doesn't even matter. Gabby and Tiffany hang out and talk about Sun and Moon, new pokemon, fashion, and photography. Then about 40 minutes in we start talking about VGC, kind of. Welcome to the off season!

DrFidget has stolen Kyogre from the Pokemon World Championships. Gumbshoes, you need to fix your pokeradar, travel to Alola, and get Kyogre back. Then capture Carmen Sandiego! The Loot is Gone and the chase is on, and one of these people could find her: Toler, Tiffany and Stephen. 0:00:20 Intro 0:04:46 Mewtwo 0:09:15 Pokemon GO 0:16:30 New Pokemon Forms 0:23:13 Z-Moves 0:30:20 New Pokemon 0:53:00 Aegislash 0:54:10 Must have moves 0:57:45 Double Primal 0:59:56 Improving...

Toler and Sam switch roles to catch up on the VGC 16 metagame going into worlds. Turns out not much has changed since the last episode. So then we spend the rest of the episode breaking down the Pokemon game everyone is talking about right now: Pokemon Go! Just kidding, we spend 40 minutes on Sun and Moon. This is strictly a VGC and sandwich podcast after all. VGC 00. Intro 13. Big 6 20. Japan 23. US Nats and Metagame 27. Questions! Venusaur and Safeguard Sun and...

This week Dim returns and friend of the show PBall0010 makes his Lava Pool debut. We talk about food, money, hair, and a surprising amount of pokémon. 00.20 Intro: Best breakfast food. 05.20 Hair Loss 07.25 Pokken 09.15 Stipends 18:30 HP Water Mons (Salamence doesn’t count, learns more water moves) 21:50 Dumbest “Big 6” counters 24.45 Gravity Kyurem & Groudon teams 27:30 Best wing sauce 29:55 Pokémon that understand sandwiches  31:28 Top underrated restricted...

This episode is just exciting enough that we got up at 7am to record it. Tiffany (shiloh) Stanley joins Samuel (DrFidget) Haarsma to stack rank bears, restricted pokemon, and Bronzong move options. 0.20 Intro- How early is early? 4.20 What bear is best? 6.25 Bronzong sets 11.00 Tyranitar 13.55 What 2 restricted pokemon will win worlds? 17.55 Kyogre reality check. 25.45 Double Primal 30.00 Stipends 32.23 When will other restricted pokemon pop up? 33.18 Will people really...

Sorry this episode is late, mostly unedited and lacks timestamps, but it’s been a crazy week. Dim and BadIntent jump on this episode to talk about the Pokken circuit, and answer a ton of listener questions about VGC 16. Like I said no timestamps but here were the topics mostly in order: Best Hotels Pokken Tournaments and prizes. (Also, here’s the link to the Team GFB episode with Jabailey I referenced, if you’re interested...

Sam is back and this time he brought friends! Gabby steps away from the mic at regionals to pick up a mic here. Chalkey just topcut a regional with "A Walrus" hours before Sam did the same. So naturally we talk about birds, hats, and best of 3 vs the hack check. 0:00:20 Intro, Disney. 0:04:30 Winter Regionals. 0:17:00 Oregon is surprise best of 3 Swiss. 0:22:10 Hack Check issues. 0:35:50 Pokken. 0:38:20 Teams we used. 0:54:00 Hats. 0:56:35 Sun and Moon...

It’s the first ever solo cast from The Lava Pool as I wanted to put something out but had no time to get people together. I put a call out for questions and thankfully you guys delivered. Next episode should be back to normal, but for now enjoy the trainwreck that is me for an hour. 00:20 Intro, alone 02:10 Favorite format and why. 03:25 Primal salads 04:15 Follow our twitter @TheLavaPool and ask us questions! 04:46 Are Primals smarter than toddlers? 06:40 Is...

This week I’m joined by Gabby (JTK), Chalkey and Paul (Makiri) for what was supposed to be a quick episode that just got away from us. Apparently people still have a lot of thoughts about Smeargle, US Nationals is going to Ohio, and CP is dissapearing. We also go over the International Challenge, the death of VGC, and why you shouldn’t sign contracts with MISSINGNO or something. Look it’s a long episode and it’s kind of a blur. Enjoy! 0.0.20 Intro: Game day food. 0.03.30 US Nats in...

This episode was brought to you by the grace of 6 project and 3 system recoveries. Hard Drives failed and power supplies died but this episode is now live! This week I’m joined by Toler, Hayden, and Rushan to talk about the new Nugget Bridge, Pokémon turning 20, and the new hot team all the kids are using! 0.0.20 Intro 0.3.50 Battle Spot update. 0.6.00 International Challenge announced. 0.11.45 The story behind the new Nugget Bridge blog system. 0.27.29 Pokémon turns 20 and we...

We’re back for the new year. This week I’m joined by JTK, Dim, and Smith. We kick things off with more sandwich and Smeargle talk, then jump into US nats rumors. After that it’s a lot of half formed ideas on the metagame based on early PCs and testing. Everything is terrible! Everything is great! What is bread?! Find out now! 0.0.20 Intro: What sandwich would Primals make? 0.4.34 Rules and more Smeargle talk. 0.13.40 US National location rumors 0.20.25 What we’ve seen at Premiere...