Time to bring in the big guns!  They aren’t perfect to start with but from Violet we’re bringing in Meowscarada, Palafin, Shiny Garchomp, and Shiny Incineroar. From ZA, we’re getting my Charizard for a Solar Power wallbreaker; this way I have two charizards each optimized for the different mega stones. I could bring in my Emboar, too, but I want to tweak it a bit more first. What is nice is when we train them, if they leave and come back, their training will remain as long as I don’t do anything else to them outside.

For reference, this is what I’m using to figure out the best builds for some of my Pokemon. It’s not an exhaustive list at all, but it’s been useful in determining what I should bring in from other games: https://game8.co/games/Pokemon-Champions/archives/592129

I had to add Close Combat and all 66 stat points for 580 VP on Palafin. Meowscarada only needed 10 VP for its final two stat points into HP. I considered swapping Play Rough for Triple Axel, but I think with Protean this works out better. Incin needed Fake Out and Parting Shot and full EV training for 830 VP. Garchomp needed all its stats trained plus Rock Slide and Dragon Claw for another 830 but I added Rough Skin for another 500 VP, which I should have switched in Violet, but oh well. And then I realized apparently mints don’t work because Garchomp was still Bold nature… for another 500 VP. But Palafin was Jolly, and I used a mint on that. Did I accidentally use the mint on a different Garchomp? I dunno… This is getting expensive, but oh well. Finally my Charizard Y costs just 45 VP for very slight stat training.

For fun I decided to see what team the CPU would build. It led with Focus Sash Meowscarada, brought in Mega Gengar, Mega Dragonite, Leftovers Empoleon, Lum Berry Dragapult, and Sitrus Drampa. I’m not sure how good this actually is, and considering we have a ready to go Palafin, Incin, and Garchomp, I don’t like this team composition much.

I decide to go Leftovers Whims, Choice Scarf Palafin, Sitrus Incineroar, Focus Sash Garchomp, Mega Dragonite, and Mega Gengar. I don’t know if this team has any good synergies. It’s just good mons. And I haven’t used Mega Gengar yet.

This next game doesn’t look like a great matchup for this thrown together mess of good stuff. I lead Incin and Palafin, with Dragonite and… in the back. I fake out the Orthworm and go for flip turn on Garchomp. It does decent chip. Their garchomp has rough skin, which kinda sucks. It gives me a safe switch to Whims to get Tailwind up. Rock slide actually misses Whims. I go for flare blitz on orthworm after whims gets tailwind up. Garchomp goes for EQ but we live. Sitrus gets Incin healthy enough to get Orthworm down to 20 percent. But it also has sitrus. Somehow Whims survives Heaby Slam. Whims takes down Garchomp with Moonblast. It’s more than done its job. Incin takes out Orthworm with Flare Blitz. And Incin lives! We’re up 4-2 with a Hero Form Palafin in the bback. Time for Frolass and Basc for them. I think for a bit and decide to Darkest Lariat on Froslass. My Whims protects. Unfortunately last respects kills Incin (it’s probably scarfed).  Froslass Nasty Plots so now I’m a turn behind. OK Palafin. Whims will be able to reset Tailwind at least, Palafin goes for wave crash on the Mega Frosslass; Snow Warning only boosts its Special Defense. Palafin does ¾ damage. But there goes Palafin to a last respects. This is REALLY bad. Um, why did Tailwind not get reset? UH OH. Yeah, we lose. It’s a 2 V 1. Mega Dragonite doesn’t outspeed, although we live, Blizzard comes out and we just lose. WIthout the tailwind we had no chance. But why did Tailwind not reset??? What did I do wrong? What a terrible, heartbreaking loss. Mega Froslass is just my fucking Kryptonite.

It took quite awhile to do matchmaking… longest I’ve ever seen. But that loss was undeserved I think. We’re up next against an interesting mix: Palafin, Torkoal, Charizard, Farigarif, Incin, and Clefable. Not sure what to expect. They immediately withdraw Palafin as I go for Fake Out, so obviously that got blanked by Armor Tail. Clefable uses Follow Me, which is pointless since I flip turn on it anyway. I brought the wrong mons here… I needed Gengar not Dragonite. I’m playing a little from behind here. Garcomp does hit rock slide tough. Incin uses Darkest Lariat, but Follow Me makes it hit Clefable instead. They set up trick room and now I’m probably screwed. Clefable thunder waves my Incin. And it got full para… Here comes the bad luck again. Rock slide does connect again, but no flinches. Incin gets full para again! And our garchomp gets wrecked.  Palafin actually needs to be a hero here. I go for Darkest Lariat AGAIN on Farigarif. Clefable uses helping hand but fortunately I KO the Farigarif with Lariat. Finally things go our way! Flip Turn wrecks Clefable so I can safely switch Dragonite in. They also have Incin and Palafin. We double the Palafin with Parting Shot and Draco Meteor. Incin does fake out Dragonite but we get the parting shot off. Palafin mirror match! And their trick room ends just in time. And our palafin hits Incin hard with CC. Draco connects with Palafin and does ¾ damage. Our Palafin lives. Dragonite goes down but we still have our full health Incin. Huge intimidate here. Their palafin isn’t choice scrafed so we’re faster. I fake out their incin and their palafin goes down. 2 V 1. They forfeit as obviously I outspeed and CC them into oblivion. Even with a bad team choice (Dragonite over Gengar) and bad paralysis luck we still win because Incineroar is too good.

