You are a type specialist in a hostile region. How do you best represent your chosen element?

[R_N]

My big "I'm surprised no one did this" was actually Braviary, if only because Hisuian Braviary while not an Ice Type is exclusively found in the icy mountains and that's as much a connection as some people have made before.

And if nothing else it does look like quite the insulated eagle, I could see it be in snowy mountains normally.

 

[Hugin]

This was an extremely focused set of names, and a lot of the 1s/2s I expected to be higher.

I am shocked I'm the only Samurott. It's a walrus, an arctic ocean mammal. That feels obvious for an ice trainer. Every other water type is warm weather IMO.
If Sawsbuck wasn't part-normal, Stoutland would probably have done much better. Even as-is, I'm surprised Sawsbuck was the clear winner out of the two, they're both very cold region themed.
Since QQ mentioned it, I did consider Chandelure when I was doing a blizzard/hallucinations focused team, but went against it. I agree that any fires would have been interesting, just for contrast, but I see why people said no. (I kept trying to make Darmanitan fit, and kept deciding he was just too clearly sunny)
Zoroark really felt fitting, again shocked at only one. It's a fox, with a cold-weather alt version, and a lot of theming that can work with cold and ice.
Scrafty gets Ice Punch by breeding(which is actually fairly rare), and I'm surprised that wasn't used a lot more.

Of course, that's why we do this, to see what everyone else thinks makes an ice trainer(even if all y'all are wrong about water!).

 

[R_N]

This was an extremely focused set of names, and a lot of the 1s/2s I expected to be higher.

I am shocked I'm the only Samurott. It's a walrus, an arctic ocean mammal. That feels obvious for an ice trainer. Every other water type is warm weather IMO.
If Sawsbuck wasn't part-normal, Stoutland would probably have done much better. Even as-is, I'm surprised Sawsbuck was the clear winner out of the two, they're both very cold region themed.

Sawsbuck probably wins out because it has a dedicated winter coat and conceivably looks like it would pass for an ice type because of it.

Samurott is definitely more of a sea lion than a walrus, not that that really changes much; they're also arctic mammals. Suppose people just had other associations with its temperate. More the giant otters.

 

[Imperial Magala]

There's an additional Pokemon that would have also fit that we forgot.



White-Striped Basculin live in Alabaster Icelands alongside the other Hisuian forms from Unova.

I'm personally surprised Bouffalant didn't show up outside my considerations.

American Bison are active during the winter season. This is even reflected in the TCG.

 

[Celever]

Watching people discuss Fire-Types and not having my Volcarona inclusion mentioned once like

I agree that Bouffalant passes the vibe check and I did look at it on Bulbapedia. Unfortunately there’s no real Ice-Type link in terms of game data, and when living in snowy regions is mentioned in the dex for Pokémon like Stoutland and Volcarona I ended up passing on it. Not to mention I think Sawsbuck and Stoutland were basically necessities, so adding Bouffalant gives you a half Ice- and half Normal-Type team lol.

With the amount of emphasis Stoutland being a cold climate Pokémon has in the dex, at this stage I’m pretty sure Sand Rush was intended as a reference to snow. Like, sand and snow are more similar to each other than snow and hail are, and with Slush Rush not yet existing, and the Stoutland family never really being encounterable in especially warm climates… it just feels like the whole thing was intended for snow instead. If abilities ever get truly revamped (or if Pokémon get a second hidden ability slot, please do this Game Freak) I’m pretty sure now that hail is snow, Stoutland is having Sand Rush replaced with Slush Rush, or gaining Slush Rush as a fourth slot.

All this is to say that yes, Stoutland should probably be more common than a 3-pick lol. I think this round has a lot of people who went quite abstract and thematic. Normally I like that but I guess in this round, because there are teams that can be made just with vanilla good picks, I found it a bit strange. The massive number of one-picks goes to show how abstract some teams really were.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

So this week's poll was interesting - by chance I ended up looking at it a bit more frequently than I did with previous ones as the votes came in, and it fluctuated remarkably. At one point we had two people tied in first place and three in second; one person then took a sudden lead, and then our eventual winner came up from behind and sped to the front. Congratulations SturdyShedinja on emerging victorious! Will DM you shortly.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

After conferring, we have our next topic!

