Team Reveals/Evaluations

[Touko]

That picture is so, so, SO much love. OMG. Who drew that, was it you?

[SolonCubed]

So, Fortune and my teams were VERY complicated together to explain, because they were designed for ease of use in 1v1 double battles OR 2v2 double battles AND a mix of sandstorm and rain dance specialty. This gave a lot of control for us as leaders to maintain difficulty, but it also gave the competitors a lot of leeway in choosing pokemon to fight us with, if they saw that they were up against sandstorm winning teams would use water and grass, losing teams used steel and rock types and vice versa. So when I designed it, it was broken up into four sections, Sand Storm, Rain Dance, Mixed, and Roleplay.

12 Pokemon between the two of us; four groups. Since 2v2s involved three pokemon from each player and 1v1s required four from each player, the SS/RD luck mechanic worked whether Fortune and I were together or alone. And it worked swimmingly! NOTE: Each Pokemon will be rated based on my ideas of how well they worked from the stance of a gym leader if others would like to re-use them. Highest rated Pokemon will be not too hard but also not too easy. Well rounded and quirky is the bread and butter for Gym Leaders.

Mr. Game:
[spoilerl0d][bl0d]Sandstorm:[/bl0d]
[ul0d]Hippowdon[/ul0d]
Big fat sandstorm machine. A small threat offensively especially compared to Tyranitar, but its bulk and healing ability did become a problem for one or two people who were not aware of its major bulkage. Most people surfed it into oblivion.
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] 5 sandy stars out of 5
[il0d]Definitely recommend for GLs who want sand, but not a big mean Tyranitar.[/il0d]

[ul0d]Crustle[/ul0d]
Swords Dance + Sturdy was threatening as an attacker, but the lack of any speed meant many people tossed it to the side pretty easily with two or three attacks. But if they didn't attack it for some reason, ROCKS FOR DAYS! Although, it was completely overshadowed by Fortune's Carracosta.
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] 2 hermits out of 5
[il0d]Not much of note here. Underwhelming and not all that cool. Other rock and ground Pokemon are way more interesting and fill it's spot better for easy or harder gyms (Cradily, Shuckle, Claydol)[/il0d]

[bl0d]Rain Dance:[/bl0d]
[ul0d]Jellicent[/ul0d]
So, Water Spout is crap on a slow Pokemon unless it is in the rain AND water gem'd, but Jellicent's typing and bulk made it a bit more useful. My Jellicent was too stretched out between attacking and being bulky to work to its fullest extent. Most times it was one or two-shot with any powerful attack it was weak to, Ludicolo was a much bigger threat due to its opposing typing to electric types and since they usually showed up together.
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] X spooky ghosties out of 5
[il0d]Ya'll know Jellicent is classy and a great Pokemon for a lot of purposes. It is flexible and that is why it showed up so much in the league this year. You know already if it is good for you or not.[/il0d]

[ul0d]Lapras[/ul0d]
Lapras is a lot of fun and a personal favorite of mine. I upped the ante often using Perish Song which was a VERY fun way to give the battle a Mission Impossible feeling. Challengers got that Tom Cruise/Keanu Reeves pressure from it in a really good way. It has great type range with Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Psychic, but that is probably better for challengers then Gym Leaders. Lapras has a lot of weaknesses to Gen 5 common Pokemon and attacks so it wasn't a big threat, but it does have a great spot in a lot of tight places.
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] 3 plesiosauri out of 5
[il0d]I love it a lot, but it really isn't all that useful for Gym Leaders. Much more fun for competitors.[/il0d]

[bl0d]Combo:[/bl0d]
[ul0d]Kabutops[/ul0d]
Hey! A fast pokemon! Kabutops was great for both sandstorm, rain dance, and just a cool guy in general! Having a priority move was a good way to control a battle as a Gym Leader, also having those new fun items like the Air Balloon was very enjoyable. Good range of attacks with X-Scissor, Waterfall, and Slash. Not too powerful, not a pushover, a very well rounded fossil!
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] 4 pokey arm limbs out of 5
[il0d]Another Pokemon I highly recommend! Its a very 'cool' Pokemon that dosen't require a lot of effort to put together and is very clear to opponents since it is First Gen.[/il0d]

