CIL S2W3: VS MadMikeNebbia

 Deviant Art by Omiza-Zu

Preview

With two consecutive high-scoring victories, the Nidokings are looking to seek another win against one of the new expansion teams who have been off to a rough start: the Net Balls coached by MadMikeNebbia (or Mike).  For this battle, I'd already prepared a team prior shortly after my match against Sanyer, but in a surprised twist, Mike made a series of transactions to which made me heavily reconsider heavy elements of my team. We'll get to the Nidoking preparations shortly, however I would like to announce our first transaction of the season. For the Los Angeles Nidokings, the Water/Steel-type Emopoleon has been selected from Free Agency to replace our Diancie to add a bit of special bulk, Defog support, and defensive synergy for our team. While I've already discuss why Empoleon was selected on our CIL Team Analysis, the main reason it was selected was because of the Defog/Stealth Rocks support it can provide and alleviate certain Pokemon on this team like Latias or Celebi/Nidoking. Even though Empoleon was the only selection we made recently, it was brought recently in the upcoming battle against the Net Balls.

Week 3 VS The Net Balls

The Net Balls: M-Gyarados, Mamoswine, Staraptor, Roserade, Alakazam, Lucario, Sceptile, Togetic, Electivire, Swampert, Magneton

Los Angeles Nidokings: Mega Charizard X, Latias, Weavile, Suicune, Tornadus-T, Doublade, Nidoking, Chesnaught, Eelektross, Empoleon ( new member ), and Uxie.

Looking at his team, the newest additions Mike had made were the Roserade, Lucario, Togetic, and Alakazam in replacement for Cobalion, Moltres, Hydreigon, and Breloom respectively before we matched up for the battle. To be honest, there were a couple threats like Breloom and Hydreigon who honestly were slightly difficult to prepare for given the good amount of effective sets they can run. However, we are going to discuss what the Net Balls had brought with this current team since some new Pokemon were threatening. The additions of the 3 of those new Pokemon (I never "considered" Togetic as a threat) as well as old team members like Mamoswine, M-Gyarados, and Staraptor made me chose not to run Charizard X. While in our team preparation phase, I felt 100% confident Mike would bring M-Gyarados, Staraptor, Mamoswine, and Alakazam since a combination of those four run through my wall cores. Mamoswine was another sore thumb in this match up as it could "snipe out" my team with super effective STAB Ice- and Ground- attacks, if played well. Staraptor and Alakazam are both powerful wall breakers and potential scarfers that had to be scouted for despite the team's lacking responses to the two. The only other Pokemon I saw possible brought to the matchup was Lucario (for priority) , Swampert (amazing check to Zard X), Roserade (good hazard stack mon) and one of his Electric-types (Tornadus-T check).  Here's what the Nidoking's lineup look like after our second review / preparation. 

For this week, the Los Angeles Nidokings brought the following six: Weavile, Latias, Tornadus-T, Doublade, Chesnaught, and our new recruit Empoleon. First off, Weavile returns after a rather "non-existent" game 2 (for reasons), with the moveset Knock Off, Ice Shard, Low Kick, and Beat Up. This Weavile set was meant to again break through the potential Sash / Colbur Berry Pokemon (I'm looking at you Alakazam), while spam Knock Off against his team since few Pokemon aside M-Gyarados, Togetic (will lose the Eviolite), and Lucario would take it easily. Yache Berry Defog (yes DEFOG) Latias with Psyshock/Grass Knot/Healing Wish was brought to this matchup since the team was in need of a "reliable" revenge killer for Mamoswine and Roserade since both can do decently well. Fast Defog was something I felt was more important than a slow Defog from Empoleon (also frees a moveslot), and Healing Wish to sack Lati for a free healthy switch for one of my damaged Pokemon. Tornadus-T participates in its last battle, with the offensive set of  Air Slash, U-Turn, Superpower, and Grass Knot to again hit everything on Mike's team for good damage. All three of these Pokemon were considered primary win cons since all of them outspeed and hit the majority of Mike's team for heavy damage and can clean up weaken targets for the endgame. 

The defensive core of the team consisted of Chesnaught, Empoleon, and our primary kill leader of the Nidokings, Doublade. Both Chesnaught and Empoleon shared on specific move to deal with the Mega Gyarados: Roar. I stressed all week on how to deal with a Sub - Dragon Dance M-Gyarados and the only reliable solution was to run Roar as a last ditch effort so Weavile/Latias/Tornadus-T can deal with it reliable. First lets talk about the primary answer to the physical offense from the Net Balls: Chesnaught and Doublade. Chesnaught's moveset was Drain Punch, Roar, Spiky Shield, and Earthquake sorta emphasize the need to scout for my opponent's team. Earthquake was a last minute move change since it was originally Spikes since I realized Magneton  /Electivire could be a problem for the team assuming Mike brought it.  For this week, Doublade played the role as our main physical defensive wall for Staraptor with max defense, eviolite, and a moveset consisting of Shadow Sneak, Iron Head, Sacred Sword, and Sword Dance. After doing some calculations, Doublade's new physical defense literally skyrockets to the point where Choice Band Adamant Reckless Brave Bird only does about 24% damage! Doublade was so heavily defensive and potent this battle, I had to exchange Charizard X's place in favor of Doublade since at the time, nothing on my team could beat the Sinnoh Bird reliably.

Lastly, our latest recruit for the team, Empoleon was a specially defensive holding the Shuca Berry with Scald, Roar, Stealth Rocks, and ...yes Aqua Jet.  This Empoleon originally had Grass Knot as a way to deal heavy damage to M-Gyarados, Swampert, and even the Mamoswine, however I wanted to have a mediocre "revenge killer" for a weaken Mamo, Lucario, Staraptor, and Alakazam with Aqua Jet. Empoleon was going to be my defog user this week, but almost anything can outspeed and potentially OHKO the metal penguin I'd settled with Defog on Latias to clear hazards quickly while retain Empoleon as a wall, and maybe a sneaky revenge killer. With all that said, lets get into the battle...however I not going to do a play-by-play, rather my thoughts about during and after the battle, then some closing thoughts. 

The Battle: Never Make Predictions

(Highly Recommend to Watch First, then Read)

To start off, this match up was honestly one of those battles my opponent well kinda made some weird plays, a little of RNG sprinkled around, and more importantly making some costly over-predictions almost costed me the battle. If there's any sorta RNG that mattered, the only was the special defense drop against my specially defensive Empoleon from an Alakazam. Fearing a potential Focus Blast, I had to switch out to my Tornadus-T, which then takes heavy damage from a Psychic, which I don't know if Mike predicted the switch out. Had that special defense drop never occurred, I firmly believe the outcome of the battle would be far different since Empoleon taken easily take on to setup rocks, or break the potential Focus Sash. Of course during the time of the battle the Nidokings were ahead after taking out a Roserade lead with Latias, but getting either Stealth Rocks or damage on Alakazam was important as well. Now let me explain perhaps the most important turn of the battle in Turn 7 as I switched Doublade out to Tornadus-T expecting either an EQ from Lucario or a switch...but Tornadus-T gets annihilated with an Iron Tail. At this point, in the battle I wanted to get as much switch initiative/momentum as possible to ensure my cleaners can easily win the battle since no Staraptor and M-Gyarados weren't there surprisingly enough, however not only do I lose Tornadus-T, Latias fails to OHKO with a Psyshock as she receives a critical Extreme Speed damage. 

After Lucario dies to its own Life Orb, I just realized how much momentum and resources  I'd lost from that exchange from the Fighting/Steel-type. In my head, I honestly felt Swampert was coming in on the switch for Lucario to tank a Sacred Sword from Doublade and wanted to prevent Stealth Rock on my side of the field. Instead, we lose one of our win cons, Doublade is chipped a bit, and Latias can no longer "revenge kill" Mamoswine.  As Lucario died from LO, I setup to +2 in case Mamoswine or Togetic were brought in as both now look like strong opposition. Fortunately enough, Doublade gets a "lucky" break  by doing half damage to a Swampert with a +2 Shadow Sneak via a critical hit of my own as it takes an EQ. As Doublade is switched out to Latias, Swampert also switches in place of Mamoswine and now I'm in a tough spot. Nothing on my team wants to take on Mamoswine from full as I felt the best way to beat it was to bait a Ice-move on an Empoleon switch (also serving as a sack), activate the Shuca Berry, and kill with Scald + Aqua Jet. The plan almost worked, except Empoleon gets hits by a Superpower instead to faint. Despite these small set back, thanks to the defense drops, and Life Orb hits, Weavile can come in. 