Following some thought (and just because I fancied a change from the first five regions) I've decided that this time around we'll be going to Kalos. I know a couple of people have expressed reservations about this, so I'll lay out the rules here as clearly as I can.

As the Kalos Pokedex is split into three segments, it seemed logical that any rounds focusing on this region should concern only one third of the total listing: the Central, Coastal, or Mountain Pokedexes. With 450 distinct species available in the region as a whole, it is unlikely that any type is sufficiently underrepresented that a team of six unique species wouldn't be possible: there are thirteen fully-evolved (non-legendary) Dragon-types in the combined Kalos Pokedex, for instance. It seems a fair enough division to make since, as noted, NPCs in the region use Pokemon of their own division for the most part. Each of the three subdivisions contain ~150 non-legendary Pokemon, which is a small enough number that each listing finds itself lacking in at least one Pokemon type.

So, with this in mind, having looked at what types are lacking where, one came to mind as an interesting pick.

You are an Electric-type trainer in Central Kalos. How do you best represent your chosen type?​

A reminder to please read the guidelines in the OP before commenting, especially if you're new to the thread. You have until July 12th, 9PM GMT to make your case!

Once again to be perfectly clear: you may only select Pokemon from the Central Kalos Pokedex, i.e. Chespin-Haxorus. Any teams which include Pokemon from either the Coastal or Mountain Kalos dexes will not be valid for this round and will be disqualified.

Central Kalos Dex is here for those who need it: https://www.serebii.net/xy/centralpokedex.shtml

Teams so far

R_N: Raichu, Plusle, Minun, Seaking, Beedrill, Azumarill
DuoM2: Raichu, Plusle, Minun, Volbeat, Linoone, Meowstic
Noah3475: Pikachu, Plusle, Minun, Medicham, Exploud, Meowstic
Mike81401: Raichu, Plusle, Minun, Exploud, Gardevoir, Scrafty
CTNC: Pikachu, Plusle, Minun, Medicham, Smeargle, Meowstic
Pikachu315111: Raichu, Pikachu, Beedrill, Vespiquen, Dunsparce, Furret
Hugin: Raichu, Pikachu, Plusle, Minun, Ninjask, Seaking
Ironmage: Raichu, Plusle, Minun, Scolipede, Exploud, Meowstic
imperial magala: Raichu, Volbeat, Gyarados, Haxorus, Wormadam, Gardevoir
Eeveeto: Pichu, Pikachu, Raichu, Plusle, Minun, Gyarados
SturdyShedinja: Raichu, Pikachu, Plusle, Minun, Audino, Talonflame

 

[R_N]

I get broadly what you mean, and think the limitation is interesting, but at the same time if you actually break down some of the typings it's funny

There's literally no Rock or Ice types in Central Kalos. Haxorus is the only Central Kalos dragon. 2 ground types: Diggersby & Sandy Wormadam; if you want a third you have to grab Nincada.2 Ghosts (Shedinja, Aegislash) and 3 Steel (Lucario, Trash Wormadam, Aegislash) and per this challenge, 3 Electric types (Raichu, Plusle, Minun)


As for me...
Raichu, Plusle, Minun

I mean no need to split them up, you know? Not often we'll get to have the Plusle & Minun around.

Seaking
It has lightning rod, so that's pretty thematic.

Beedrill
My thought was basically a pun, "shock to the system" or maybe even anaphylactic shock. Referencing both bee allergies and of course being a poison type. The coloration is also very "electric" with its blacks and yellows. Casey wasn't really an electric trainer at all in the anime, but she was a fan of the Electabuzzes and wound up getting a Beedrill to match it so that's pretty cute.

Azumarill
I'm going to level with you
This is entirely a Pikablue joke. Like we've got the og pikachu (evolution) and we have 2 pikaclones, and the others are in the other parts of the Pokedex, so even if its not really a pikaclone I grew up in the 90s everyone was calling this thing pikablue. Gotta represent it.

The shiny is yellow, though!



I feel less like a type specialist and more like I was given the old rod and forced to make a team by the time i left Lumiose.

 

[DuoM2]

This thread is really cool, have been lurking here for a bit and always enjoy seeing what others come up with so I figured I'd throw my hat into the ring.



