A New Friend

It’s Day Two of Pokemon Champions being out and thus far, I’ve only recruited my starting six, plus a Gallade that I decided to keep. I waited the entire 22 hour period and then some. So, my options today are actujally something incredible. Krookodile, Greninja, Jolteon, Alakazam, Decidueye, Glimmora, Rotom Wash, Furfrou, Kommo-O, and Garganacl! Wow, that’s a lineup. And I can only choose one. The Greninja even has a title! But since I have a good Greninja already in ZA that I can just change the moves, I don’t need it. I love the Jolteon but it’s moveset is meh. The Alakazam is pretty cool, and it’s a potential Mega. I adore Dedicidueye but it’s just not that good competitively. Glimmora is really good. I’m very much leaning towards Rotom Wash simply because it has such a great moveset with coverage, and Volt Switch. The Kommo-O is tempting too. What a tough choice. Well, I don’t need another Dragon, really. It’s down to Alakazam and Wash for me. I’m getting Gardevoir from the Challenge. I’m going with Wash. The electric coverage is just too good. I’m going straight for the ticket on this one, since I had four left from all the training missions I completed. Recruiting a Pokemon was one of the daily missions, so all I have to do is take part in a ranked battle, which obviously I’ll be doing. That’s the point of the whole game!

The Warm-Up Challenge Isn’t Until Tonight

For the challenge, I already entered my team from yesterday. So no Rotom Wash for us here, although we’ll see the washing machine in many future battles. It may be replacing Steelix in doubles, as while the snake is super good in singles, it’s just a bit too vulnerable in the current VGC environment. However, I don’t know how time zones work apparently and the challenge doesn’t start until TONIGHT. Therefore, I can put Wash in over Steelix. I’m giving it the Choice Scarf, which I somehow acquired randomly. So it’s gonna outspeed a lot of crap. Steelix will return with my future Trick Room team, which I’m slowly building up to. I need some more offense, and that Electric coverage, plus Hydro Pump and Shadow Ball, is going to help against a lot of stuff.

Back to the Ladder

Armed with our Scarfed washing machine looking stylish and having to leave Steelix behind, we now have a weapon against Rain teams and a potential out for a lot of the more powerful Rock and Ground types. Rotom of course also has a Ground immunity, plus, we have Volt Switch to reposition. It’s just too good for our current team composition, as good as Steelix has been. The rock snake just hasn’t been coming to many games. I’m also debating whether I make Gengar the second Mega on our team, although Mega Dragonite has been so good and the Focus Sash is so good on the ghost.

I decided to actually go for singles to start the day, since we are still in the Poke Ball tier 3 in that format. Rotom immediately debuted. And it’s Hawlucha! VOLT SWITCH BABY! Gallade switches into a Sacred Sword on Abomasnow and ONE SHOTS! Now it’s Beedrill, and I go for the dance of the swords. Pin Missile hits three times for less than half and +2 Aqua Cutter wrecks the Bee! With a crit too. WOW.

Next game, Wash crit Drampa with Volt Switch into Azu. I didn’t expect Energy Ball. Well that was unfortunate. APparently Drampa is faster than I thought. It’s gotta be scarfed into Energy Ball. Can Mega Dragonite carry? Ice beam got the Drampa, so it’s 2-2. We have Fire Blast for Scizor. We never miss. Up 2-1. Charizard comes in and I’m assuming it’s a mega. Nope, it goes for crunch against my Multiscale for like no damage. Draco Meteor, again it doesn’t miss, we win. 2-0 baby.

The next opponent has a real team that I don’t match up well against. Rotom is immune to Nuzzle, and Shadow Ball got the defense drop. He did get the light screen up which is unfortunate. Got a second special defense drop. Man Rotom is kicking butt. Raichu volt switched out into Gardevoir. I decided to hard switch to Gengar and the Gardy mega evolves. It went for Moonblast which Gengar tanks. Sludge Wave brings the Gardevoir to ONE PERCENT. Man, either a low roll or we got unlucky. Wash with its scarf can volt switch the Mega out of existence. It’s up to Mega Dragonite, with light screen gone.  It’s Milotic time. I’m expecting an ice type move so I go back to Rotom to tank an ice beam like a champ. Going for Bolt this time, they switch back to Raichu, that has Lightning Rod. That’s bad. Should’ve gone for shadow ball. So I’m forced to switch back to Dragonite, tank a Thunderbolt with Multiscale and Mega and hope Draco Meteor wrecks the Milotic incoming. It hits, of course, but Milotic survives. Fortunately, I planned for that and Rotom comes back in. Milotic recovers back to almost full health, and leftovers brings it back to 99. I make the smart move this time locking into Shadow Ball to deal with Raichu. We’re obviously way faster than Milotic, but I don’t think our damage output is gonan cut it. I have to risk Dragonite getting burned by Scald. And it does. The good news is I am using special attacks. I get Milotic down to THREE PERCENT.  OK ice beam KO’s our Dragon, can Rotom win this? We have thunderbolt! WE WIN! ROTOM WASH I LOVE YOU! 3 and 0 BABY! I skyrocketed into rank 2! 399 VP! Best game we’ve played so far.