Next couple of turns both Weavile and Latias beat both Mamoswine and Swampert respectively which now it seems like the battle is almost over...or not. Remember when I didn't prepare for Togetic at all? Well this comes to bite me in the ass. Togetic proves to be incredibly defensive as I cannot OHKO it with the proper attacks. Originally, my thought process was "Oh this thing has to carry Defog, some support options, and maybe Dazzling Gleam. No big deal". Seeing Seismic Toss, I became convinced it Togetic couldn't touch Doublade with anything, except when our Week 2 MVP dies to a Flamthrower. Now I'm actually legit worried and sorta "choke". Since Latias doesn't have Recover, Leftovers, or even something like Ice Beam or Thunder Bolt, I can't touch Togetic at all aside from Weavile. Then I sacked Chesnaught for no reasons. The only one I can think of getting into a decent position to win this battle was to "Roar" the Togetic into the Alakazam, have it kill Chesnaught, then "force" Mike to choice what to faint / cripple either Alakazam or Togetic with Knock Off from Weavile. At one point, I should have continued using Psyshock against the Togetic, but I wanted to avoid a scenario where if Ice Shard (my only Ice-type attack this week) doesn't kill that the Fairy can get either a Crit / Burn to seal the game for Mike. The game does in fact comes down to this scenario, to switch thankfully Weavile doesn't get burnt /crit and finishes the game for the Nidokings in a 1-0 close match. 

Afterthoughts

This battle goes to show why sometimes its might be better off to go with the safe plays instead of making over predictions which can almost cost the battle. I'll definitely give Mike credit for giving the Nidokings surprisingly one of the hardest battles we've every fought to date with his plays. Not bringing both Mega Gyarados or Staraptor really confused me at first, but I realized the Nidokings had ways to deal with everything else except for the Togetic in the end. Originally, I wanted to have Ice Punch on Weavile for a stronger Ice STAB, but felt that Knock Off was going to be the better STAB option to spam. Would definitely have liked to have taken out the Focus Sash Alakazam via using Beat Up, however since Lucario was on Mike's team, it was a wasted moveslot. Typically most Lucarios have Justified for their ability since they resist Dark-type attacks and can a get a +`1 boost. If...Lucario switched in as Weavile went for Beat Up, our team would have been easily counter swept and would have lost for sure.

Though I already alluded to this, Ice Punch was the stronger STAB option for Togetic, a Pokemon I ranked as the last Pokemon to bring  for this matchup, yet did moderately well. Definitely there was a moderate degree of RNG in Mike's favor, the the only one that mattered was the Special Defense drop from Shadow Ball. If this never occurred, either the Nidokings get up Stealth Rocks, or break the potential Focus Sash on Zam. There was one turn where Doublade could have stayed in on the Swampert and go for Sacred Sword on the Mamoswine switch, but fearing the Scald burn or crit, we were forced to switch to Latias. The only other preparation I could have done was give Tornadus-T an AV and a bulkier EV Spread to take on Alakazam, though this was changed to Life Orb to 1) faint Swampert / Mamoswine with Grass Knot and 2) if in case Alakazam had Life Orb Psyshock which can heavily damage or OHKO Tornadus-T

Either way, given the amount of RNG that was occurring made me play safer than I should have, which in turn lost me a considerable amount of momentum we'd gained after knocking out Roserade Turn 1.  The reason why we were able to "win" this battle was by making aggressive plays again to give ourselves a good chance for the endgame. The endgame of this battle is something I really want to avoid the following rounds of the CIL Mike's best chance to win was either Crit or burn the Weavile, and I knew it was going to come down to this exact scenario (only difference could be doing this early) once Doublade fainted to a crit Flamethrower. Definitely we have to give my opponent credit for making safe and yet aggressive plays which benefited him more in the late game by removing both Tornadus-T, Empoleon, and Chesnaught. 

Will admit the critical hits in the battle especially towards the end almost got to me, but I kinda had to "deal with it". One last thing that almost occurred in that battle, but thankfully didn't was my laptop crashing just 2 minutes after both me and Mike already done the battle. If this situation would have occurred "earlier", the Nidokings would have lost the game especially if this happen in the last couple turns. Since I'm posting this page on late Friday, my "computer issues" have been mitigated to where my laptop doesn't randomly freezes or hangs, though I'm likely going to get a new one for myself this summer. Regardless good game to Mike as he gave us the most difficult battle yet. Next week we'll be battling Fiona of the The Whirlwinds (which did happen), so expect that post to be up by Monday of next week. In the meantime, take care everyone. 

CIL Regular S2W2: VS Sanyer

Deviant Art by pochyy


Preview

Not much to say in this preview, aside the fact the Nidokings are coming off a 5-0 win against Mighty Mamoswine or Nick after an intense game. If anyone hasn't seen the battle, I'll leave a link to my side of the battle which should have the showdown replay as well. Our next opponent this week is against Sanyer of the Pinsirs whose got an impressive 4-0 win from against Mike of the Net Balls. While division battles do matter in the long run, I still can't let our guard down. At the same time, we want to try and win these upcoming games without having to rely or make it come down to RNG.  On a final note, these CIL post will be based on an Week by Week singular posts instead of having 3 battles covered in one. I felt this these post should be as short as possible and can help out in content here on the site. Take my recent update post, honestly that update page along should have been reduced to 3-5 individual posts based on an actual update to Faraway Island, League Battles, and the explanation of the lack of VGC content. Basically I'll try to avoid scramming battles in for now on, except for the PFA Regular Season 3 which is currently in the works.  Now its time to get into CIL Week 2. 

CIL Week 2 Vs The Pinsirs

The Pinsirs: Mega Pinsir, Clefable, Keldeo, Jirachi, Cresselia, Thundurus-T, Entei, Hitmontop, Kyurem, Dugtrio, Zoroark 

The Nidokings: Charizard X, Latias, Suicune, Weavile, Tornadus-T, Nidoking, Doublade, Chesnaught, Eelektross, Diancie, Uxie.

Looking at Sanyer's team, there were kinda similarities I came across his team and Adrive's NPA team with maybe some better cores given the small nature of the CIL league. Entei, Thundurus-T, and Cresselia were all threats that can take on our Nidoking team provided they are given the proper setup / scenarios. Jirachi / Clefable / Cresselia / Hitmontop make up Sanyer's main wall core as the main offense of his team were again Entei, Thundurus-T, Kyurem, Keldeo, and Mega Pinsir. To round off the last two, both Dugtrio and Zoroark posed interesting challenge as Dugtrio can revenge kill most of my team thanks to the Arena Trap ability while Zoroark can disguise itself as one of Sanyer's team and can threaten some of the main Pokemon I'd plan on bringing. In sum, the Pinsir's team looked really frightening at first to face, but I noticed some exploitable flaws which were going to be the main keys to success. To start off, most of his team main offense were weak to Stealth Rocks, and Hitmontop was the only hazard removal on his team. If I can get rid of Hitmontop, or prevent it from spinning most of the game, then we can potentially hazards stack the Pinsir with a combination of Stealth Rocks and Toxic Spikes. Despite the lack of hazard removal, the Pinsir's surpassed my own team with overall bulk and defense so they can potentially recover off the damage with a clerics (Jirachi/Clefable), and a great wall in Cresselia. 

One thing I noted about his "wall core" was that it was weak to one Pokemon in particular and arguably the best Pokemon to bring this battle: Doublade. Of course, Cresselia can Trick Doublade an item, Clefable has Flamethrower, Hitmontop can use Foresight to get the spin, and Jirachi is ...well Jirachi (but it has coverage options). Back then Uxie was still on my team as well and it can work decently well to get rocks up, paralyze some stuff, Knock Off items, or even use Foul Play to punish physical setup. Latias was just a standard attacker without any Defog support, but with Healing Wish to maintain my sweepers, Weavile made for an excellent cleaner as soon most of Sanyer's team is low or moderate HP so it had to come. Finally, we brought Nidoking this battle, but not just any Nidoking. This Nidoking was a physical one with Adamant Life Orb Sucker Punch, Poison Jab, EQ, and finally Toxic Spikes to pressure the opposing team. 

Regarding the last two Pokemon: Charizard X and Doublade. Both of these guys can sweep the opposing team with ease assuming I'm able to scout for any potential coverage moves. Charizard X only had Flare Blitz as its main attack given even resisted targets like Keldeo and Entei can take only one before being 2HKOed. Doublade on the other hand was specially defensive to take advantage of the Eviolite and tank at least some strong STAB special hits. Lastly, Sword Dance / Toxic +2 attack was what I went with this battle to optimize Doublade for any situation to check Cress or potentially sweep.

