I was there when Andrei co-started the PAX Pokemon League. I was there when we painted almost 700 eggs for PAX East Easter Egg Edition. Last year, I was a PPL Gym Leader for the first time (as a Poison Pokemon Punk). This year, I became Dipper Pines from Gravity Falls.
I’ve decided to share with everyone day-by-day thoughts and reflections on my PPL experience, as posted on Facebook, partly for your enjoyment, partly to get some feedback, but mostly just because I like writing things.
Day One (Saturday)
4 hours of Pokemon battling at PAX today with my ghost team. 6 wins, 9 losses. 3 of those wins were because my opponents couldn’t deal with Shedinja. (Or in one case, my opponent *could* deal with Shedinja, but clever maneuvering on my part got rid of his counters.)
MVPs (in order): Shedinja, Aegislash, Mega-Banette. That’s right, Shedinja is doing better for me than the recently Uber-ized Aegislash.
Biggest disappointments: Gengar. I think I either built him wrong or am piloting him wrong.
Day Two (Sunday)
I woke up this morning and realized that my MVPs from yesterday (Shedinja, Aegislash, Mega-Banette) would make a disgustingly good rotation battle team (Mega-Banette wants to die, Aegislash wants to be hit, Shedinja is hard to hit). So I’m doing rotation battles now. Since this is a really good rotation team, I offered my opponents Casual Mode or Challenge Mode.
Casual Mode is 6v3. They get 6 Pokemon, I get 3. I did it this way so that challengers still had a pretty good chance of winning a badge (I’m a Casual-tier gym leader, so I’m supposed to be easy) but let me have fun with my team. I went 1-6, but all of my Casual Mode opponents lost at least 3 (frequently 4) pokemon, so that’s a victory for my team and my piloting. And yes, my team actually took down all 6 pokemon in one match.
On the flip side, the challengers who knew what they were doing really knew what they were doing. For Challenge Mode (3v3), I went 2-7. A lot of it is piloting skill. The way this team works is that I have an answer to pretty much anything my opponent does. But I have to predict what my opponent will do, and if I predict wrong, it could seriously cost me. (But that’s why rotation battles are so fun.)
A rundown of the team:
- Mega-Banette (Banettite, Protect, Taunt, Knock Off, Destiny Bond) – The build is solid, but I want my Banette to be bulkier so it can survive non-super-effective hits and use Taunt or Knock Off to disrupt my opponent. Other than that, my favorite trick is to switch in a weakened Mega-Banette with Destiny Bond to surprise kill trade one of my opp’s stronger pokemon.
- Aegislash (Weakness Policy, Kingsguard, Shadow Ball, Flash Cannon, Shadow Sneak) – Weakness Policy Aegislash is kinda ridiculous in rotation battles, especially since the most moves that hit Shedinja will power up Aegislash. Shadow Sneak is much weaker in rotation battles, but I figure one ‘mon needs it, and Aegislash runs it better than the rest.
- Shedinja (Focus Sash, Protect, Shadow Sneak, X-Scissor, Will-O-Wisp) – Shedinja is hard to hit, and Focus Sash means my opp needs to hit Shedinja twice to kill it. Unfortunately, gen 6 Shedinja can’t learn Swords Dance, and Shadow Sneak just doesn’t have enough power to do anything on Shedinja, so I’m thinking of swapping it out for Shadow Claw. (Especially since so many types resist Bug.) Protect is nice on Shedinja for scouting, but both my other mons have Protect effects, and if I’m ever in a position where Shedinja personally needs to Protect, something’s gone very wrong. So I’m thinking of swapping out Protect for another crippling status move, like Toxic.
Yes, my current build gives all 3 mons Protect effects, so I can Protect 3 times in a row. It’s cute, but doesn’t really have any effect other than annoyance. (Having both Banette and Aegislash use Protect does have uses, though. For example, stalling out a sandstorm to make it safe to bring back Shedinja. It came up twice today.)
Day Three (Monday)
2-6 in Casual (6v3) and 9-8 in Challenge (3v3). The gap between Casual and Challenge was a lot closer today. Some of the Casual matches were complete blowouts (with my opp losing only 1 or 2 pokemon), but I also had a lot of Challenge match wins. I think it’s a combination of 2 things. One, I’m getting better at piloting this team. (I’m more comfortable with switching in Banette and Shedinja at odd intervals to get “free hits”, making me less predictable as well as frequently scoring free hits.) Two, a lot of people today were willing to push themselves for a challenge rather than merely earning a gym badge.
The two casual wins though. One of them was a youngster, who went up against me with a team of 6 and lost, then later rematched me and won. His kid brother also challenged me, and upon losing, threw a hissy fit and started punching his brother. I declined to rematch him, partially because of his unsportsman-like conduct, but mostly because I was uncomfortable playing against him again.
A few changes I’d make next time:
- Rename “Casual Mode” to “Normal Mode”. My team is disgusting is rotation battles, and I don’t want people to feel like they’re wimping out when they go 6v3 against me.
- I really like the idea of giving out 2 badges for Challenge Mode. Normal Mode wins you the Dipper Badge. Challenge Mode wins both the Dipper Badge and the Double Dipper Badge.
- I’ll probably place myself on Intermediate Tier instead of Casual Tier next time, so that neither casual players nor veteran players are deterred from battling me. (Although I can support all 3 tiers if needed.)
- If someone battles me twice, I’ll give them a Dipper Badge for good sportsmanship, win or lose, regardless of Mode. I had a few people go up against me in Challenge Mode and lose twice in a row, and I figure they should get something for their efforts. Can this be abused? The Dipper Badge is supposed to be easy to obtain, so not really. (The Double Dipper Badge can only be won by beating me in Challenge Mode, though.)
Honorable Mentions
Drifblim and Spiritomb, who were on my team on Day 1, but then got cut.