I have been a huge fan of Pokémon since the origins of the series, being of perfect age to catch Pokémon fever on the playground back when Red and Blue released. There really aren’t many Pokémon related things I haven’t dived headfirst into. I’ve played all the games, owned piles of Pokémon cards, and I even adorn all of my hats with delightful Pokémon pins bought from the Pokémon center. I am frankly obsessed with the franchise, but I’ve never before been tempted to jump into the competitive scene.
Slowly but surely this has begun to change, and this is because about a year ago I subscribed to the YouTube channel of Wolfe Glick. This multiple time world champion is widely regarded as the greatest player in the world of competitive Pokémon, and even as the scene has grown he remains a powerful force in the game. His content is fantastic too, and it planted a seed in my Pokémon obsessed brain.
“But Lyle” my inner monologue chimed, “gathering competitive Pokémon is complex and hard work”. The voice was right. I knew very little about IVs, EVs, and breeding for egg moves. It was a side of Pokémon that always just seemed too much effort to bother with, and honestly didn’t really interest me. If Pokémon Champions wasn’t planning on simplifying all this I probably wouldn’t have ever decided to jump on the road to be the very best.
At the time of writing Pokémon Champions is a week away from release, and to prepare for this I’ve been creating potential teams and catching a whole lot of Pokémon. My first task was coming up with a list of potentially useful Pokémon, all while not fully knowing what the competitive format will look like when this new battling title launches. This meant casting a wide net, and being thankful that my hard work would pay off down the line if not immediately. Having lots of Pokémon to transfer into Champions should make my life easier and cheaper going forward, so I immediately bought the Pokémon Violet DLC and booted up Pokémon Legends Z-A to clean up the Pokédex.
I found myself with a list of about eighty Pokémon to catch, all with uniquely helpful skill sets. I now have a collection of almost every Mega Pokémon available in the newest games, as Mega Evolution is clearly going to be an important part of competitive play for the foreseeable future. I also made four lists of Pokémon that would work in specific team compositions, because I’m not really sure what I’ll be the best at captaining.
The first of these hits hard and fast, while using the move Tailwind (which boosts all your Pokemon’s speed for four turns) to ensure I out-speed the opponent. It’s a tried and true strategy, and hopefully fairly simple. As a lot of long time players will be able to outplay me based on experience alone, so I also sprinkled in some cheeky luck based strategies there too. If I can’t win based on skill alone, I’m more than happy to cheese my way through a few battles with sleep and confusion.
I also curated two weather based lists, which use the sun and rain to boost the power of Pokémon using certain abilities, moves and typing. Understanding when best to use weather moves or send out Pokémon that set the weather automatically seems pretty tricky, but it could pay off. Hopefully my countless hours watching Pokémon content on YouTube helps with this.
I also finally gathered pocket monsters for my Trick Room team, which is essentially the polar opposite of the Tailwind team. This team is slow and bulky, but uses the move Trick Room to reverse speed and allow my slow chonkers to attack first. I’ve got a good feeling about this team as I’ve seen the strategy used a lot, and hopefully I’m able to pull off some miracles using it.
I’m not used to taking Pokémon seriously, and in most aspects of life I frown upon this act. So there’s one more rule In putting in place. Above all else I’m aiming to have fun with Pokémon Champions, and if that means being less successful then so be it. I love Pokémon too much to care about winning over all else, so you’d better believe I’m using my beloved Bug type Pokémon even if they aren’t optimal.
I honestly have no idea how I’ll fare when Pokémon Champions releases on Nintendo Switch, but I know I’m excited. I am very much not a competitive person, and frankly I love that about myself. But who knows, maybe it’ll be fun to try and strategise and get better at double battles and Pokémon as a whole. You’ll get to hear all about my journey here regardless, so wish me luck because I’m going to need it.
Pokémon Champions is coming to Nintendo Switch on April 8th.