The Battle: Bike's Radiant Dawn 

The Pinsir's Team: Mega Pinsir, Cresselia, Jirachi, Thundurus-T, Hitmontop, Clefable
Our LA Nidokings: Mega Charizard X, Weavile, Latias, Doublade, Nidoking, Uxie

The match starts off slow on my end with a Uxie facing a Jirachi first turn. While Toxic Spikes won't hurt Jirachi, Thunder Wave can prevent it from flinching my faster teammates the rest of the battle. Sanyer quickly recalls Jirachi via U-Turn for Cresselia as I paralyze the moon duck...goose... moon thing. After getting up Stealth Rocks and receiving a Toxic by Cress,  Uxie goes for the Knock Off, to which Jirachi switches in, and I remove the Choice Scarf. Early on, I decided to pull the trigger and get Charizard's Mega Evolution off ASAP since Jirachi might not have any coverage option for Char X. As Sanyer switches to Clefable, I setup a Substitute  with Charizard X and attempt to 1v1 the MVP from last season. From this exchange, Char X does about 50% damage to the bulky Fairy-type, but Clefable gets up Stealth Rocks in the process for the rest of the battle. This is valuable information given Clefable might only have Moonblast, Rocks, Soft-boil, and one last coverage/setup move.  Hitmontop switches in, but Charizard X gets to full HP. Eventually Charizard X is switched out for Doublade to spinblock and wall the Fighting-type. Hitmontop switches out to Clefable as I go for the No Guard Toxic (hooray for never missing), though I discover Clefable is Magic Guard instead of Unaware. In my planning, Unaware Clefable was a moderate threat to the team as it ignores stat boosts, however I note it cannot take repeated Flare Blitz attacks from my Mega especially if boosted.

However this was a great time to get up the Toxic Spikes, as Nidoking can force the switch for Cresselia, while Nidoking can safely get these hazards up for the remainder of the battle. The plan goes exactly as is and then I decide to send in my Doublade. At one point, I do catch the Clefable off guard with an Iron Head and pick it off with a follow-up Shadow Sneak to give myself a bit of momentum. Thundurus-T is sent out and there were some thoughts that go to mind: do I switch to Latias or Charizard X. Despite Stealth Rocks being on the field, Charizard X easily tanks a Knock Off from Thundurus-T (likely for Latias), also revealing the Life Orb. Again Charizard X recovers off the damage as Hitmontop is sent out, probably to again attempt to spin. As protocol, Doublade is sent out and at this point.... I wanted to setup for a sweep. Before the endgame was initiated, I scouted for any super-effective attacks, and Hitmontop has Sucker Punch, but does around 18%. Now Doublade can potentially "stall" the Hitmontop's low HP and go for repeated Sword Dances to end the game.

By the time Sanyer realized Doublade was about to sweep, it was honestly a bit too late. Thundurus-T, Hitmontop, and soon Jirachi all faint to a +3 Shadow Sneak with the help of hazards and getting the necessary damage off. Mega Pinsir is sent out, but gets both poisoned and hit with Stealth Rocks. After doing a quick calculation, two +3 Shadow Sneaks can OHKO Mega Pinsir. The thought of going for Latias did occur, but I didn't want to risk letting Mega Pinsir setup to give Sanyer an potential out. Doublade does about half to Mega Pinsir, as it gets hit with an EQ, which doesn't do as the necessary damage to OHKO. Now at this point, Doublade picks off Mega Pinsir, and finally Cresselia (with a crit) to end the battle in our first 6-0 of the season. 

Afterthoughts

To be completely honest, this is as close to executing our game plan as we'll possible get in this season after winning in a 6-0 fashion. After the battle, I did chat with Sanyer regarding the outcome and he admitted not preparing for Doublade was a mistake during team building. From the moment Doublade was sent in for the third time, everything on Sanyer's team was weaken enough to switch I felt it was time to pull the trigger to sweep. Both Thundurus-T and Jirachi were still threats to  my team during this stage of the battle,  but fortunately enough, these legends were low to the point +3 Shadow Sneak can easily pick them off. Once Pinsir was sent out, I eventually decided to "sack" my Doublade to allow either Weavile or Latias to revenge kill the Mega. There was a chance a crit Earthquake can OHKO  given the Doublade spread I'd given it, with only HP and Special Defense investments to take on the special attackers easier. Essentially speaking, I'd wanted to close the battle as quickly as possible without losing too many Pokemon for differential purposes, while giving myself a 100% end game in my favor. 

This battle might have been different if Sanyer brought Kyurem and Entei since both easily threaten most of my offensive walls and pressured probably my only wall in Uxie. I'd intend to match the Pinsir's offense with my own, though the fact Sanyer brought the bulkier side of the roster instead of the offensive made it slightly easier for my main threats to maneuver around. Sanyer definitely prepped for most of the threats on my team, however what gave me the advantage was maintaining the Stealth Rocks and Toxic Spikes to further weaken the Pinsir roster. In short, Doublade's offensive and defensive qualities were showcased this battle and easily was the MVP on my end. If I really wanted to, Latias could have used Healing Wish to recover Doublade's HP to the point where it can easily 1v1 the paralyzed Cresselia, but at the time I'd rather sake Doublade for someone like Weavile or Char X to get the last kill. 

Well good game to Sanyer as this was honestly not a result even I'd expected at all. Sanyer did have the roster to beat the squad I had prepared for, however Doublade was the X factor. With that, the Nidokings now have a 2-0 record with the highest differential of the early season. This does mean people are going to prepare for me far more than maybe other people in the league given our standings. Next round, the Nidokings face against the Net Balls coached by Mike who is currently 0-2, however this doesn't mean we can't take our opponent's lightly. I'll definitely make sure we can have an engaging battle while maintaining the streak. 

CIL Regular S2W1: VS Mighty Mamoswine

Deviant Art by Ocaritna

Preview

Now that the Los Angeles Nidoking have drafted the team selection, I'd like to review some of the major rules of the league first off. To start, players have 2 weeks to do their "week 1" battles within that time frame, otherwise they will suffer a -3 drop in their own differential if they don't do the battle as planned. Of course anyone can maintain arrangements, I still have to be vigilant about this rule considering this "almost" bite me in the ass in one game (will say later). Transactions in this league start within Week 2 and end Week 6, so essentially anyone has an ample amount of time to arrange trades with people and do free agent transactions. At the time writing this piece, the Los Angeles Nidokings have made 3 trades/FA pickups so there will be a brief explanation on these Pokemon and why I feel they better "synergize" with the overall team. On one final note, I'm not going to be sharing my EV spreads and movesets, but I'll say whatever relevant information and sets which helped me win the game. Any Pokemon sets or moves not shown or revealed chance are won't be discussed at all for potentially using it in a future battle. All my opponent's teams will be posted here with a bold emphasis on the exact six Pokemon they brought. With all that said aside, lets begin the Week 1 recap of the CIL regular season.

 As a last minute decision, I decided to divided these segments into individual weeks to avoid having lengthy posts from like the past 4 post now. Here we won't cover the Celebi or Empoleon transactions since I've already cover this and why the Nidokings made those transactions. Without further delay, here's CIL Week 1!

Week 1: vs Mighty Mamoswine  

The Blazikens: Mega Venusuar, Tyranitar, Talonflame, Landorus-I, Blastiose, Azelf, Sableye, Dragalge, Gardevoir, Mienshao, Gyarados

The first opponent of the CIL is actually one of the more accomplished players in the Draft-style format and one of the GBA Analyst in Mighty Mamoswine or Nick. Automatically, our opponent was going the most difficult by far the Nidokings have faced given I've only done this league stuff with members of the former Flynn/Replay/Forum community while not some as seasoned as Nick is. Having to battle someone who's actually was part of the GBA (well at least in operations and D-League) for me could help improve my outlook into this format as Nick isn't a slouch by being in the finals in the D-League and more recently here in the CIL. Looking at the Blaziken's team, Nick has a plethora of threats from offensive wall breakers, revenge killers, versatile walls/pivots, and great defensive synergy going with the Mega Venusaur. Landorus stuck out as a sore thumb given I know how dangerous it can be with its Sheer Force-boosted attacks, setup options, and wall breaking capability. Tyranitar was the only other Pokemon I kinda feared given its versatility of being a wall, a scarfer, choice band user, setup, or an all-out attacker set. Talonflame was the other threat I feared from his team as if I didn't have proper checks to Flying and the bird can beat out this team assuming I let the main checks go down. Everything else I kinda felt like most of my team can handle them assuming if they can take the hits or 

For the battle, well the team I brought was a Colbur Berry Latias, "semi-standard"  Diancie, a CM Suicune with Roar, defensive Chesnaught (again strange moveset), Weavile, and our specially defensive AV Pivot Tornadus-T. Most of these Pokemon where designed to handle some of the more specially oriented members of the Blaziken team such as the Gardevoir, Mega Venusaur, and even the Landorus-I. One thing to note is the lack of Charizard X on this team given I felt Nick would have some kinda of revenge and/or walls that can tank such hits like the Tyranitar, Landorus-T, Talonflame, or even the Gyarados. The plan was attempt to were down Nick's team with our own to the point where Weavile can revenge kill or clean up the battle in the end. Latias can also do this, however I felt given it was my only Defog user Nick would very likely bring Tyranitar with Pursuit. The only Pokemon which honestly felt out of place was Diancie but it was the main check to Talonflame. The Diancie even had Lum Berry max attack to net the kill on Talonflame assuming Nick tries to burn it via Will-O-Wisp. 

