PFA Free Agency: Additions and Drops

PFA Free Agency 

Before I go on and discuss what were the made changes made to the team, here's a quick guidelines of the rules of Free Agency.

1. Free Agency begins after the end of the second week with a live session where all the coaches (including myself) chose new additions to the team or announce trades. 
2. As soon as all the coaches are accounted with their Week 2 matches completed, Free Agency will commence.
3. Unlike most Leagues where anyone can get chose by themselves to add/drop a Pokemon while following their respective rules, Free Agency for the PFA is almost like a regulated draft session held every 2 week where teams with the worse differential and record go first and the best teams chose last. There's no snake-style order for this, just worst to best teams first. 
4. During all sessions of FA (Free Agency), every team is allowed the chance to add/drop one Pokemon per tier in each session. Each FA session will go through OU, UU, RU and finally NU/PU with coaches of each team deciding whether or not they want to change something. 
5. Mega Evolutions can now be dropped from the team and not mandatory. 
6. (Debatable) This rule I'm not so sure what they decided on yet. However every team is allowed only 1 drop/add per tier leaving a total of 4 potential changes for the season.
7. List of all Free Agent Pokemon courtesy of myself. 

Los Angeles Nidoking Team Additions and Drops

Alright I'm not going to sugarcoat this, however I did not expect myself having the opportunity to make 3 changes to my team knowing full well that with the impressive +10 differential and 2-0 start certain picks I thought would go first ended up being free for grabs. Now I guess every team had different priorities and there were surprisingly few changes made from different teams except for a couple teams including the Nidokings. Now going into the session, I knew there would be people wanting to get rid of their mons in exchange for better Pokemon I'd list down. Some of the picks I predicted would leave immediately especially the ones I'm about to list down however I was fortunate to get these Pokemon on the team so here are the new changes. 

    New Teammates / Roster Changes

OU: New: Jirachi / Drop: Garchomp

Ok I honestly felt as if someone was going to look at the undrafted list and see Jirachi was available for keeps and yet I was the one who realized this. Now when it was my turn, I realized no one got this Pokemon and I needed a Steel-type Pokemon that can take on Fairy- types, be a Stealth Rocker, versatile in movepool, and sway the battle in my favor. Jirachi fits the bill and its the Pokemon I'm most familiar since I've used it consistently... at least before March when I focused on VGC. I cannot describe how big of a pick up Jirachi was as it can do so many things in a league format like spread paralysis, use Choice Scarf, setup rocks, be either physical/special or even mixed, a cleric, and just the list goes on and on. Probably one of the most recognizable traits about Jirachi is its Serene Grace ability as it has double to chance for secondary effects. Most of its attacks have secondary effects including its main STAB Iron Head which has a 60% chance to flinch the opponent. Hopefully most of my matches doesn't result to flinch spamming to victory but it was a pick too good not to pass up. 

RU: New - Druddigon / Drop: Durant

 After I dropped Garchomp, I knew I wanted another "defensive Dragon-Type", one that can fulfill multiple roles for the team like be either offensive, defensive, lead, or maybe both combined. IMO,  Druddigon is a potent Pokemon in league play with the amount of sets it can run. First off, Druddigon has three useful abilities in Sheer Force, Mold Breaker, and Rough Skin so technically speaking I didn't lose not as much from Garchomp aside from the fast speed. What differentiates Druddigon from Garchomp is it has the ability Sheer Force to boost a wide variety of attacks like Gunk Shot, Fire Punch, Thunder Punch, Iron Head, Iron Tail, Rock Slide, Crunch, etc. Sure none of Druddigon's main STAB options (Dragon Claw/Outrage)  get Sheer Force boosted, however it still has other powerful attacks like Earthquake, Aqua Tail, Sucker Punch (another form of priority), Pursuit, Revenge, Rock Tomb, Superpower, Shadow Claw, and much more options to use. Even from a utility standpoint, Druddigon support moves such as Glare to paralyze even Ground-type Pokemon, Stealth Rocks for hazards, Taunt to stop opposing setup, Toxic to wear down walls, and finally Dragon Tail for phazing.  I admit Druddigon is no Garchomp considering the former is much slower and relies on speed control like Glare. However, once Druddigon is in on a favorable matchup, it can pretty much do whatever it wants from setup rocks, Glare stuff, or just go offensive. 

NU/PU: New - Kabutops / Drop: Frogadier

For the last tier, I kinda wanted to get my hands on a spinner since Crobat was the only Pokemon that can clear hazards away while be relatively bulky yet offensive at the same time. While Frogadier helped out in my week 2 matchup tremendously, I think Roserade would have done exactly the same thing and setup Toxic Spikes/Spikes to help aid in my match so the team can compensate a bit. In the end, I felt Kabutops was a viable spinner and potential Rain Dance user who can pair well with Manaphy and Mega Manetric. First off, Kabutops has a moderate offensive typing in Water/Rock with its Water-type attack hopefully boosted in the rain and Rock-type always being fine. Kabutops has access to some fine STAB/coverage moves like Waterfall, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Low Kick, Superpower, Brick Break, Knock Off, X-scissor, etc. Kaputops has access to moves like Rain Dance to setup for Swift Swim, Rapid Spin for hazard control, Sword Dance to boost up, and Aqua Jet for priority. Kabutops will see play in place of Crobat so it can help alleviate hazard control while be a late game cleaner. 

So there you have it, all the the new additions to the team. I could have gone a bit more in-depth but I guess people can pick up the pieces since getting Jirachi would make me alittle weak to Fire-types and needed another Dragon and so forth. For now I'll just wait and see if these changes were necessary for the overall scoop of the team so we'll see in the next battle report.