Pokémon Champions - Introducing the Beartic Team! - Jul 12 26 A

I don’t know if I’ll make it a recurring thing or not, but I’m introducing teams in pairs in Pokémon Champions, one for double battling and one for single battling. Only a fool would think you can use the same team for both (but I’ve seen no shortage of single battling teams brought to double battling and vice versa). This one has more of an interconnectedness between its team members, but I find that it only makes the team harder to use in Team Preview: if the plan fails and/or is countered, you are pretty much done for. BEARTIC - Juno - from “Juneau,” the capital of Alaska (has nothing to do with the Beastars character named Juno) DECIDUEYE (HISUIAN) - Fletcher - from “fletching,” the feather part of an arrow; a “fletcher” is a person who sells arrows DRAGALGE - Laverne - from “laver,” a type of seaweed, the same nickname as in Scarlet/Violet BASTIODON - Castilla - from “castle” SLOWKING (GALARIAN) - Socrates - associated with high intelligence; Poison connection for association with hemlock PYROAR - Leonardo - from “leo,” Latin for “lion”; same nickname as in Scarlet/Violet I just like these two Mega Evolutions in particular, though I know Mega Pyroar doesn’t have many fans. 00:00 - Battle #1 Type: Single Battle Opponent: Sanaaa Battle Court: Gym Court Music: Team MZ Showdown My Pokémon: Socrates (Slowking) (Galarian), Juno (Beartic), Laverne (Dragalge) Opponent’s Pokémon: Charizard, Hydrapple, Annihilape This battle was an interesting start to this team…but it shows how two of my Pokémon work together to be better than the sum of their parts. I don’t know how often I’ll be able to keep doing this though. But in any case, this is my answer to a plain and obvious weather-based team, as long as it isn’t snow. Seeing Mega Charizard X instead was not what I predicted though. 03:16 - Battle #2 Type: Single Battle Opponent: R.I.P Battle Court: Battle Arena Music: Trainer (Ruby, Sapphire, & Emerald) My Pokémon: Castilla (Bastiodon), Leonardo (Pyroar), Socrates (Slowking) (Galarian) Opponent’s Pokémon: Meowscarada, Ceruledge, Metagross I remember back in Pokémon Battle Revolution, occasionally seeing people with names like that. It was always humorously over-the-top edgy. Also, Mega Pyroar’s Fire Mane doesn’t seem like much, but it’s no joke! Too bad it lost Earth Power… 06:24 - Battle #3 Type: Single Battle Opponent: ロキ (Loki) Battle Court: Battle Arena Music: Jacinthe My Pokémon: Fletcher (Decidueye) (Hisuian), Leonardo (Pyroar), Juno (Beartic) Opponent’s Pokémon: Incineroar, Dragonite, Metagross I get my opponent’s plan here: knowing I’d likely pick Pyroar (and I did), eliminate it before Metagross turns up on the field. The previous battle showed what happens when Mega Metagross has to stand there in the way of a Fire-type attack from a Mega Pyroar; this opponent was not taking that chance. By the way, there are three separate effects of Hisuian Decidueye’s signature move, Triple Arrows: an increased chance of a critical hit (by one stage, 12.5% chance with no other modifiers), lowering the opponents Defense by one stage (50% chance), and flinch (30% chance). I picked Hisuian Decidueye on my team in part because it’s fun to see which ones trigger. Also, is it me, or was this Incineroar missing Intimidate? (Blast Burn hitting would’ve still made it a tough customer!) 10:43 - Battle #4 Type: Single Battle Opponent: [SR•G] Battle Court: Battle Arena Music: Trainer (Scarlet & Violet) My Pokémon: Socrates (Slowking) (Galarian), Juno (Beartic), Leonardo (Pyroar) Opponent’s Pokémon: Snorlax, Dragonite, Rotom (Fan) I don’t see many Fan Rotoms, compared to the large number of Wash and Heat Rotoms. Not sure what they had planned with it, but Dragonite is near impossible to take out in one hit—short of one-hit techiques like Sheer Cold or Destiny Bond, this is the closest I’ve seen. 14:02 - Battle #5 Type: Single Battle Opponent: しょこたん (Shoko-tan) Battle Court: Battle Court Music: Friend (X & Y) My Pokémon: Fletcher (Deciduye) (Hisuian), Castilla (Bastiodon), Laverne (Dragalge) Opponent’s Pokémon: Espeon, Umbreon, Flareon This is the most common themed team I find, one made of Eeveelutions. There are eight of them in all, so two would be excluded. In this case, they were Jolteon and Glaceon. They have a bit of a disadvantage in that they cannot Mega Evolve, but Eevee does get a Z-Move of its own, as well as a Gigantamax and corresponding G-Max Move. My opponent is named after the host of Pokémon Sunday. I don’t know if this is actually her though.