Pokémon Champions - releasing April 8, 2026

there is one funny part of the mega floette thing, of them locking a mega behind a dollar value, where nobody is talking about mega emboar and mega gatr requiring the premium battle pass because they both suck, lmao
well thats because thats not true you can just buy the mega stones
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wait.. are you saying people lied about pokemon being bad on the internet??

yea
 
How do some people have 100 box slots with the starter pack? I am currently only at Ultra Ball rank with 90, but getting Master Ball should only get me to 95. Where are the other 5 slots from?
 
well thats because thats not true you can just buy the mega stones
I honestly had no idea and just assumed you couldn't. mega emboar and gatr still suck tho.

the battle pass not even being an advantage is such an odd choice for a f2p game. odd choice in a good way but like how they are even making money lol
 
the battle pass not even being an advantage is such an odd choice for a f2p game. odd choice in a good way but like how they are even making money lol
Very likely the main money income should be from the premium one.

Even with just the beginner pass, you're kinda stuck with 100 box slots. Do note that as far as I know, you can *only* transfer 30 pokemon from Home at any given time and there isn't a way to increase this.

Currently this isn't much of a big deal, but once the pokedex expands, well suddently you start actually needing way more than 100 boxes unless you want to constantly swap between Home and the games. This game has 1000 pokemon, and sure they're not all competitively viable, but you do need options and for some pokemon you actually want multiple of, unless you plan to constantly be spending VP to change your mons stats.

And this is even assuming the player owns the actual games and has access to a wide setup of Pokemon in Home to begin with! As if you don't, you're pretty much stuck having to deal with the gacha-ish system to acquire your roster, which requires having enough skip tickets (which again, the battle passes help with).

Realistically speaking, I can see that longterm the people who actually play a lot of VGC (not just the actual "pros", but even the higher echelons of the amateur ones who just like to grind to Champions tier every season) will want to be paying the premium pass.

(Plus, I wouldn't be surprised if later down the line they have paid only skins or cosmetics like changing pokemon pokeballs or stuff like that)

Note, I am not against this system. The game has to make money somehow, and it needs to be "just inconvenient enough" that VGC players still are likely to buy the games that come out as it's a faster way to obtain the pokemon for their roster, and this is a somewhat harmless system that does not punish pure F2P players, just slows their progression a bit.
I've definitely seen much more predatory systems, even from Nintendo themselves.

At least currently, the only "P2W" element of this game are AZ's Floette, Greninjite, Delphoxite and Chesnaughite, which I hope are just "temporary exclusives" kinda like they are in ZA itself and will be released to everyone in the following seasons.
 
Huh, here it thought it was the other way around. Sadly it still doesn’t mean much for it anyway, it would definitely rather use Nasty Plot instead if it wanted to go offensive.
Mandibuzz @ Choice Band
Ability: Overcoat
Tera Type: Ground
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant/Jolly Nature
- Bone Rush
- Foul Play/Knock Off
- Brave Bird
- U-turn

(I know Choice Band isn't in Champions yet)
 
I somehow haven't seen Mega Floette-E at all yet but Zard Y has definitely been common. Probably just too low on the ladder still. Regardless, I can't imagine Mega Floette-E being as oppressive as people make her out to be if only due to how common Sneasler is. Not a lot of good Sneasler answers in the meta afaik.
Once I have hit the upper side of Ultra Ball I have started to run in tons of it.
Pretty much every other team is sun or m-floette.
It's one of those mons where it's not hard to play around as most proper teams narurally have answers for it, but if you don't it just facerolls you with +1 dazzling gleams and a redirector. Basically Xerneas at home.
 
Once I have hit the upper side of Ultra Ball I have started to run in tons of it.
Pretty much every other team is sun or m-floette.
It's one of those mons where it's not hard to play around as most proper teams narurally have answers for it, but if you don't it just facerolls you with +1 dazzling gleams and a redirector. Basically Xerneas at home.
i personally think of the archetypes rn rain has the best matchup into floette because basculegion can just fucking murk it no questions asked

when i played floette balance, i found that a lot of rain matchups you have to get redirection on basculegion or get it out or kill it because it will just kill you, and usually floette is your main archaludon slayer

252 Atk Mystic Water Adaptability Basculegion Flip Turn vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Floette-Mega in Rain: 126-150 (84.5 - 100.6%) -- 6.3% chance to OHKO
(usually scarf but there is around a quart running mystic water)

252 Atk Mystic Water Basculegion Wave Crash vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Floette-Mega in Rain: 187-222 (125.5 - 148.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

252 Atk Basculegion Last Respects vs. 0 HP / 0 Def Floette-Mega: 172-204 (115.4 - 136.9%) -- guaranteed OHKO

adaptability is the ability its using most of the time but im tired and just woke up so dont wanna recalc

i have seen floettes try to go more bulky, personally im not a fan, without speed you get outsped by many dragons who can still super chunk you with physical moves and without going in on spuhtack, the Destroyer of Worlds Dazzling Gleam is more just, a Sylveon using a mega slot lol
 
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Incidentally i run sun myself but i have a scarf basculegion as catchup counter to a bunch of stuff floette included...

But now I am experiencing the joy of "i lose to milotic unless it misses" and reminded that, despite the improvement in champions, this game still has far too much "incontrollable rng" to be truly competitive, expecially in Bo1s.
Yeah "paralysis going from 25% to 1/8 is nice but now you feel even worse when it procs.