CIL Week 1: The Stubborn Chesnaught
(Note: Will give a title to the battles from here on out)

The Blaziken Team: Landorus-I, Tyranitar, Talonflame, Sableye, Gyarados, and Azelf

Our Team: Latias, Weavile, Suicune, Chesnaught, Diancie, Tornadus-T

Even after the battle was over, I still kinda shocked there was no Mega Venusaur given it could act as a semi-decent wall against me. Maybe the same thoughts occurred to Nick but who knows. One important observations was the lack of Blastiose as it was Nick's only hazard removal Pokemon plus he has a Talonflame, therefore getting rocks up fast was a priority Anyways the first turns, we were able a slight edge with the Scald burn on the Sableye and knock out Azelf with the Beat Up Weavile to break the save and the potential Colbur Berry. The early to middle stages of the match, Gyarados became a slight problem as it turns out Nick was running Rest-Talk with Dragon Tail to counter the potential Char X.  Fortunately Chesnaught completely walled his defensive Gyarados as we continuously countered the Dragon Tail phaze with Leech Seeds. At Turn 11, I tried to predict the Talonflame given his aggressive plays and revealed the Rock Slide which from that point on Nick never swapped in his revenge killer until possibly the late game. Latias does enter the battle to attempt to force out the Gyarados to the Lati counter Tyranitar. On that switch out, I Thunder Waved the Tyranitar (will come to play later on), attempted to switch freely before being caught by the Pursuit T-tar. Thanks to the Colbur Berry, Latias is free to enter the battle again for a option Healing Wish option. 
 
The Chesnaught - Gyarados stalemate continued on which there were points where we both kinda had enough by sending in our best mons (Suicune for me and Landorus for Nick), and as a result both were severely weaken. Honestly, the main turning point of the battle was Turn 22 when Gyarados "missed" a Dragon Tail on my Chesnaught since I still have all 5 mons with me and any Pokemon he swapped for anyone of them. Funny enough Diancie got Dragon Tailed out like about 2 times this battle. Later on, Suicune gets weaken by Tyranitar from a defense drop and Nick punishes my switch by using Pursuit again. I switched into Diancie figuring this Pokemon was useless at this range of HP, except I go for the Endeavor and attempt a Healing Wish to my Suicune from Latias. Nick goes into Sableye to block the Endeavor and honestly we both go down to a Moonblast and a Wisp since Diancie was below 1/8th HP.  

Given Nick got a free switch, I'm kinda forced into Chesnaught as if he switches into Talonflame, I'm kinda lose Latias to a Brave Bird. Tyranitar switches in and now I kinda regret not having a Fighting or Grass-type attack this battle since Tyranitar has Fire Blast which would do enough damage to 2HKO. On Turn 32, Chesnaught goes for Leech Seed, connect, but Nick's Tyranitar misses honestly a crucial Fire Blast. Still fearing the Talonflame switch in, I decide to play the odds by going for the para flinch with the Fire Blast miss chance to which his Tyranitar gets paralyzed again. With Tyranitar gone, Talonflame finally enters the battlefield and I knew these turns would decided the battle as well as the sets we both brought for our respected Pokemon. Chesnaught continuously Rock Slides the Talonflame as it continues to roost off the damage with the help the leftovers. Seeing the Leftovers animation, the Talonflame could be some specially defensive setup set so that's worth noting. 

Finally on turn 32, Talonflame attempts to Sword Dance as Chesnaught catches the Fire-/Flying bird with a Rock Slide, OHKOing the biggest threat to the team. Without any major walls aside Gyarados to protect it, a 52% Landorus-I was Nick's best chance at winning the battle. Chesnaught was offered as a sack to an HP Flying / Ice, but strangely enough it lives by 16%. With Landorus getting lower in HP, Gyarados is sent out on the Spikey Shield, however now Chesnaught can easily spam Leech Seeds the remainder of the battle. On the last Dragon Tail, Gyarados "conveniently" phazes out Chesnaught for my Weavile, though I think we both knew the battle was over given  All I had to do was get in Weavile safely even from a Dragon Tail so it can clean up the team with an Ice Punch and Ice Shard to end the game.

Afterthoughts

Despite the LA Nidokings getting their first CIL win on a 5-0, the battle was far closer than it was given how damaged most of my Pokemon were or were about to be on via rocks entry. For sure, if Nick had Brave Bird the Chesnaught at any given point and OHKOed, I think it was his match to win from there. Getting those unfortunate Fire Blast miss and the Paralysis on consecutive turns made this battle far difficult for Nick to kill the Chesnaught, as I'm certain any chip damage would be good enough for the Brave Bird knock out. From the double knock out, I wanted to get a free switch for Latias to get a Healing Wish off for Suicune since it could take on Tyranitar, Landorus-I, and even Talonflame with near full HP investment and a potential CM or two. I still defend going into Chesnaught instead of Latias as I thought he'd switch out for the Talonflame and maybe I could have gotten the prediction Rock Slide call there. Then again all these hypothetical scenarios have the potential RNG factor whether its on my end or Nick's.

To be fair, Nick was a really offensive battler based on all the plays he was making with the double switches, the pursuits trap calls, and even the attempted Sword Dance towards the end. I don't take anything away from Nick at all and can see why he's one of the main analysts for the GBA League. Again the score doesn't reflect upon how great of a battle this was against the two of us as it basically came down to one turn. Meanwhile I did in fact "risk" the third Fire Blast attack on Chesnaught since I felt he'd still switch into the bird and the odds based on the miss, flinch, and paralysis chance were in my favor. Had Chesnaught taken damage, I'd would have sent in Latias to Healing Wish the Suicune and the game would came down to a 3v4 essentially but with Landorus, Gyarados, Talonflame, and Tyranitar at low to moderate HP. 

Either way, I have a strong feeling this won't be the only encounter we'll due battle in the CIL until possibly the playoffs, assuming we both make it in. Nick was in the Finals of the CIL so chances are this will be the case in the forseeable future. Next time, I'll cover my battle with Sanyer1124 of the his Pinsirs team. You don't want to miss out on the outcome of me vs Sanyer in the next CIL post.

Faraway Island Reflections: Major Updates & Personal Thoughts

Wonder where Mew is hiding...?

Preview

Before I go and discuss anything further regarding what's been on my mind lately, this is going a rather stretched out than it should be. Might overdo this update, however this has long been overdue considering my absence for the past say 3-4 months until releasing the PFA S2 Finals page mid-April. Most of my time was devoted to finishing the last weeks of the friendly PFA league strong, team building for a potential VGC IRL run  (which failed), making new posts for Pokemon Forever, and other IRL obligations. Unfortunately, I can't discuss every IRL issues here given I don't feel ready to discuss all of these problems to the general public. If there's anything to reflect upon, it's mainly one cannot expect to do things at certain times when 1) there's a lack of motivation, 2) know one's limits, and 3) to plan / schedule ahead. This is where the update post comes in, I'm going to discuss what to expect from me for this page whether its Competitive Pokemon, Sun / Moon News, opinions pieces, Draft-style league events like PFA/CIL, maybe some VGC/Smogon team posts, and etc. 

Funny enough, this update post should have been posted at around last week, however due to a series of laptop crashes and failures (likely on my end), it made me so stressed out to the point I'd said, "fuck it" and gave up. Eventually I'd came to my senses and asked some of my friends from PFA to help. Before continuing forward, shout-outs to ItalianG62 for alleviating these issues to the point I can at least type this post since my 3 year old laptop would crash at any random point. Aside from informing everyone of this, I wanted to start off with that story more so as one of many events have sorta frustrated me to the point you'd give up one the issue and either move on, or in some way deal with it later. If there's one thing I'd learn from that, I need to seek out help when needed and set myself with a clear mindset on what to do on a daily basis.

Faraway Island is not an obligatory thing for me to do, nor am I going to ignore it, or make broken promises of writing 4-5 posts per month since by now I've realized that's no longer a foreseeable constant. For now on, this site will only have at least two posts per month, as minimum with at least one of them being relative to Competitive Pokemon of any fashion. Personally, I'm only working on posting content on this site so everyone can see how much work and involvement I put into arguably my favorite series and competitive format (at least related to esports or other similar competitions). These new posts will be far more polished out and straight to the point, than potential detailing my entire thought processes for say a team build or matchups. If there's any sorta delay, I'll try to make it up for everyone with an extra post or two for the following months, though I'll don't want to get burnt out from making these write-ups.

Now that I've gotten most of the "main news" out of the way, I'd like to discuss and share of my thoughts on certain subject matters since these are the only things that have kept me invested into the greater online Pokemon community. These things might be discuss once in a while when I feel like writing these topics, though the personal opinion posts will not surpass any of the competitive posts.  With all this said, here's the topics I'll be discussing below: VGC, Pokemon Forever, PFA/CIL, and close off with some statements.

VGC: Why the Lack of Content?