[bl0d]Roleplay:[/bl0d]
[ul0d]Electrode[/ul0d]
I had no idea how useful Electrode's speed was. I used him as a Rain Dancer when Fortune was not around, and it worked VERY well and Thunder hit hard, but not hard enough to one-shot most things, which gave me a lot of control over battles before... EXPLOOOOOSION!!!!! Which does about 10 damage... But it IS hilarious. The roleplaying aspect of Electrode was wonderful! People loved to make the connection between HG/SS and my character.
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] 1 EXPLOSION!!!!
[il0d]A VERY simple Pokemon, I don't know why other people would use it, but it sure was a lot of fun![/il0d][/spoilerl0d]

Fortune:
[spoilerl0d][bl0d]Sandstorm: [/bl0d]
[ul0d]Mamoswine[/ul0d]
Mamoswine gained a reliable ice attack with Icicle Crash and it probably works very well in single battles. It's Ice/Ground typing works great for GLs as well. Good speed, Good attack, and it can take a hit if need be. Ice Shard is the most useful thing I found with it for that evil revenge kill.
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] 3 War Pigs out of 5
[il0d]Good typing, good attack, and reliable. Not perfect, but very easy to use for both GLs and Competitors[/il0d]

[ul0d]Arceops[/ul0d]
Holy Crap. Acrobatics. Flying STAB + Flight Gem + Acrobatics boost = Doom. Then you get hit once and you aren't so useful anymore, but WHO CARES? ARCEOPS!!! Sandstorm helps, but not as much as you want it to. Also, its another awesome dinosaur fossil thing, what more do you need?
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] 5 Flyosaurs out of 5
[il0d]High power at High cost. It is a very fun way to control a Gym match, and an easy Pokemon to obtain. Strong recommendation out of me![/il0d]

[bl0d]Rain Dance:[/bl0d]
[ul0d]Ludicolo[/ul0d]
Ludicolo has a nice niche dancing in the rain, and he is a great quirky Pokemon. In execution he was a very reliable Pokemon. Good typing, bulk, and more-passive not-so brutal ways of dealing with things made for a nice foil with other more attack heavy Pokemon. A heavy flying attack would take it down, but not much else.
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] 3 Fiestas out of 5
[il0d]VERY VERY FUN, but not all that helpful to most teams with its tight niche.[/il0d]

[ul0d]Kingdra[/ul0d]
Oh that typing! Kingdra were everywhere in the league, and for good reason with that typing. Dragon Dance is great for sweeping ability, but as far as Gym Leader potential goes, it can be very overbearing, since it only does the one thing very well. Much more useful for competitors than Gym Leaders, it's probably more worth a GLs time to find COUNTERS for Kingdra then using him
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] 3 Royal Seahorses out of 5
[il0d]A must have for Dragon GLs, and something to consider for Water GLs, but you get what you pay for. Great typing and power, but mostly a one-trick pony and can be too much for some competitors to overcome.[/il0d]

[bl0d]Combo:[/bl0d]
[ul0d]Carracosta[/ul0d]
What to say about Carracosta... A Gen 5 tool of destruction that takes candy from babies, keys your car, and then takes your pants from you. As fun as it is, a surprising amount of competitors were not familiar with the threat that is Shell Smash + Sturdy. In too many cases, it became a slaughter. Rock slide obliterated everything. Some of this problem was from Double Battles being complicated and people trying to spread attacks, but once that speed kicked in, it became way too difficult for a number of people to stop.
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] 2 Turtles in a Half Shell out of 5
[il0d]Without Shell Smash, most other Pokemon are more fun or better to use where Carracosta is. Without it, it is pretty useless to GLs. Out of ALL the Pokemon, I recommend against this one a lot for GL use.[/il0d]