Sadly this rng (inaccurate moves and secondary effects) is so inherently ingrained into Pokemon I don't see how it can be fixed.
 
Incidentally i run sun myself but i have a scarf basculegion as catchup counter to a bunch of stuff floette included...

But now I am experiencing the joy of "i lose to milotic unless it misses" and reminded that, despite the improvement in champions, this game still has far too much "incontrollable rng" to be truly competitive, expecially in Bo1s.
Yeah "paralysis going from 25% to 1/8 is nice but now you feel even worse when it procs.

Sadly this rng (inaccurate moves and secondary effects) is so inherently ingrained into Pokemon I don't see how it can be fixed.
ive been running milotic on sand which helps bait intimidators, but its kinda hard because to bait them to intim excadrill you need sand already up

trying to make the team of mega garde/maushold/milotic/sneasler/excadrill/mega tyranitar work and it just kinda lacks a cohesive piece, probably a pivot. maybe with incin over sneasler i can rely on exca for my speed control and get pivots
 
Just wanted to say that I feel like Ampharos getting Parabolic Charge is honestly HUGE. I try to build a team around him and its mega and honestly the fact that it has a reliable to have a reliable way to healing itself with an aoe move is really game changing. My team is not yet definitive but of course some of its best partners are good ground type such as Excadrill. I tried a little bit of trick room and it works really well but it is less mandatory as I thought since Mega Ampharos is relatively tanky and can heal itself quite well. Still experimenting in masterball rank but I really thought it would be a bigger pain to do. Still sad that it has an inadequate ability (well at least it can one shot Dragonite).
 
Just wanted to say that I feel like Ampharos getting Parabolic Charge is honestly HUGE. I try to build a team around him and its mega and honestly the fact that it has a reliable to have a reliable way to healing itself with an aoe move is really game changing. My team is not yet definitive but of course some of its best partners are good ground type such as Excadrill. I tried a little bit of trick room and it works really well but it is less mandatory as I thought since Mega Ampharos is relatively tanky and can heal itself quite well. Still experimenting in masterball rank but I really thought it would be a bigger pain to do. Still sad that it has an inadequate ability (well at least it can one shot Dragonite).
Raichu needs to get that move too
 
Raichu needs to get that move too
Eh, Raichu wouldn't have the bulk nor moveslots to run it. Competitive raichus usually run Fake Out / Nuzzle / Protect / Thunderbolt, Discharge or Volt Switch (or even another utility move). With how made of paper are, Parabolic Charge wouldn't do much.
 
they buffed healer...... to 50% wow
I wish it was 100%, but 50 is a decent improvement over 30, which wasn't even a 1 in 3 chance. Kinda reminds me of Harvest procs outside of Sun. Still not great overall, though.

I wonder if Mega Audino would have benefitted from Misty Surge instead, preventing status for 5 turns rather than waiting for it to happen. Would have been a nice countermeasure to sleep / Dire Claw spam for grounded partners. Having a delayed Misty Surge proc like how the weather-setting Megas can stay in base before Mega would have also been neat for whenever the terrain-setters come back.
 
It appears that Pokémon from the Roster Ranch may have multiple titles by default. I found a Mow Rotom “the Great” that I ended up permanently recruiting, and when I went to the Change Title section for it I noticed it also has “the Sleepy” as an available title. I wonder whether the title displayed in Roster Ranch is randomly selected or if it follows a priority list (e.g. size titles are displayed before time-of-day titles) for Pokémon with more than one title.
 
I wish it was 100%, but 50 is a decent improvement over 30, which wasn't even a 1 in 3 chance. Kinda reminds me of Harvest procs outside of Sun. Still not great overall, though.

I wonder if Mega Audino would have benefitted from Misty Surge instead, preventing status for 5 turns rather than waiting for it to happen. Would have been a nice countermeasure to sleep / Dire Claw spam for grounded partners. Having a delayed Misty Surge proc like how the weather-setting Megas can stay in base before Mega would have also been neat for whenever the terrain-setters come back.
Even if Mega Audino goes all in on HP and physical Defense Sneasler can still potentially two shot it with Dire Claw.

252 Atk Sneasler Dire Claw vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Audino-Mega: 176-210 (42.9 - 51.2%) -- 4.7% chance to 2HKO

And its a guaranteed 2HKO if it doesn't go all in on both.

252 Atk Sneasler Dire Claw vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Audino-Mega: 176-210 (50.7 - 60.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Sneasler Dire Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Audino-Mega: 216-254 (52.6 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
 
Even if Mega Audino goes all in on HP and physical Defense Sneasler can still potentially two shot it with Dire Claw.

252 Atk Sneasler Dire Claw vs. 252 HP / 252 Def Audino-Mega: 176-210 (42.9 - 51.2%) -- 4.7% chance to 2HKO

And its a guaranteed 2HKO if it doesn't go all in on both.

252 Atk Sneasler Dire Claw vs. 0 HP / 252 Def Audino-Mega: 176-210 (50.7 - 60.5%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 Atk Sneasler Dire Claw vs. 252 HP / 0 Def Audino-Mega: 216-254 (52.6 - 61.9%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
Well yeah, I'm just referring to the status effect for its partners. You can also bring an Intimidater to mitigate the damage after Sneasler's White Herb is consumed. Even still, for a SE hit, that's not a lot of damage and will require a double-up from the opposing side to kill Audino.
 
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