 

At first, I started out out this format with eager to test out potential new teams and began using a Yveltal-Groudon team, which surprisingly enough now became semi-standard by the time writing this post. Then I'd moved on from that team and worked on a Ray-Orge team that's now been published on Pokemon Forever. Honestly the Ray-Orge team was fun for a time until people started to run better answers for it. By the time it was early March, I noticed most of my online friends and an increasing number of VGC players were upset about certain aspects of the format whether its was the "potential" bans on Smeargle/Dark Void, dealing with "Big Six", arguments concerning RNG, overuse of  "Legendary Pokemon". Though a good number of people "left" from participating in the format for these reasons, I also had my reasons as well. What changed my motivation to play VGC 16 was the lack of incentive to do so and personal support to go to events. Based on my location, there aren't as many PCs/events where I live while even if I tried to "schedule" one for myself , I still haven't gotten the full support from my overall family to even attend an event simply on the notion I should focus on more "important" issues which I've argued with but eventually came to an understanding.

Originally, I wanted to compete at Anaheim Regionals where Cybertron eventually won, but the lack of income at the time and slight poor economic situation compared to now made me more "stressed" than what I already was. Of course, one can make arrangements prior (like months beforehand) to attend such events, however for me there's always something that prevents a good experience. For my age, I should have the necessary finances, the resources, and even time available to compete or make an attempt, however I don't have any of those... yet. On one last note, I almost quit playing Pokemon entirely around mid-February simply because I'd became more stressed about attending than doing well (didn't expect to have a positive record... at least). Least just say attempting to have a "serious conversation" with IRL people in your life about a game you played isn't the best way to reason with them. 

To be fair, I don't fault my family at all, rather myself. I should have known better to have seriously consider a possibly first time VGC run without understanding the full implications and responsibility one has to bear. Yes these things can be managed. Even I know VGC players who EV train their Pokemon while going to their local events. Chances are I 100% have to make all my necessary teams before a certain deadline, charge my 3DS to avoid any "Red Flashes", have the money to book a room, have the money and other expenses to pay for like a ride back and forth (yes I don't own a car). I know these are things people eventually get use to over time, however I'm a modest person who maybe wants to aim high, yet fall short. Aside from playing on the Battle Spot Special and Showdown ladder, these are things I typically don't even think about, however I simply don't know how to prepare honestly. Guess the main takeaway my family was telling me all this time was to have a plan, yet I have myself to blame for not starting one. 

Long story short: stress, finances, conflict scheduling with work, and "personal conflicts" kinda forced me to drop VGC 16 out of my plate of formats to play starting early March. I don't fault anyone from my family since the were being mindful of what I typically do in these type of events. This doesn't mean that I given up on the format entirely, as I occasionally give advice I could give to people, follow "start-up" / dedicated VGC channels like Wolfey, Baz Anderson, Kyle Cole, and of course Cybertron. Only recently these past few weeks (Late May) I started taking interest again with seeing a Groudon-Yveltal team from Arash Ormmati and spike in interest following the recent Spring Regional /National events to at least do some Showdown battles. For now, VGC 16 will mostly be a side course here given I don't if people will take interest in what teams I post or my insight (though can't say much regarding what happen between March to Late May). If in case there's a VGC 16 team I "casually" ladder with gets high on the rankings on Showdown, maybe I'll focus on doing a write up in the near future with team explanations. 

Guess the best way to think of this is as an "extended" break until the conditions are right for me to start competing later in the year or the start of the new VGC meta likely based on Sun/Moon. One thing I didn't mention throughout the this segment is how I feel about the format. Personally, there are certain issues were that should have been addressed at some point (Dark Void/Moody), however I follow the rules and won't complain for now. As far as any metagame trends, I haven't paid attention to what's been going on during the time I took a break mainly because the slight increase in stress / depression, work, and League Format (though I enjoy doing these). Now I won't describe what's been going on lately, but for now things better than they were back the beginning of the year.

 Pokemon Forever Sun & Moon Timeline

One of the things I've noticed since doing this long update post is my lack of presence or minor absence in the Pokemon Forever community. Aside GMX, Marcusube, Mudkiplegend, and others, there were few people who posted about VGC 16 or bother mostly because the community isn't too fond of the format. Though there's a small minority who look for my advice for assistance, I feel as though I can't offer the best help since I didn't bother even on the Showdown VGC ladder from March to May. Now the forum community is invested either in working on their own personalized teams for any formats, trading for certain Pokemon, and discussing ideas or news like Pokemon Sun and Moon. With the main community's attention now focused on the eventual released of Sun / Moon, I wanted to focus on making blogposts and even forming a group on Skype/Discord to discuss anything regarding the new games. 

Recently, I came across an idea to make a Pokemon Sun / Moon Timeline of all the major events courtesy from information from the official Pokemon company, the main Japanese affiliates, Game Freak / Nintendo, and to an extend from the fan sites like Serebii / Poke Jungle / Poke Beach. What motivated me to work on this timeline was to have all the relevant information all in one posts (or thread) and have people discuss about their thoughts and ideas regarding any news or rumors.  At the time writing this blog, we've only gotten the following relevant information: a confirmed new generation (Gen 7), the Alola region (based on the Hawaiian Islands), the Alola Starters, first looks at the legendary "sun / moon" Pokemon (based on a lion and  bat / dreamcatcher) and tons of minor screenshots of the new features and towns. Not going to go on an explain each details, however I'd like to focus more so on making updates to the thread there so people can get notified of potential new information.

For now, my time in the Pokemon Forever community will be reserved mostly helping people around as possible (though avoiding trades), assisting people for any concerns regarding their teams, or anywhere else in general. For sure, when Pokemon Sun / Moon information gets released monthly, I'll try to "report" on the matter to the forums so anyone can all have a great discussions about what our impressions and hopes for these games. Eventually, I'll make an overall summary and opinion / review posts about what I feel about the games as we get more information, though I still think this is somewhat lacking compared to how much we got from the entry of XY. Chances are anyone reading this will get to see my opinions on the timeline first, though they might change over time. 

Draft Leagues: PFA

 

Art by Moozika

If there's one thing that's honestly helped me continue playing Pokemon at a competitive level, its by watching all these draft-style leagues become increasingly more popular with the exposure from the GBA, UCL, NPA, etc. After the disband of the first PFA league, one of my online friends by the name of MudkipLegend decided to host a second season with all the notable players from the Pokemon Forever and greater JFlynn community. The second season was a success as the LA Nidokings managed to win the first title and eventually MudkipLegend had asked for my help to organize the third season. Most of the season 2 people eventually along as fortunately it only took a few weeks to transition from season 2 to the draft. While I won't explain what happen at the draft (though in due time), there was an increased level of competitions with Alec, ItalianG62, GingerxPug and newcomers like PxGKashHoward, Improved MetaKnight, MarsxVenom, Marcusube, and other people within the Pokemon Forever community. 

 During this time, I'd worked on improving on what we had for the Pokemon Forever Association League spreadsheets into a centralized hub where people can look at all the records, teams, progression, rules, team stats, etc. It was mine as well as everyone's endeavor to make this league as "legitimized" as possible while retaining our roots of having simple competitive battles. To be honest, Season 3 of the PFA League is definitely the best season by far given how people do take the time off their days to prepare for their match ups and still have some level of friendly competition. Now the league is at the end of Week 13 and heading to the fourteenth, or second to last one before the top cut hits around mid June. Everyone I've talked with at least seems fine about how the league is going and anything else is mostly legitimize criticism of how playoff seedings and placements would measure (currently being resolved).

The lack of PFA team analysis and updates here has been dry given how much involvement I've partake from adding stat totals on a daily basis to preparing my own teams. If there is one advantage to this is someone like myself can get to study the patterns of Pokemon usage from each team and have a feeling regarding what they'll likely bring. As far as the current season for the LA Nidokings are doing, I do have the best record with 13-1 only losing to MudkipLgend in a close 0-1 loss which is fine by me. The Nidokings have already clinched playoffs, the top seed, and the best record by now and all we have to do is finish strong. In practicality, I'm surprising not taking the league as "seriously" compared to last season since I usually attempt to "analyze" the ... after-game, or explain to myself what I could have done better.  Though this type of talk is ok, I decided not to pursue this as much given my work / personal schedule and having this same conversation with other PFA members. 

Aside from playoffs, we are looking to expand /improve the quality of the league this upcoming Season 4, likely to drop this July though I'm not sure the exact schedule as well as who's coming back. There are only 14 people in this league and we want to bring that number up by 16, though with certain people leaving, I believe we'll be looking for around 3-6 new players in the PFA. There's major ruleset and draft changes that are being scheduled at this time, though it probably best not to share until I have a "final draft" of the new PFA document. If there's any information I can give out to the public, the PFA, or the name of the league will change to something that fits our current community of people from Skype, Discord, the Pokemon Forever forums, the late Replay community, and others.What the exact name will be I don't know, however there will be an update post for the PFA Season 4 on this blog soon. 