The fourth game we don’t bring Wash because it’s a bad matchup for it. We go with Azu, Gengar, and Dragonite. As I suspected, Meowscarada came in. I know the cat too well, so Azu needs to scram. Dragonite will have to do the work. Flower Trick does like absolutely nothing. We mega into ice beam (I don’t want to risk a fire blast miss). Sucker Punch hurts a bit, but that’s one down. I’m kinda expecting Gardevori, and it is. So I go to Gengar for this expected move. Ice Punch gets a crit and the Garveoir only survives because of the traced multiscale. It poisons but the Gardy has Lum berry. That Gengar sacrifice is worth it for the switch to Azu. Aqua Jet isn’t quite enough. They life dew but that isn’t enough to survive a second Aqua Jet. We’re up 2-1, as I expected, its Garchomp. We tank Poison Jab, and even though we get poisoned, play rough OKO’s! ANOTHER WIN! Rank 1 baby. One more win and we get Great ball in both formats!

This is gonna be tough, another legit team with Sneasler, Archaludon, shiny Gyarados, Aegislash, etc. Rotom gets 20% chip on Archaludon for a switch into Gallade. The lead Arch puts up rocks. Is that chip enough to take down Archaludon with Sacred Sword unboosted? Yes it is! Thanks Sharpness! As for Aegislash, I’m not sure what it has for move set. It has flash cannon which Rotom eats for breakfast. We lock into shadow ball which absolutely ANNIHILATES the sword in attack form. Charizard is next. It’s Charizard Y Mega this time. Sucks we’re locked into Shadow Ball. And the free Drought means Solar Beam. So Rotom was sacrificed. But remember, we have Dragonite. The rocks hurt, but can Draco Meteor win us the game? We also still have Gallade.  Overheat hits hard, but we live on 44 health. Draco hits REALLY hard. Is Extreme Speed enough?  YES! 5-0 BABY! Wash’s sacrifice was worthy. GREAT BALL BABY! We even got two more teammate tickets and a training ticket from the battle pass!

So, I STILL haven’t missed a SINGLE move, which is lucky. The only misplay I made was not thinking about Lightning Rod on Raichu switching back in, but it didn’t cost me. Everyone played flawlessly, and we just won based on our matchups.

Before I get back to doubles, I have some observations.

Cursed Body Gengar is way better than you’d think. I haven’t even used Destiny Bond yet because the situation hasn’t called for it. And Icy Wind has won me games alongside its more traditional moves of Sludge Wave and Shadow Ball.

Whimsicott isn’t coming in much for me. It’s been OK, and Memento did win me a match. Giga Drain and Moonblast are able to do enough damage in the right matchups. But a lot of matchups it’s just not good. Leech Seed is something I should be using more, for sure. Just not against grass types, idiot…

Gallade has been a great Pokemon, especially since I retrained it with Swords Dance and Leaf Blade. Just having Sharpness with Black Belt makes Sacred Sword an OHKO for even neutral stuff. What an amazing Pokemon.

Azumarill has been slow and steady, and despite not getting to Belly Drum much due to just me not managing its HP all that well, its three offensive moves (Aqua Jet, Play Rough, and Superpower) are all relevant and win games. It’s the heart of my team.

Rotom-Wash has quickly become so important to my strategy. The chip damage, the defensive utility, the threat of a Hydro Pump out of nowhere, even Shadow Ball being a nice coverage move… there’s just a lot to like. But Choice Scarf Volt Switch is just amazing for positioning. Positioning is everything in competitive Pokemon. Getting caught out of position is how I lost games yesterday… yeah, yesterday was a long ass day, wasn’t it?

And of course, my MVP, and probably the dumbest looking Mega, Dragonite. I planned on building around this Mega soon as Champions was announced. Multiscale is so good, and in fact, I will switch in to tank moves intentionally (like I did with Flower Trick earlier). The Mega gains so much Special Attack (145 vs 100) but people don’t think about its Defense (115 vs 95), Special Defense (125 vs 100), and Speed (100 vs 80). It is unfortunate that there are some things that just outspeed the silly wing-headed creampuff, but it seems people are shocked how often this Mega tanks hits and outspeeds their primary threats. I’m not surprised. This Mega is stupidly underrated and I wouldn’t win games without it against clearly better teams.

I’m gonna get ready for the day and return with some doubles action in a little while.