[bl0d]Roleplay:[/bl0d]
[ul0d]Raikou[/ul0d]
Not much of a Roleplay Pokemon, since Fortune had Ludicolo, so Raikou didn't get all that much action. But it is a lot of fun to use, especially the event-Pokemon version with it's many ranges of attacks. Not super helpful with what our teams were doing, but it has solid range, especially compared to the other three legendary dogs.
[il0d]GL Rating:[/il0d] 2 Sparky Puppies out of 5
[il0d]It may be exactly the exact thing you need as a GL, but it probably isn't. And it isn't all that easy to come by the event-version if you don't already have it.[/il0d][/spoilerl0d]

Definitely take note of Electrode and Carracosta's reviews the most.
I hope this is useful to other Gym Leaders. This is my experience as a Doubles Gym Leader, so it may not match up with other's experience (such as with Jellicent) but I hope it makes sense to the people who read it. 12 Pokemon is a lot...

[Kirogata]

Ginger, you have no idea the ammoutn of SHEER UNADULERATED JOY that I felt when I actualyl saw you using that dunsparce.

And holy hell that skitty.

[Gingerstik]

[Touko]

[CaptainTapole]

Must find ways to destroy--err--hurt Ferrothorn. Stupid Ferrothorn.

Other than that, just re-raise them to the point of sturdy and what-not.

[Cocowoushi]

[CommodoreSkippy]

[spoileruwx]Coco - Opener: Froslass (Snowcloak, useless ability) [Named after Cocowoushi who raised her for me]
-Taunt
-Destiny Bond
-Spikes
-Ice Beam

Item- Red Card

Kamikaze Opener who performed beautifully. Sometimes she got oneshot after stacking just one layer of spikes but eh, what can you do?
Opening with a Red Card was an experiment I was trying, and it worked great. If their opener hit me (and DIDN'T KO me) bam, they get swapped out and their opening routine is shot. Once the second pops out, I have a choice. I can keep setting up if the opponent pokemon is useless against froslass, Ice Beam if it was super effective, or Dbond if I expected to die. In the ideal case (which has happened) I would knock the opener out (or down to sash, effectively dead) set up spikes.AND Dbond the second. Man I loved teh DBond mind games.
You wanna set up on me? Taunt, no. You want to oneshot me? Fine, DBond, you die too. Wanna take a potshot? Okay, say goodbye to your routine.
Basically, she's a bitch and I love her.



Mindfang - 2nd/Anti-Wall: Spiritomb (Pressure)
-Toxic
-Substitute
-Pain Split
-Dark Pulse

Item- Rocky Helmet

She used to have Curse, but it would up being the death of me too often so I switched to Toxic before the con. I missed being able to afflict it on poison and steel-types but over all it worked much better. Having sub let me have some control over how low my HP was; you have no idea how many times I was in the red and managed to Pain Split a fresh switch in. Overall, the build was a little less impressive than I expected, but definitely pulled her weight and had some impressive moments. I'm looking at you, Snorlax.



Coren - Special Sweeper: Chandelure (Flash Fire)
-Energy Ball
-Flamethrower
-Shadow Ball
-Psychic

Item: Life Orb

Pretty straight forwards special sweep. I chose NOT to go with the Choice Scarf route for the sake of greater versatility. Instead, Life Orb assured that even regular effective moves could oneshot fairly often. Lowish speed was a problem, but I knew it would be so it never bothered me, I just had to be choosy when to send him out. The Type coverage on this thing is insane: water, rock, ground, ice, grass, bug, steel, psychic, ghost, fighting, poison. 11 types, woo! Flash Fire came in handy many a time for covering an incoming fire hit on my Rotom. He done good.