Looking back at our season, there might be an overall draft + regular season summary in the future considering my current LA Nidoking team is drastically different than the one I started with back in late February. This post won't go as in-depth and will be a quick rundown on what happen in those battles,the preparation taken, the key sets I ran, and finally what decided the outcome of the game.  Considering the PFA S3 regular season is far longer than the the Season 2 and all the teams I'd battled, this will be ...another lengthy post to describe the time from February to this June. Finally there will a Playoff / Reflections post like how I did with Season 2 so look forward to that. The LA Nidokings are looking to end with another strong season of great players from the community so this upcoming June will be interesting no doubt.

 

 Draft Leagues: CIL

As the Season 3 of the PFA comes to a close, the CIL Draft League is just heating up with the level of "casualness" (maybe that joke failed but don't care). At the moment, we are currently 3-0 and second in the league with only Hank the Pidgey having 2 differential points higher and the same record. Just like in the PFA, the Nidokings won't be an easily opponent to face as we head deeper into the regular season. While I'll admit my absence is noticeable in the CIL compared to the PFA,I do come by from time to time in the chat to the middle of a conversations, or likely in GIF exchanges. Honestly feel despite doing well in this league so far, I'm doing my part to at least converse with them with non-Pokemon related stuff, though I'd rather keep some, if not most of my private life to myself for now. Everyone in the league including Mudkip add their own unique experience and life (not IRL) to the league. Maybe I can't get the proper words to explain this, though the CIL league is far more fleshed out than some of the other leagues since everyone knows each other...maybe hate each other who knows? Well I won't over think this. 

Right now, the Nidokings have only used about 3 of their 5 overall transactions to improve the chance of success for our team with Diancie dropped for Empoleon, Uxie for Celebi, and lastly Tornadus-T for Sylveon. All I can say about maybe these trades is the fact that I can finally make a solid Fire-Water-Grass &Steel-Dragon-Fairy core with potentially 4 Pokemon by adding another viable Steel-type in Empoleon and a solid Fairy-type in Sylveon. As far as content goes, there will be summary post similar to how I did with my CIL Draft Analysis, however there's one major catch: there will be only 4 of them for the CIL regular season and maybe 1 last one for Playoffs / Reflections. For the first two posts, there will be a discussion of 3 weeks and as well as the transaction I've made. The final two posts will be rather short, but will run the same format as the previous two weeks detailing the battle preparations, battle analysis and final words about the week. 

There isn't really a whole ton to discuss about the CIL aside from the fact there will be one summary post of the starting three rounds as well as my transactions sections. Everyone in the league are honestly great people and I really hope to get to know them more as great friends in the online Pokemon community.

Closing Thoughts

Regardless if anyone skipped this point, that's basically a rundown of what happen during my time with the Pokemon community without getting too much in detail of my IRL stuff. There was a bit of guilt I felt the more I continued on with my day and not having anything for this site for almost 4 months. For now, Faraway Island will be far more flesh content from my end in the upcoming months especially for the summer. VGC for now I'm going to be taking a time off from this site until I feel like I have something to contribute whether its a team report, using certain play-styles, metagame trends in the recent Spring Regional events, etc. You're best bet for VGC content will be to search at the improved Nugget Bridge as they now host many blogsites of players with their teams and personal thoughts in detail. For my time in Pokemon Forever, I'll continue to post their and help with any advice people need regarding Pokemon and/or the competitive scene. 

As far as any personal actions, I've be updating the Pokemon Sun & Moon Timeline as I continue on throughout the following weeks. If anything, there will be an fleshed out opinion post regarding Sun & Moon in Late June  /Early July, however this will be on the information we know at this point. Both PFA and CIL content on my blog won't die down in the future, rather these section will vamped up with maybe 2 post planned out this next June. Finally I'm going to work hard to help or assist the PFA community as we go on, though I hope nothing serious causes any splits. 

One of the reasons why all of this information and details was arranged into this long post aside from my absence is I wanted to explain, or at least attempt to show that there will be future content for this page provided I'm around. This isn't an end to Faraway Island, rather a start of a new chapter in both my experience with the Pokemon community and myself in general. Thought anything from my IRL will always outweight these events, don't be mistaken as everyone I'm known in the Pokemon community have been great to interact with and I'm looking forward to continue this trend. 

CIL League (Draft Analysis, League Rules, Thoughts and More!)

(Krookodile is the Mascot...and for good reasons.)

Overview: The CIL League

During the second to last week of March, I came to the conclusion getting practice in another Draft-style leagues is beneficial for future successes in the format and try out new teams. Honestly went back and forth on this for a couple days until seeing a notice from the Casualness Intensifies League where they asked for new potential members to join via doing a survey. What changed my opinion about joining the CIL league was every "week" (maybe I'll refer to it as rounds)  were 2 full weeks and all the battle are on Showdown. Eventually the survey was done a couple days before the due date, however I had the impressions there was a good chance I wasn't going to be one of the new people picked for this season. Beforehand, I even told Mudkiplegend, the manager of the PFA about this and he joined for the same reasons to improve in draft league. 

 Later on the week, best case scenario happens we realized that both of us got accepted and learn the draft will be within a couple of days. The CIL draft was basically a snake-style format, however anyone can any tier and there was no limit to however amount of potential OU/RU/UU/NU mons in each team. What made  this draft a bit more interesting was it was an all-week draft given not everyone can draft on the a particular time.  On a final note, I found out our team had wheelbarrow picks so with the added time I could think of potential cores to draft for my team. 

Now here's a summary of the draft overall:

(Lots of Snipes... and yes I sniped this Gif from Kanto Cast Blue)

Ok honestly the way I see it, certain Pokemon like Manaphy or Victini weren't going to be pick late give most people have seen it in used by popular Youtubers before or notice a rise in any Pokemon viability in draft or Smogon. Again this was a long draft so everyone including myself included had sufficient time to chose any Pokemon to fit  for their team best. Afterward, nobody seemed too upset about their teams, rather everyone was curious how they work'd out in the upcoming weeks ahead. As for the LA Nidokings, well I feel really confident about this draft in particular given how much versatility I see in every Pokemon. Without any further delay, here's the LA Nidokings rooster for the CIL League.

TEAM

With the LA Nidokings getting the back-to-back picks for every turn until the very last pick, I knew this was a good opportunity to draft around potential cores I was familiar with going into this draft. Again I'd already expected to get some of my "pre-draft idea" picks chosen ahead given how I have to wait like a certain amount of turns. For the first two picks, I knew immediately I wanted 2 OU Pokemon that had versatility and can be reliable in every match I bring when needed.  By the time it was my turn, I still struggled in my head which Pokemon was better to draft, however one thing was extremely obvious. For any good draft team, they need Defog support that can ensure hazards aren't an issue in each game. 

Latias was the first Pokemon selected for the LA Nidokings mainly for said reason above while being a overall great utility with offensive support. For sure, everyone mostly picks her brother, Latios or the improved Mega Latias (which I was close to picking) in competititve battles, but the female Eon Dragon stuck out to me more than any other Pokemon in the draft. Aside from Defog support, Latias can serve as a special wall, a CM sweeper, a suicide Duel Screens with Healing Wish, a Scarf user, and defensive pivot, etc. Again the only reason why Latias was selected over her Mega option because I didn't want to have my main mega be a Defogger or reduced to potential defensive roles.    Not many people know this, but Latias as has a vast movepool aside from STAB moves (Draco Meteor, Psychic/Psyshock) with attacks like Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Earthquake, Energy Ball, Grass Knot, Surf, Calm Mind, Shadow Ball, Stored Power, etc. The range of support Latias gets is great with moves like Thunder Wave, Charm, Icy Wind, Magic Coat, Psycho Shift, Reflect Type, Tailwind, Wish, and of course both Defog and Healing Wish. On that last note, I think Healing Wish is fantastic in league format as it can allow a weaken Pokemon new life in the late game after they have already soften up the team. Latias can sacrifice herself in such a scenario to fully recover the teammate without any harmful status. Course this is a late game decision I have to make if Latias is truly expendable, otherwise chances are she won't be such roles as often than not. Honestly could have went with Mega Latias, however I felt having one Defog user as the primary Mega Evolution was a wasted slot especially if its the only one with hazard control. Latias can still hold any other held item it chooses each week for any particular situations she finds herself in. Guess this is what I meant by reliable right?