It's kinda crazy how there's only three Electric-types and they're not even really a given for something like this. Raichu is absolutely a must, but you could probably argue in favor of dropping one of Plusle or Minun because of how similar they are to one another. I think it's cute to have the two of them together though so here they are. Simple decision here. Volbeat I feel like is mostly carried by the light association but that's really more than I have to go off of than others. Tail's like a lightbulb or something I guess. Does learn plenty of Electric moves via TM that could also pair decently with Tail Glow. Linoone I added as a bit of a callback to there being an NPC with a Zigzagoon that knows Thunderbolt in Wattson's gym, plus the whole speed aspect of Linoone as a Pokemon could be something you could tie to electricity. Last I just took Meowstic, Illumise felt a bit like a cop-out and all of these are "midgame" sorta Pokemon which Meowstic just fits the general feel of. Psychic is one of the only types I think isn't completely off from Electric that gets representation in this dex and Meowstic does learn a few Electric moves via TM, so I don't think it's completely unreasonable even if I'm not sure others will jump to this as their first choice.

 

[Noah3475]

I have been waiting for the opportunity to create a Kalos Pokémon team, as Pokémon X is my favorite Pokémon game. Here is my team in short:

The inclusion of Minun, Plusle, and Pikachu were not easy decisions. Though Plusle and Minun fall into the "underwhelming early-game" category, having Pikachu as the sole Electric Pokémon would be awkward, so I put together move sets that allow them to pull their own weight. In doing so I came up with a way for them to cooperate in battle, even though I am assuming that this is a Single Battle team. Minun can reduce the opponent's Pokémon's Speed by 25% through Paralysis and use Encore to help make opportunity for Plusle to set up highly effective uses of Electro Ball. I already had ideas for non-Electric Pokémon to use and did not realize right away that Light Ball works exclusively for Pikachu, so I thought it would be interesting to forgo Raichu altogether in favor of its infinitely more famous pre-evolution.
The details of this team can be viewed by opening the spoiler tag. The details account for anything that I would control for when I would play a Pokémon campaign, as well as the level I foresee each of these Pokémon being when fought in battle.

Noah3475's Electric Team

Minun (F) LV.69
Ability: Volt Absorb Item: Leftovers
Moves: Thunder Wave, Volt Switch, Confide, Encore

Plusle (M) LV.69
Ability: Lightning Rod Item: Magnet
Moves: Charge, Electro Ball, Substitute, Agility

Exploud (M) LV.69
Ability: Soundproof Item: Normal Gem
Moves: Giga Impact, Roar, Thunder Fang, Power-Up Punch

Pikachu (M) LV.70
Ability: Static Item: Light Ball
Moves: Volt Tackle, Fake Out, Brick Break, Reversal

Medicham (M) LV.70 ->
Ability: Pure Power Item: Medichamite
Moves: High Jump Kick, Giga Impact, Retaliate, Thunder Punch

Meowstic (F) LV.71
Ability: Competitive Item: Salac Berry
Moves: Extrasensory, Future Sight, Charge Beam, Signal Beam

Edit: Swapped Plusle and Minun's Items and Moves after taking their Base Stats into proper account and added Gender to each Pokémon.

 

[Mike81401]

I don't quite remember how I stumbled upon this project, but I've always found it cool to try and construct Pokemon teams for certain things, and I found myself lurking because I really liked this concept. So let's get creative:

Okay, so these three are obviously a must for this team, so let's focus on what they all have in common (besides their type): They're all good support mons, with access to moves like Thunder Wave, Helping Hand, and Encore, so whey can provide valuable speed control for nuclear attackers and help them pull off a sweep and keep the fans going electric! Of course, they can't do this without the help of their teammates, such as....

Exploud! Admittedly, its Electric movepool isn't the best, with its only special Electric-type move being Shock Wave from a Move Tutor, but that isn't necessarily important. What is important is that Special Attack stat, complemented by STAB Boomburst to really shake up the venue. Now, why I chose Exploud was that I feel it represents an electrical speaker-like the kind of things you'd see a rock band use in a concert. Since those require an electrical power source, we can argue the Electric-types of the team are powering up Exploud by giving it the chances to attack it needs with that poor Speed.