Twitchy - Anti-Dark: Rotom (Mow form; Levitate)
-Volt Switch
-Signal Beam
-Trick
-Leaf Storm

Item: Choice Scarf

Not having the Ghost type, Rotom breaks the overall team weakness to Ghost and Dark type (though, so does Spiritomb). It is also one of the few I could get a Bug Type move on to to take care of Dark Types. For versatility, Trick to lock down an opponent with the choice item and Volt-Switch for a STABed safe retreat. Leaf Storm as a must for Mow Form, but a strong Grass move nonetheless. I chose Mow over Fan Rotom due to finding that too many of my roster was weak to Rock.
Also, should I predict an incoming fire move, Volt Switch to Chand to make use of Flash Fire.
He worked AWESOME. Threw lots of people for a loop seeing him pop out, and his speed was nothing to sneeze at. Signal beam proved exceptionally usefull, so much that I often did NOT trick the scarf off. When I did though, it broke many a pokemon's strategy.... except in cases where I would mispredict and choice-lock them into Shadowball -_-.
He also made a great scout with Volt switch, and aside from Golurk, his 4x resistance to electric means he could eat incoming Thunders at my Jelli, and Levitate meant he could dodge Earthquake like a champ, which my Chand tended to attract like bees to honey.
(If you haven't noticed, my team did a LOT of switching in and out to absorb moves for their teamates! Sure is a good thing Froslass was so good at denying people setting up rocks/spikes! ^_^)



Baratheon - Special Wall: Jellicent (Water Absorb)
-Recover
-Scald
-Confuse Ray
-Ice Beam

Item: Leftovers

MVP. Hands down, and it came as a complete surprise to me. This guy, man, he was a champ. I didn't expect him to do his job so well, but he could eat up special attacks, even Thunderbolt(!), for breakfast. I chose Scald over the usual Surf + Will o' Wisp in order to open up another move slot, which I filled with Confuse Ray. That was the right idea, at least in my book. The Confusion was an added layer of defense, and if Scald procced a burn early, I was set, able to Recover and Scald/Ice Beam to my heart's content. Special AND Physical wall if I got the time to confuse and Burn, which I often did. I don't think anything ever oneshot this guy, even my hated enemy, Crunch. Oh, and Hydreigons hated that Ice Beam.
And because I love switch-ins, Water Absorb over Cursed Body to eat up those yummy Hydro Pumps at Golurk to Chandelure and heal from them. nom nom.
It's good to be the king.



Taz - Physical Specialist: Golurk (Iron Fist)
-Shadow Punch
-Hammer Arm
-Earthquake
-Stone Edge

Item- Quick Claw

I said to myself, "Boy, I could sure use a Physical Attacker" and Gamefreak said unto me "Lo and behold Golurk, a 'mon just for you with a badass design and type combo". And so it was, and it was good.
And then a realized what a slow ass he was T_T.
Okay, so, Golurk initially was underperforming my expectations, backw ehn I had a choice band on him. ON one hand, he oneshot just about ANYTHING. On the other, he had a bit of a tendency to get hit by a special move that outsped him and DROP DEAD. I needed a solution.
Coco suggested teh quick claw, much to her chagrin after it procced twice in a row on it's first trial run and raped her Steel team. From then on, it was GolurkxQuick Claw love at first sight. It wasn't something I could rely on, but it came up a lot and tended to be a gamebreaker when it did (or not when it procced on a turn they protected -_-). I built his physical defense so that he could eat a pair of Crunches and survive, which was plenty long enough to Hammer Arm any goddamn Dark Types into submission and Stone Edge some Dragonites. SHould he get dark pulsed though? Well, goodnight Golurk, it was nice knowing you.
Always had mixed results with this guy. He either destroys or gets destroyed, never middleground. I gotta say, I kinda liked that about him, he was sort of a wildcard.[/spoileruwx]

If I had to change anything, it would be that my team has NO priority moves and I should have some. Other than that, I had overall great type coverage offensively and defensively, especially since I was a mono-type gym, and this team matched or exceeded my expectations all around. I'm very proud of them all.

[Giovanni]

Coco, why u no Sheer Force Nidoking? It's so~~ good!

[Ktywf]

But Karkat is the crab guy, not Eridan....