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In a rare moment where I wasn't staring at my phone while playing Pokémon GO, I was at a Pokéstop and saw a bit of paper on the ground. It was obviously ripped from a notebook while in a hurry while a trainer was running around playing the game.

This is what was written on the page:

cTicwe evoaestme ent ne o yboevh i toe coy a Ica,rtiroh Iaesst.mk eroerste rbet r wmO tb ehkhm isa i Vnutyehoeeaeb tahr .atlu dt st nttln!,ve

Can anyone help me find the key and the message?

Hint:

On the back of the note you can just make out written the following:
M: 32, T: 32, W: 32, T: 30, F: 24 D Train
You feel sure that this relates in the cipher in some way.

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  • $\begingroup$ Frequency Analysis e : 19 t : 16 o : 9 a : 8 i : 7 r : 7 s : 6 h : 6 n : 5 v : 4 m : 4 b : 4 c : 4 y : 3 u : 2 w : 2 k : 2 l : 2 d : 1 oe => 4 st => 4 $\endgroup$
    – Reibello
    Jul 19, 2016 at 3:58
  • $\begingroup$ That's probably not going to help. I will say that the spaces are important and should be preserved. $\endgroup$
    – JamesENL
    Jul 19, 2016 at 7:04
  • $\begingroup$ Wild guess on my side was something with the pokedex.. couldnt get anything that looked plausible to me to work tho $\endgroup$
    – Radhato
    Jul 19, 2016 at 11:40
  • $\begingroup$ I'm getting bits and pieces with brute force but its pretty muddled. Nothing close enough to solve it yet. $\endgroup$
    – James Coyle
    Jul 19, 2016 at 23:15
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    $\begingroup$ Oh, I think I know how to solve this one! It's the Pokérap! $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi ♦
    Jul 20, 2016 at 10:32

4 Answers 4

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As per Deusovi's comment(s) and the rest of the answers here, the length of the text (150 characters) and the hint both lead us to

The Kanto Pokérap

In order, the dex numbers of the Pokémon listed in the rap are: 101, 50, 32, 56, 3, 19, 22, 16, 119, 135, 149, 92, 77, 134, 62, 12, 49, 60, 33, 55, 2, 88, 71, 146, 34, 83, 63, 39, 99, 111, 36, 40, 41, 57, 52, 95, 74, 78, 82, 143, 94, 114, 118, 21, 110, 86, 130, 80, 140, 53, 46, 116, 20, 81, 64, 70, 132, 91, 10, 27, 1, 4, 76, 25, 65, 84, 48, 67, 115, 97, 125, 136, 9, 61, 43, 96, 26, 31, 69, 121, 11, 105, 14, 35, 85, 117, 45, 98, 108, 128, 13, 29, 66, 90, 137, 107, 144, 124, 30, 15, 93, 7, 113, 47, 102, 89, 87, 17, 131, 37, 112, 6, 68, 127, 109, 51, 42, 120, 129, 38, 23, 139, 123, 72, 148, 126, 28, 106, 54, 59, 133, 103, 141, 145, 147, 58, 122, 104, 75, 100, 44, 5, 8, 150, 73, 142, 138, 79, 18, 24

Permuting the characters in the note in that order: the c goes 101st, the T 50th, the i 32nd, and so on

we get the message

I want to be the very best keino one ever was. To catch teem is my real test, to train them is my cause. Oh buick, over there a Voltorb! I need that

which looks like it's supposed to mean this, with a few errors:

I want to be the very best [li]ke[ ]no one ever was. To catch t[h]em is my real test, to train them is my cause. Oh [q]uick, over there a Voltorb! I need that

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  • $\begingroup$ Put the number for male Nidoran before female Nidoran, and it might make a bit more sense. But well done for solving it! $\endgroup$
    – JamesENL
    Jul 21, 2016 at 1:05
  • $\begingroup$ @James I did. Nidoran♂ is #032, while Nidoran♀ is #029. I see now that swapping them (putting female first) moves the misplaced i to the correct spot; but there's still a space in place of an l, an e in place of an h, and a b in place of q. These mistakes in the plaintext are consistent with character counts of the ciphertext (e.g., the notable absence of a q). $\endgroup$
    – Will
    Jul 21, 2016 at 5:50
  • $\begingroup$ That said, I enjoyed this puzzle regardless of the minor errors. :) $\endgroup$
    – Will
    Jul 21, 2016 at 5:53
  • $\begingroup$ Ahh I should've checked it more thoroughly before deleting the script that generated the string. Well deduced! $\endgroup$
    – JamesENL
    Jul 21, 2016 at 5:58
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Googling "Pokemon D Train" gets us..

this song by James "D Train" Williams and Babi Floyd.

The lyrics are found here. Under the TV Edit lyrics, you can see the Pokemon categorised by days of the week. The numbers for each day correspond to the numbers given in the hint.

The cipher is...

rearranging the characters according to the Pokedex order in the lyrics.

The message is...

to be honest, I messed up halfway and might take a while to redo so others are welcome to answer.

The first 107 characters of the deciphered message are the first 4 lines of the Pokemon theme (I want to be the very best.. to train them is my cause.) The remaining seems to be an actual message (I can just about make out 'Voltorb').

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Don't know much about the pokeybeasts but this might help someone:

The initials in the hint appear to represent the days of the week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

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32 + 32 + 32 + 30 + 24 = 150, or the exact number of Pokemons available for catching in Pokémon Go. So Pokémons seems to be categorized under week days.

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