Next up is Gardevoir-particularly Mega Gardevoir. If Exploud is the speaker, and Raichu, Plusle, and Minun are the electricity that lights up the venue, then Gardevoir is the singer-and an essential part of the concert as well. And, unlike Exploud, it actually learns Thunderbolt by TM, helping it contribue to the electric atmosphere, and with Pixilate Hyper Voice, it's sure to dazzle the crowd.

And last up, to keep the venue jamming is Scrafty! Definitely an unusual pick, but with it learning Thunder Punch as an egg move and being a much-needed physical attacker, it can serve double duty as a bouncer in case any concert-goers try anything. Its Intimidating presence ensures most just stay in their seats, but those that try anything don't often get to the stage, for it can Detect them coming and either call security or deal with them itself with some Foul Play.

 

[CTNC]

Fully Evolved Electric Types include Raichu, and the Double Battle Pika Clones... Looks like I'll have to make a Double Battle Team to not feel not terrible about using them and accept that this team isn't going to be very strong.


Plusle
Plus
-Thunderbolt
-Grass Knot
-Helping Hand
-Entrainment

The more offensively statted of the duo has a moveset that's about immediate effects. Attacking now and support that helps ASAP is always good! Entrainment for use on allies after Minun faints. Probably not much more than a cute gimmick, but then again, Plusle and Minun aren't much more than cute gimmicks. Also, I was having trouble coming up with a fourth move because there's no coverage without Tutors.


Minun
Minus
-Thunderbolt
-Nuzzle
-Fake Tears
-Entrainment

The more defensively statted of the duo gets a moveset about long term effects. Paralysis and a stat change that lasts multiple turns (or ends immediately when you switch ASAP :P) are much more useful in the long run. The main problem with this moveset is if it's just Minun against a Ground type, all it can do is use Entrainment. I guess that'd help highlight why gimmicks are just gimmicks?


Meowstic Female
Infiltrator
-Charge Beam
-Psychic
-Signal Beam
-Fake Out

Female Meowstic learns a lot of coverage moves by Level Up for some reason. Good examples of odd Level Up moves include Magical Leaf, Shadow Ball, and half of this moveset. Signal Beam is used for Grass types and Fake Out is a very annoying tool for Doubles.


Smeargle
Own Tempo
-Electric Terrain
-Thunderbolt
-Nuzzle
-Body Slam

At first glance, there's 5 6 Pokemon that learn Electric moves without TMs or Egg Moves. (Edit: I missed that Exploud learns Thunder Fang.) Smeargle's Sketch technically makes it a 6th 7th. Anilitical mindset aside, it felt like an interesting pick and even though it's not a good thematic for for Electric, it's a good fit for what's turning out to be a cutsy Pokemon team.

Contrary to what you might remember, mainly because Terrain was pretty forgettable before TMs teaching them or the Tapus, Terrain was introduced in Gen 6. (Psychic Terrain, though, wasn't until Gen 7.) Buffing Electric moves 50% and preventing sleep makes it an excellent support move for an Electric Team. Nuzzle is useful without offensive stats for spreading what's praticaly Electric's signature status condition, and Body Slam for STAB (lol, like STAB makes a difference with Smeargle's stats) is because of the Paralysis chance.


Medicham
Pure Power
-Thunder Punch
-Brick Break
-Zen Headbutt
-Acupressure

Medicham is one of the Pokemon that learn Elemental Punches through Move Reminder for some reason, so it's on the team for being one of the few Pokemon that can learn Electric Attacks without TMs. Acupressure is the final move because it can target the user or the ally, making it an interesting support move for Doubles. Medicham is second to last because of the AI porobably being stupid enough to use Entrainment to replace Pure Power.

Medicham doesn't Mega Evolve even though it's Gen 6 because it's not an Electric Type and I'm imagining this trainer as a young kid.


Pikachu @ Light Ball
Static
-Thunderbolt
-Iron Tail
-Grass Knot
-Quick Attack

I like Raichu more than Pikachu, but the Light Ball makes Pikachu viable and using the more popular Pikachu over the much stronger (in theory, not in practice because of the Light Ball) Raichu helps paint this trainer as a cheerful kid.

