pokemon champions is hands down, full stop, the best pokemon game that has been released in over a decade.
i was so pleased to see them make all the right calls with pokemon champions: making it 100% free to play (and actually playable without spending any money, unlike past "free" pokemon games like pokemon unite, which i also played a lot and afforded genuinely game-determining advantages to people if they paid enough money in the early game), releasing it on mobile as well as switch, and making it super easy to train pokemon with competitive sets, manage IVs & natures, etc. with a few button presses.
i feel like there are two different camps starting to spawn with pokemon releases, and maybe even internally at the pokemon company. on the one hand, they continue to (unfortunately) churn out slop as the "main series" pokemon entries that repeatedly fail to excite me and other fans, and don't fix any of the qualms that people have been complaining about since pokemon first made the jump to 3d. on the other hand, they have genuinely impressed fans with the last few spin-off titles by being delightfully inventive and bringing new experiences to players with games like pokemon legends arceus's open world mechanics, legends z-a and its completely overhauled battle system, and of course pokopia which has literally become the magnum opus of the switch 2 as of now. as someone who has played every single main series game i could get my hands on since generation iv, i never thought i would say this but i'm genuinely more interested in the spin off titles than the main series at this point and they are the only thing keeping me actively engaged with the franchise.
i've now spent more than 10 hours playing pokemon champions, and in that time i've climbed to master ball tier in doubles (VGC standard format), the highest available ranking tier. i haven't spent a single cent and came up with an original, off-meta team to get there. for the rest of this post, i'll talk about my overall thoughts on the game & go over the team i created to get here.
my thoughts on the game
if you're a longtime fan of the franchise, you need to try this game out.
i was never really into VGC / competitive battling before this. i had dabbled in pokemon showdown (basically a fan made precursor to champions) before this, but mainly only played randomized singles for fun and never got into competitive doubles.
this game reignited my passion for pokemon and makes me feel the same sense of wonder and love for the franchise i did when i was a kid. i remember the feeling of taking on the elite four or champion, thinking hard about what pokemon to bring out or waiting with bated breath to see if the opponents attack would kill my pokemon. at some point, i became so good at the game that playing them became basically pointless. i knew type matchups intuitively without having to think about it, developed near perfect intuition for how bulky, strong, or fast pokemon were in relation to each other, and could basically sleepwalk through the base games without thinking about it (like most people who start playing early). i was recently seeing a post all over social media that people who play pokemon as young kids develop a special part of their brain just for pokemon, and i've never felt more understood.
like a lot of other people in that situation, i eventually transitioned into doing challenge runs like hardcore nuzlockes and playing difficulty hacks designed to make pokemon games that were as hard as humanly possible. it eventually got to the point where i couldn't really have any fun unless i was doing a hardcore nuzlocke, and the "magic" of pokemon was pretty much completely gone.
turns out, playing with other real human beings is actually a lot of fun.
if you're in the boat i described above, please give this game a try. it felt familiar enough to me that i could pick it up quickly, but intricate enough that i was excited to learn more about the meta and get better.
once i started climbing the ladder, pokemon battles quickly became a complex chess match of protecting at the right time, trying to predict your opponent's next move to play around it, call out your opponent for playing to defensively or going for a super risky play, or trying to set up your pokemon for the perfect opportunity to sweep through the opposing team of four.
while my background in pokemon definitely gave me a huge advantage (a natural intuition for what teams to build / pokemon to recruit, and what to go for when), i'm fairly confident that even a newer player could pick it up quickly. the rating system also ensures that you'll have fun no matter what skill range you're at.
i think the recruiting mechanics are also tuned perfectly. i always have more VP than i know what to do with, and allowing a player to recruit a single pokemon from a wider roster is incredibly generous and allows you to generally build a competent team quickly, if you have a general sense of what kind of team you want. you can get really far, really quickly without spending any money (basically what i did).
i don't know what more to say beyond just encouraging people to try the game themselves (it's free!), and i'm super glad that it's coming to mobile. i think this could be a moment as large as pokemon go and i'm super excited to see competitive pokemon hopefully open up to a broader audience soon, which could be a good entryway into other "serious" pokemon communities like the nuzlocke community growing a lot as well.