Like I'd said earlier, the first picks were going to be reliable Pokemon, which one of them had to be a great Mega Evolution to use throughout the season. There were a couple of Megas in mind (especially the ones that I didn't expect to go early), however one stuck out to the team more: Mega Charizard X. Now before anyone screams at me for saying Charizard X is weak in league play since every opponent will bring Stealth Rocks...well no shit. Like seriously... I expect that from my opponents to have or attempt to maintain Stealth Rocks on the field on a daily basis so that won't change. There's a couple things I'll add regarding Charizard X since I personally believe this Mega Evolution is one of the best in Singles and even in Draft-style play. To start off, Charizard X is one of the fiercest wallbreakers in the OU tier without question thanks to having a base 130 Attack, Tough Claws, powerful STABs, and the potential make a sufficient wall if needed.  What made me chose this Mega Evolution in the first place was how versatile it can be with the sets as well as maintaining offensive pressure. Everyone is familiar with the standard Dragon Dance variants with Flare Blitz, Dragon Claw, Earthquake, and Roost. Charizard can also setup with Sword Dance to ensure it can wall-break, Tailwind to outspeed any potential scarfers, and even Belly Drum which... might win me the game if my opponent can't revenge kill it. Funny enough, Charizard X still has a great physical movepool with attacks like Thunder Punch for Electric-types, Brick Break for Rock-types, Iron Tail for bulky Fairy-types, and even Quick Attack for priority. Even a defensive Charizard X with Will-O-Wisp can stop most physical attackers in their tracks as it attacks with STAB options or even setup for a sweep. Finally I like point out Charizard X has a usable base 130 Special Attack as well so I won't remove any mixed variants out of the question. Overall, Charizard X is a powerful Mega Evolution that can both close out games, and/or soften the opposing team to the point where other teammates can clean up. 

The third Pokemon on this list is actually my fourth round pickup, however since I both back-to-back selections, might as well explain my thought process for this one first. The LA Nidokings had 2 extremely powerful Dragon-type Pokemon and already I can see the potential for random Dragon-types or Ice-types taking about this team. Automatically I knew the team was in need of a potential revenge killer that can act as a scarecrow of sorts while being relatively fast. Then I noticed something, Weavile wasn't selected at all. If I select Weavile, this can remove a potential bad matchup against Latias/Charizard X while serve as an excellent revenge killer. Weavile is an dangerous Pokemon to face in the OU environment and league format its no different with STAB options like Knock Off, Icicle Crash, Ice Shard, Pursuit, Ice Punch, and a ton of other coverage. I'll leave the rest up to you since everyone know how strong Weavile is as a revenge killer. 


The fourth main Pokemon for the LA Nidokings was a Water-type I'd wanted to test out in awhile especially in Draft-style format: Suicune. At the time, I felt Suicune paired extremely well as the primary bulky Water-type given its synergy support from the past three members to beat/check Grass/Electric-type Pokemon. Obviously the most commonly used set for Suicune is the infamous CM Rest Talk with Scald give it is an excellent end game Pokemon to abuse in this format. Suicune also gave the team a vital Water-type Pokemon and an impressive wall with its base 100/115/115 defenses to tank any hits aside from powerful Grass/Electric attacks. Probably the best part about Suicune on this team is it can help against potential setup sweepers with Roar in case I need an emergency phaze option.  There are some other interesting options Suicune can learn, however I'd probably leave it for the future match-ups to see how effective it can be. One thing is for I definitely want Suicune to be engaged with the match ups and round I intend to bring it. 



The fifth selection for the LA Nidokings was honestly a Pokemon I personally don't have too much experience with, except it being the best offensive pivot switch Pokemon in the game: the pure Flying-type Tornadus-T. At first, Tornadus-T wasn't on my radar until I found out the CIL Draft wasn't tier based so Tornadus-T was free to be chosen if I where to chose it. What intrigued me about using Tornadus-T was pairing it with potential defensive wall cores I can draft in the later stages of the draft and especially with Latias and Suicune who both appreciate having a special pivot to absorb hits. What "makes" Tornadus-T such a threat is the Regenerator as it can always  recover about a third of its HP and a fast U-Turn to abuse this ability. The most notable Tornadus-T set is the Assault Vest to tank special hits to better while being a decent special attacker.  I'd like to point out is Tornadus-T gives Weavile a bit of breathing room by a being another base 120+ speed Pokemon that can outspeed most things in the format and give my team a strong fast mode. In short, I expect Tornadus-T to be a great addition to the team as a great momentum switch Pokemon who can replenish health, take pressure away from my walls, while be a great offensive response for opposing teams. 

For the sixth pick, the infamous Ghost/Steel-type who won GBA S4, Doublade was chosen primarily for a couple decisions aside fulfilling my primary Ghost slot, or aka the Spinblocker. In my opinion, Eviolite Doublade is on par with a couple other Eviolite Pokemon like Chansey or Porygon2 as the best defensive NFE Pokemon with the potential to wall teams or setup in front of their faces. Ghost/Steel-typing alone is the second-best defensive typing in the game and Doublade can use is astronomically boosted defense stats (from 59 HP / 150 Def / 49 SpDef) paired with a base 110 Attack, and the potential setup sweep with Sword Dance - Shadow Sneak combo. What made Douablade "click" for my team was I needed a response for both Fairy-type Pokemon who threaten Latias, Weavile, and Charizard X for a bit, a decent spinblocker who can block Rapid Spin (potentially 1v1 them) and break down defensive cores if given the chance. What holds Doublade back is the reliance of the Eviolite item, however even Doublade can take a Knock Off from and Non-STAB Pokemon plus we got the best Knock Off user in the game in Weavile on the same team, so Doublade won't worry too much about this. Doublade has the potential to be a great assets for the LA Nidokings whether it is being a great offensive wall breaker or a semi decent defensive wall thanks to its unique traits. 


For the seventh pick of the CIL Draft, the team needed another wall breaker of sorts that can synergize well with our Charizard X and Suicune pickups. There were still some notable Pokemon to get on the team, however, I eventually settled with the team mascot himself, Nidoking! Ok what made Nidoking a potentially viable member of the our team was a number of assets like the wide array of physical / special moves, Sheer Force to boost literally its entire movepool, unpredictability in potential movesets, and finally access to both Toxic Spikes and Stealth Rocks. Nidoking also takes away from of the pressure from Electric-type, Grass-type, and Fairy-type Pokemon who don't want to face this monster in a 1 v 1 scenario. Even from personal experience, I still have problems figuring out if certain Pokemon are safe against Nidoking or not since it might pack Ice Beam for Dragons, Super Power for Normal-types, Poison Jab for defense-weak Fairy types, etc. The coverage this Pokemon gets alone will make Nidoking a difficult Pokemon to switch into which can ultimately result in a kill for Nidoking. 



In every draft I've ever done, I've always made it sorta a priority to get a rather decent Electric-type Pokemon who can form a part of a U-Turn or Volt Switch core for my team. By this time, most of the viably good Electric-types were snagged on both the OU/UU tiers with people already scrambling to get the other lower-tiered ones. When someone thinks of a generic Electric-type, surely Eelektross, the eighth member of the team, doesn't come to mind. While moderately bulky, Eelektross sports a passable 115/105 offensive stats with a low base speed of 50, not what most Electric-type Pokemon are thought of. What makes Eelektross standout from the remaining Pokemon was the fact it has no weakness with Levitate (aside Mold Breaker EQ I get it),  a rather suprising vast movepool with immense coverage/utility options, and finally the "slow pivot" of the team. Regarding that last point, Eelektross has a low base 50 speed to abuse volt-turning either on the switch or when my opponents already made their attacks to bring in a offensive Pokemon like Weavile or Nidoking safely. For sure the key of using Eelektross this season will be abusing the slow pivot switch options and taking full advantage of the plethora of sets this Electric-type can run.



By the ninth and tenth rounds of the draft, I was starting to become a bit concern about waiting a too long to get some defensive Pokemon that weren't selected primarily in the OU/UU tier and the lack of hazard options on my team. For the last picks, these Pokemon have to be essentially the glue to the teams that can pair well with my high tiered Pokemon. Now when I noticed that Chesnaught hadn't been drafted for this long, there was no reason to wait any longer. First off, the team needed a reliable Ground-, Dark-, and Rock-type switch in that can tank hits easily, recover off the damage, setup some hazards, and slowly wear down the opposing team with its bulk. Chesnaught sports an impressive 88 HP / 122 Def / 75 Sp.Def with access to Leech Seed, Drain Punch, Spikes, Taunt, and Synthesis to a it a formidable wall. Access to Spikes allows Chesnaught to pressure opposing teams as well as the combinations of Toxic Spikes from Nidoking and Stealth Rocks from it and my last couple picks to make a hazard stack team. Unlike most other Grass-type Pokemon, Chesnaught has a rather large physical movepool such as Hammer Arm, Drain Punch, Wood Hammer, Earthquake, Rock Slide, Payback, Super Fang, Poison Jab, Thunder Punch, Superpower, etc. Spikey Shield is Chesnaught's "unique move" that can punish physical attackers who make contact minus 1/8th of their health and an instant "better" protect. To end on this note, Chesnaught won't fail as a wall as I has the necessary components to make this Pokemon work with other team members for my team. 

Last Two Picks (...and they're gone)

Alright I have to stop and give an rather important update or stop in the CIL Draft for the LA Nidokings. The last Pokemon...hence the title were dropped in replacement of 2 other Pokemon in higher tiers I felt fit the team better in the long term. Now this doesn't mean I'll stop with the LA Nidokings Draft Analysis now. Keep in mind I'll explain what was my thought process for drafting these Pokemon on my team at the time and later I'll give a brief explanation of the new recruits. Now onto the final section. By  the time I chose Chesnaught, I feared that potential Flying-type Pokemon would take advantage of my Chesnaught so a Rock-type Pokemon can to mind such as Rhydon (Rhyperior was drafted beforehand). Then I notice my team was still missing a Fairy-type Pokemon and it might be time to get another one from the seemingly thin pool. Sooo.....