I take a short break to collect achievements and use facilities. Well, I gotta say, Incineroar is still too good. And they had one too and we STILL won! I have no idea how we came back there except that Palafin hits like a truck. AGAINST THEIR PALAFIN!

Anyway, I have to say something important. It does directly relate to Champions so it belongs here. This game coming out when it did was an important, useful boost to my mental health. It has given me something every morning to get up and do. This might sound silly, but having something consistent, whether you win or loss, that is consistent progress is an extremely useful thing to have for anybody. Champions just happens to be mine right now; it gives me something that I interact with the world indirectly and prove my skills (which aren’t pro level to be sure, but they are certainly competent enough to get me close wins). But this notetaking and consistent practice, where I don’t burn myself out, is making me a competent VGC player I think.

Yes, I wanted to win with just the recruits. But I got impatient, and honestly, these Pokemon I brought in didn’t cost me much to train. I could have spent zero money on this game and still gotten here. Frankly, I think it’s still possible to win with nothing but recruits. Keep in mind, you can easily recruit an Incineroar, Garchomp, and Palafin very easily. I could’ve had a second charizard already, but it was built to be an X not the Y I needed. With enough patience and consistent daily grinding, you can easily built great teams. If I grinded hard enough, I’d probably already be at Master Ball Tier, but it’s the slow and steady progress that this game encourages that I like so much. Anyway, let’s get back to battling.

My stupid illness has returned, the chest infection in particular, so I’m moving at a snail’s pace today. I may be able to get one or two more double battles in before I have to crash for a bit.

OK this is a very different looking team I’m facing. I lead Palafin and Incin against Farigarif and Aggron. This is a Mega Aggron it turns out! We haven’t seent his yet in Champions. Flip Turn doesn’t do much but it gets us repositioning. I bring in whims and darkest lariat brings Farigarif down to sash. They set up trick room while I protect and attempt to parting shot. But Incin just died to body press. Not great. The good news is we get Hero Paralfin in. Finally we get to use Helping Hand, boosting Palafin. It barely lives Body Press and gets killed by Psychock. Well this is just an easy forfeit it seems. What is Garchomp gonna do here? I do get to protect Whims, but does Garchomp even get off EQ? They still have two mons in the back. What a disaster. Fortunately aggron goes for whims as does Farigarif. The giraffe gets dazzling gleam off and does a ton to garchomp. The giraffe goes down but Aggro is very much alive. Goodra comes out… I’m not winning this. There’s still one more turn of trick room so whims is dead. Goodra uses blizzard. I got 4-0’d…. YUCK! Just a horrible matchup for me. All my tier progress is basically gone. Do I just go out on a loss? Of course not! I lose one more badly like that then I’m done. But I can’t go out this poorly.

Next game I decide to debut Mega Gengar. I bring Palafin, Incin, Gengar, and Whims. We saw my choices go badly last round. And there’s a Mega Floette over there. So this could either go really well for me, or really badly. I don’t think there’s any in between. It’s incin and whims for them. They fake out my incin and they get up tailwind. I flip turn into my Gengar, who mega’s and goes for Icy Wind to try and take back some speed advantage. Incineroar tanks a Moonblast. They do parting shot my Mega Gengar which isn’t ideal. Their garchomp comes in, but I do flare blitz away the whims. Time to switch Gengar out. Their floette comes in though. I’m not throwing away my Mega, however, so I bring in Palafin as their Floette megas. They do have the tail wind on their side. But it goes for protect, and their garchomp goes for EQ. There goes my Incin. I lock into ice punch and tailwind with my whims. That takes garchomp to sash.  Palafin hangs on as Floette calm minds. Their tailwind is gone so I have the speed advantage. Their garchomp protects so my moonblast gets blanked. Ice punch does a decent amount to Floette but there goes Palafin. This isn’t a great situation. I protect Whims and go for sludge bomb on Floette. I don’t know if this is the right move though. They spend quite a bit of time thinking about their turn. Their floette protects so my turn is blanked. 

That was VERY bad. I should have just Moonblasted the Chomp and saved my Gengar. Thus, my gengar goes down. I forfeit. And turn off the game. I need to regroup. Maybe I’ll come back and do singles later, but my doubles skill right now just isn’t there. I blame it on illness. I just made a BAD sequence of moves. That garchomp should’ve died. What was I thinking? Brain fog lost me that game. So I need to be done. I think my brain sabotaged me there. Clearly I’m too unwell to play anything competitive…