the team i used to become a pokemon master
as i mentioned above, i was able to reach master ball tier in doubles in ~10 in game hours, without spending any money, and using a custom team. this means i'm in the top ~100,000 players globally. i'm super proud of the team, notably because almost every single pokemon (except basculegion and farigiraf) are completely off-meta picks that almost no one else is using. it feels good to have made it this far and feels kind of like a testament to my skill. there are a ton of people drastically better than me at nuzlocking, so it feels reassuring that i was able to craft an unconventional team and reach the top.
farigiraf
modest, 32 HP IVs, 32 Sp. ATk IVs, 2 Speed IVs
item: leftovers
ability: armor tail
moveset: psychic, protect, hyper voice, trick room
the cornerstone of this team. farigiraf is incredibly bulky, hits incredibly hard, and most importantly can set trick room, one of the hardest strategies for opponents to play around. tailwind can be technically played around by stalling or boosting your own speed, but trick room can only be counter played by using your own trick room to reset back to normal. farigiraf is basically an automatic bring in every battle and leads my team as the first slot. it can hit super hard with psychic or hyper voice if you need spread damage, and survives pretty much anything because if its incredible bulk. armor tail is also one of the best abilities in the game in my opinion; it denies fake out from mons like incineroar or sneasler, and effectively shuts down prankster pokemon like whimsicott that would otherwise be incredibly powerful in the meta completely. i gave it two speed IVs to have a predictable matchup against other farigiraf. farigiraf is generally pretty much always built to be minimum speed on a neutral nature, so i figured that having a predictable matchup agianst other farigiraf is favorable as opposed to having a speed tie, because a predictable matchup can be played around.
typhlosion
quiet, 32 Defense IVs, 32 Sp. Atk IVs, 2 Sp. Def IVs
item: charcoal
ability: flash fire
moveset: protect, scorching sands, eruption, flamethrower
i initially envisioned this as the nuke, "delete button" pokemon on this team. hisuian typhlosion is traditionally really strong in this role but i didn't have one so decided to use regular typhlosion instead. the idea was to set up trick room and then press eruption a bunch of times and basically delete the opponents team with an unstoppable onslaught of spread damage. in practice, it didn't really work out that way because even with minus speed, typhlosion is too fast to work effectively under trick room. however, i still kept it around for two main reasons. first, it provides much needed coverage against steel, and is the only pokemon on the team that can hit steel types hard (very necessary given the prevalence of kingambit in the current meta). second, one of the greatest strengths of this team its versatility to operate even outside trick room. typhlosion is fast enough to outspeed most slow bulky pokemon outside trick room, making it invaluable if trick room wears off (very likely because most pokemon on this team are bulky / have a lot of stall and staying power), and slow enough to dominate fast sweepers if trick room is still up. this makes it a generally flexible option in general matchups, and indispensible against steel type opponents.
rampardos
naughty, 32 HP IVs, 32 Attack IVs, 2 Speed IVs
item: quick claw
ability: sheer force
moveset: rock slide, head smash, protect, zen headbutt
this is by far the most "wacky" pick on this team. ironically, it's also one of the most devastating pokemon on this team when trick room goes up. plus attack nature gives rampardos a monstrous 238 attack, which basically guarantees a one shot kill on any pokemon in the game unless they resist rock or have a focus sash. rock slide provides invaluable spread that can often times pick up double KOs against frail opponents / pokemon weak to rock. zen headbutt is a personal favorite of mine, as i can't tell you how many times an opponent has sent in sneasler thinking it will deny rampardos only to get one tapped instantly by zen headbutt in trick room and lose the game. in the right situations, rampardos ends up being the "delete button" i wanted typhlosion to be initially, which can come in and just sweep the opponent. however, rampardos is super situational and can only be brought into certain matchups. it gets pretty much hard shut down by kingambit, and it's pretty much dead in the water (no pun intended) to anything that hits it super effectively when trick room isn't up.