You live by Gifs in this league

So I got a rather odd Pokemon or Mythical legend for this team, regular Diance. Unlike its highly used Mega Evolution counterpart, regular Diancie has a low base HP stat / speed stats, mediocre 100s offenses, incredibly high 150s defenses with access to strong STABs like Moonblast / Diamond Storm. As stated above, Diancie fulfilled most of the requirements I've mentioned about and has some decent tricks up its sleeves like Heal Bell, Gravity, Trick Room, Endeavor, and even Explosion. Honestly this was my least liked member of the team since by the time the draft ended, I'd realized the team was in need of another Defog and a reliable Stealth Rocks user (I'll explain later on.) In the end, Diancie was going to be traded for a free agent Pokemon that wasn't picked.

The last Pokemon of the CIL Draft was a Pokemon I personally felt was likely going to stay on the team than Diancie. There were a couple of Pokemon that were on my radar such as Lucario, Metagross, Rhydon, Empoleon, and Diggersby.  After a last review of the team, I realized there the team still needed another Stealth Rock user, and the walls weren't going to be enough in the long term. Finally, Uxie was chosen as the last major member of the team since it gave me another Ground-type immunity, strong utility options, a potent CM user, and the a mixed wall of any choosing. Out of all the Pokemon on the team, Uxie was the only Pokemon I had used from PFA Season 1 and 2 now likely this part of the CIL season...or so I thought. After the draft, I kinda doubted whether Uxie would stay on the team given the potential to grab another higher tier Pokemon instead of Uxie. While Uxie makes for a great budget or low tier wall, it certainly a Pokemon that can get exploited as setup fodder. Of cours,e this Psychic-type has a ton of utility options, the lack of reliable recovery is what ultimately made me chose another Pokemon. 

The First Two Free Agents

Empoleon is the first Pokemon that I chose as my free agent in replace of Diancie. Yes getting another Water-type is questionable at best, the fact I have two Dragon-types, a Ground-type, an Electric-type, and two-other Grass type Pokemon made me worry less about the Electric weaknesses compounding. Now after looking at the board, Empoleon was one of the last viable Defog users on the team while still setup Stealth Rocks for my team. This Water/Steel-type starter sports 10 resistances and 1 immunity including against the Dragon-, Ice-, Flying-, Steel, and Fairy-types which Chesnaught might need help in. Sporting a base 111 Special Attack, Empoleon has one of the strongest Scalds among Water-type Pokemon especially when considering the potential Torrent boost. Empoleon has a rather strong movepool for a Stealth Rock setter and a special wall with access to Flash Cannon, Ice Beam, Grass Knot, and etc. Even its physical movepool is large with both Sword Dance and Defiant to maybe even get a surprise sweep. If anyone compares or thinks of other reasons why I'd drop Diancie for Empoleon, for starters its a better Stealth Rock user that alleviates pressure from using Defog from my own Latias. By the time the CIL Draft ended, I realized the team only had only reliable way to remove hazards in Latias and having another reliable wall / rocker can be advantageous to keep hazards off from my field, while maintain my own rocks even. In my opinion, Empoleon won't be a detriment to the team because of these features and will be integral to my success. 



This latest free agent pick was rather a shock for me even, as Celebi was a Pokemon I'd originally considered on my team like Empoleon. Celebi was originally picked up by MarvoTrainer of the Poison Stings, though with his own reasoning, decided to drop Celebi and 4 other Pokemon from his team. Since no one else but myself claimed Celebi beforehand as a free agent, I knew if I didn't this Pokemon will likely be on another team to support. Honestly, Celebi was a Pokemon which I didn't sport any form of experience with, however there were several notable things this Pokemon has over Uxie. First off, Celebi's base stat total is around 100 all across the board, meaning it can be almost anything it wants either a special/physical sweeper, cleric, Baton Pass user, defensive pivot, scarfer, CM user, etc just like say Manaphy, Jirachi, or Victini. To add to what this Pokemon can do, Celebi makes for a efficient wall with access to Giga Drain, Stealth Rocks, Recover, Leech Seed, Baton Pass/U-Turn, and much more to stop any potential threats for the team. What set Celebi apart from Uxie was the fact it has self recovery options as listed, and the powerful Baton Pass capabilities to give to my team like Nasty Plot, Calm Mind, and even Sword Dance. Almost any one of my Pokemon on the LA Nidokings team could appreciate a quick Baton Pass from Celebi during the mid-to-late game once all the necessary threats are dealt with. There are so many options I can think of for Celebi, however I feel like I'd rather have everyone see who this pixie will perform on my hands. 

First Impressions

To be honest, this is going to be one interesting team to pilot given the rather unique amount of high OU/UU Pokemon we got from the wheelbarrow picks. There were other Pokemon I'd love to use or even get as my first or second round selections, but both Latias and Charizard X is a good Dragon-type core to begin with.  Getting both Weavile and Tornadus-T rather later in the rounds was a bit perplexing since usually people would get either or by the 1st / 2nd rounds. Weavile is a Pokemon I didn't want to deal with at all since it can easily beat my Dragons while I have another Pokemon who can revenge kill opposing Dragon-type Pokemon. My defensive cores consisting of Latias, Tornadus-T, Suicune, Chesnaught, Empoleon, Chesnaught, and Celebi seems like a great choices to build on. If there's one thing people have noted about my draft, the weakness to Ice is rather common, though I might only worry about Non-STAB Ice-Type attacks considering most of the LA Nidokings do have a good amount of bulk to take one. Ground-type and STABs are also rather concerning for the team given it four of the eleven Pokemon for super effective damage, however the combination of Chesnaught, Suicune, Celebi, Latias, and other Ground immune I have are likely responses. 

The only thing which to me doesn't "break" this team is the lack of a good Fairy-type Pokemon or response to them since some of my most offensive members of the team are checked by them easily. Of course Doublade, Empoleon, and other members of my wall cores can take them on, most of the Fairy-types typically carry coverage options for these incoming threats. Finally, this team would be so must stronger if it was able to complete the infamous Steel-Dragon-Fairy core, though I think our bulk will be capbale to compensate. If there are any Pokemon I'd love to have drafted, it was definitely Manaphy, Victini, or Mega Altaria since those mons I've used at some point in the PFA League I've been working on as well (there will be a future post regarding the PFA S3 Draft).

Overall, this draft is quite both offensive and rather balance at the same time to which I can tailor the team for any specific threats for every team and upcoming rounds. One point I wanted to make out is aside from doing VGC for the past year semi-casually (from taking a break from Smogon), I never did any other major Singles battles until I joined the PFA league and now this one. These are Pokemon used prior to the my eventual intrigue for VGC like Charizard X, Latias, Suicune Weavile, etc. Other selections like Tornadus-T and Celebi are rather new faces to utilize given there recognizable traits in the OU tier.  

Major CIL Rules

Not going to give my own thoughts any opinions, since most of the rules are reasonable enough and makes sense given everyone in this league has other obligations, whether its for work, school/college/uni, personal lives/issues, problems, etc. Again with all the battles going to be on showdown instead of the cartridges, I can at least prep a team with worrying about genning it (yes I admit this feature has to be done to use League Format). At least this gives me less issues getting the team legal, checked, and ready when anyone can just go on Showdown and do the battle there. I've already made my first two transactions for the team which I don't have any sorta remorse whatsoever about since both Empoleon and Celebi are amazing Pokemon in such a format. If I am going to make any sorta "free agency" post in the future to discuss the potential last three, then maybe I will at one point. 

 

For those who want a full list of the rules, here's a link to KevinVGC's CIL blog post.

Here's the link to the CIL HUB / Records. 

Full LA Nidokings Schedule 

• Week 1: vs Blazikens / Mighty Mamoswine 
• Week 2: vs Pinsirs / Sanyer1124
• Week 3 vs Net Balls / MadMikeNebbia
• Week 4 vs Whirlwinds / TheFlyingFiona
• Week 5 vs Gengar Knights / Satoshi_Red_Ash
• Week 6 vs Poison Sting / MarvoTrainer
• Week 7 vs Wynauts / KantoCast
• Week 8 vs Kinglers / KevinVGC
• Week 9 vs Bisharps / GatorJonah
• Week 10 vs Aqua Jets / Hank the Pidgey

Closing Remarks

If there's any main takeaways from this, note I wanted to join this league to enjoy the game I play with other people who share the same interest. Having to do two league at the same time (and manage one) might sound a bit stressful, but this is definitely manageable with the dedication and time. Obviously the LA Nidokings are going to do their very best to reach that championship goal as a expansion team, but I believe its possible. Regardless of our placements, I do know the Nidokings will take aim surely make a mark on the league.