The problem with every Pokemon team is that you’re only allowed six members. With the games already pretty easy, I realise there has to be some limitation beyond letting you call on the potential hundreds of creatures you’ve captured in any given battle, but I always struggle to narrow down my six. I establish as varied a team as possible early, then trade out my least favourites or weakest for new catches as I go, often left with a Sophie’s Choice moment between Quagshire and Heracross. Playing competitive Pokemon for the first time, the struggle was even worse.
Despite playing Pokemon as a gym leader being the best way to add variety and challenge, I’ve never quite understood the life of one, and why so many of them head into battle without a full party. What gym leaders do have, however, is structure. Pick the same type – it’s pretty straightforward, even if a few of them still miss the mark. Anyone want to explain to Bruno that Onix isn’t a Fighting type? And also that it’s garbage and he doesn’t need two of them?
Related: The Wild Area Stopped My Sword & Shield Journey Before It Started
In any case, I did not have this structure when picking my competitive team. Nor did I have the structure of the game itself, slowly levelling up and moving through tougher, better routes, growing my team naturally through trainer battles and wild encounters. I had been thrown in at the deep end. I was up creek without a Pancham.
The stakes had never been lower. Most of the people I was playing with had also never played competitive Pokemon, while a handful played semi-regular and were clearly in a contest of their own. I didn’t want to be the very best, like no-one ever was, so much as I wanted to be the best of the worst.
Having played every mainline Pokemon game and most of the spin-offs, I know the difference between a good Pokemon and a bad Pokemon, and so picked a team initially full of 'mons that had served me well in the past. Gardevoir, Tsareena, Gyarados, Flygon, Talonflame, Toxtricity. Turns out all but Gyarados – who eventually survived to make the final team – were rubbish at this level. That's when things got really interesting. There is far more thought in picking a competitive Pokemon team than there is in building your line-up in the regular game. Can you beat this Water gym with your Grass and Electric 'mons? Great. Job done. At competitive level, you not only need to consider type match ups and coverage, but also counters, variation, team roles, and a lot of other complexities that don't come into the equation when you're fighting Silver's Crobat, Googling what moves it has and pre-building a 'mon to take it down with ease.
Every game has an element of mathematics to it. Often, it's hidden within the coding, within the RNG mechanics of the game itself. Pokemon has that, for critical hits, which Pokemon will spawn, shiny rates, and the rest, but it is also very upfront about its numerical intentions. While not numerical, Fire beats Grass, Grass beats Water, Water beats Fire is very obviously an equation. Each Pokemon also has a set of stats that determine the various strengths and weaknesses of that Pokemon variation, as well as an underlying set of stats that determine the strengths and weaknesses of that individual Pokemon in particular.
It might sound nerdy, but this maths is where the game gets fun, especially when it's Pokemon I'm not particularly familiar with. Looking at the Pokemon in and around the OU tier (basically the best, non-broken Pokemon), there were a few 'mons I had ran before, though not in any competitive sense. Hawlucha, Scizor, Dragapult, Garchomp, Dragonite were the first five I selected to join Gyarados, before realising that team had a lot of Dragon and Flying, but not a lot else. I played around with different 'mons. Tyranitar, Alakazam, Latias, Gengar. Still not a great deal of coverage. I experimented with Pokemon I had never even considered using before – Pokemon still need to be strong for me to vibe with them in the main games, but I need to like the look of them too. Kartana, Bisharp, Regileleki, Blacephalon, and Tapu Koko had all failed that test, but I gave them a shot here. In the end, they all fell short – I can't let go of the vibes completely – but playing competitive pushes you to try out teams you never would.
It's not all great, of course. The restrictive nature of it all does force you into new choices, but it also locks a lot more options out. Sure, the first few times I would have likely stuck with a dream team of favourites from across the series, but what if I wanted to try out Golurk, Vespiquen, Emolga, or Ludicolo? Letting you be everyone defeats the maths of the thing, clearly. That each Pokemon has underlying numbers rather than just being a fluffy cartoon character whose stats are identical make choices between your final six more meaningful, but as a newbie it was a bit of a head spinner to see a pool of a thousand trickle down to around 40 decent choices.
Still, the picking was a (fire) blast. Not just the actual team lineup, but each moveset, needing to benefit from STAB, offer type coverage across the board, and trying to second guess any potential counters. Typically, 'is it strong?' is enough for me in the main games, with any moves that swept an early gym leader or got me out of a jam with a crit being kept for sentimental reasons. In compet though, it's pure, raw mathematics.
Playing itself? Not as great. Having tested my team's viability against randoms, tweaked it, and generally tried to tune it up as best I could, I thrived against the other newcomers, and by a lucky draw that saw me avoid the experienced players, made it to the final… where I was promptly swept by a single Dragonite. It's not that it's not fun because I lost, it's that in picking a team, you can't lose. It's a world of possibilities. In practise, you come up against someone who knows what they're doing and your team of six sweepers gets their Azumaril handed to them. I've already been back to train my skills against randoms, but the temptation to tweak my team is always there – not because my team is bad, but because building a team is so much more fun.
Next: Daniella Pineda Just Proved She's The Perfect Faye Valentine