sylveon
modest, 32 HP IVs, 32 Sp. Atk IVs, 2 Speed IVs
ability: pixilate
item: sitrus berry
moveset: hyper voice, shadow ball, moonblast, protect
this is the "right hand man" to farigiraf in this team. sylveon is so incredibly underrated in my opinion. it's super bulky and super annoying to get rid of if you're playing against it. most pokemon need multiple hits to take sylveon off the field when it's set up to be bulky like this, and most opponents also tend to underrate how devastating sylveon can be and thus tend to leave it alone for way too long / only chip damage it with spread attacks. then, they proceed to get absolutely devastated by pixilate hyper voice, a super strong spread fairy move that hits like a truck and threatens pretty much everything. shadow ball provides super good general coverage against pokemon like froslass and basculegion. when trick room goes up, farigiraf and sylveon can start absolutely steamrolling teams by doubling hyper voice and outspeeding (or i guess outslowing?) everything. my lead in pretty much 90% of matchups is farigiraf + sylveon. i also purposely bring moonblast on this, because most people see sylveon and assume it's going to be a hyper voice set. there have been multiple instances where i've won the game by calling out a pelipper wide guard because they thought i was going to hyper voice on sylveon, and i can pick up a free kill on whatever they have in the second slot with an unexpected moonblast instead.
basculegion
jolly, 32 Attack IVs, 32 Speed IVs, 2 Sp. Def IVs
ability: adaptability
item: focus sash
moveset: last respects, flip turn, wave crash, protect
this is the ace in the hole that i often like to use as a win condition in drawn-out endgames. as i mentioned above, the greatest strength of this team (and what sets it apart from most other trick room teams) is the flexibility to operate successfully outside of trick room. basculegion is the pinnacle of this mentality. i often bring it in the fourth slot to clean up in the endgame, after trick room has been used and wore off, and farigiraf has likely died already. last respects is perfect for this kind of role, as it basically guarantees a one shot on anything that doesn't resist ghost, especially boosted by adaptability. focus sash ensures that basculegion can potentially win 1v2 situations / survive an extra turn. when the opponent thinks they've won, basculegion can come in and flip the game in my favor unless they're prepared to deal with it.
scizor
brave,32 Attack IVs, 32 Sp. Def IVs, 2 HP IVs
ability: technician
item: scizorite
moveset: bullet punch, protect, iron head, u-turn
the last thing that makes this team so odd: mega scizor. in the mega meta, every team is basically built around a mega pokemon as the cornerstone, and pretty much no one is using mega scizor since it gets firmly outclassed by the higher tier megas. here's why i choose to bring it. first off is the fairy coverage; with its monstrous attack stat, it can one tap a lot of fairies like mega floette which are devastating in this meta, and technician boosted bullet punch means it basically doesn't care if trick room is up or not and operates equally well either way. second is the surprise factor. not only are most opponents not at all prepared to face mega scizor (since no one is running it), the key is that a lot of opponents will overreact and overprepare expecting you to bring mega scizor. the secret to using scizor effective is to actually be really disciplined with when you choose to bring it. surprisingly, this team actually operates better in most matchups if it leaves its mega pokemon behind. relying on mega scizor to throw off your opponent can be a useful strategy as it prompts them to bring pokemon that the rest of the team can potentially have an easy time dealing with if you prep for them. obviously, scizor dominates against fairy-centric teams like mega floette, or teams like mega froslass.
general advice: if you're not sure what pokemon to go with, lead with farigiraf and sylveon and try to protect sylveon and set up trick room turn 1. even if farigiraf takes massive damage, this puts you in a hugely advantageous position. you can start ripping with sylveon or bring in a slow sweeper like rampardos if farigiraf goes down. for the other two slots, i'd recommend bringing basculegion into most matchups unless its massively unfavorable to do so, as it can usually dominate endgame scenarios and clean up weakened opposing teams. the last slot should be one of typhlosion or rampardos, depending on if the opposing team will deal well with trick room (reason to bring typhlosion) or would get dominated by a slow sweeper (reason to bring rampardos). only bring scizor if type matchups are really unfavorable for typhlosion/basculegion/rampardos, or if steel coverage will be really advantageous.