In game trainers usually only have items on their final Pokemon and Light Ball Pikachu is stronger than Raichu. Even if I ignore that, it'd feel wrong is use a Pokemon that's seemingly stronger than the final Pokemon, but it'd also feel wrong to have a Pokemon I know is weaker than another Pokemon on the team be the final one.

Side Note: Chosing Pikachu over Raichu is what lead to leaning into the cutsy side theme.




This early XY Dex team seems like the kind of team an early game boss would use for a rematch and it's a lot of Pokemon I could see a kid playing with. (Medicham is probably more like a babysitter or an emo older sibbling that's trying to chill but has to deal with people thinking they want to play and be petted because everyone else does. Ugh! No one understands me!) I just went in expecting to be overanilitical, but I really like the side theme that happened to come up.

 

[Pikachu315111]

Let's see, Raichu... ugh, Plusle & Minun, let's see what else... Oh hey, Beedrill... and Vespiquen...

#SorryNotSorry

Pikachu (Static. Light Ball. Volt Tackle, Nuzzle, Grass Knot, Brick Break)
Furret (Keen Eye. Damp Rock. Rain Dance, Thunder, Sucker Punch, Baton Pass)
Raichu (Static. Life Orb. Volt Tackle, Thunder, Grass Knot, Brick Break)
Beedrill (Sniper. (Nothing). Focus Energy, Fell Stinger, Poison Jab, Acrobatics)
Vespiquen (Pressure. Leftovers. Attack Order, Air Slash, Heal Order, Toxic)
Dunsparce (Serene Grace. Expert Belt. Charge Beam, Ice Beam, Flamethrower, Shadow Ball)

 

[Hugin]

One of the "fun" parts of this week's challenge is that a lot of the gimmick mons that would make sense to include suck. And when a team already has Plusle and Minun, adding in Vespiquen or Smeargle doesn't exactly improve matters.

So anyway, I included an NFE. In my defense, this is one of the few NFEs who has legit reason to be used, as well as being basically mandatory for most in-game electric bosses.

This is a doubles team. I included Raichu/Plusle/Minun because that's almost all the non-Pikachu electrics available(I'm already using Plusle/Minun, Pichu is right out). Ninjask is yellow/black and moves like a damn lightning bolt. And Seaking has lightning rod and a similar stripy color scheme to how the game usually indicates electrics.

This is going to be a very standard linesman. Seaking for underwater repairs, Ninjask for running aerial lines, 4 electrics for balancing the load. Lots of "you're sending a lot of power our way, but when we return it you'll be the one who overloads" quotes.

Spoiler

Raichu @ Cell Battery
Ability: Static
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Jolly Nature
- Extreme Speed
- Volt Tackle
- Fake Out
- Brick Break

Ninjask @ Wacan Berry
Ability: Speed Boost
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpD / 252 Spe
Adamant Nature
- Baton Pass
- X-Scissor
- Roost
- Thief

Pikachu @ Light Ball
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 Atk / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Hasty Nature
- Surf
- Grass Knot
- Discharge
- Extreme Speed

Plusle @ Choice Specs
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge

Minun @ Air Balloon
Ability: Volt Absorb
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD
IVs: 0 Atk
- Discharge
- Light Screen
- Signal Beam
- Growl

Seaking @ Lum Berry
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Atk / 4 SpA
Lonely Nature
- Waterfall
- Icy Wind
- Drill Run
- Poison Jab

I went a bit tryhard on this moveset, admittedly. Lead Raichu/Ninjask, start Baton Passing speed while Raichu spams strong physical moves/priority. Pikachu has the standard anti-ground special moves and Light Ball. Plusle is Specs-locked into Discharge. Minun has a lot of defensive support moves and an Air Balloon so we're not completely screwed by EQ. Seaking is a standard attacker with coverage we don't otherwise have. Every non-Raichu electric has Discharge, which gives Raichu +1 atk, Pikachu/Plusle +1 Spa, and Minun +25% hp. And yes, this is a Doubles team with Plusle/Minun and no Plus/Minus. The elec immunity their abilities give is just too useful.

And it still probably dies to a single Diggersby.

___

Alternate thoughts: There's a lot of bug types you could justify. Volbeat/Illumise, Beedrill, Vespiquen, even certain patterns of Vivillion would work. The 2 ground types are a really bad fit, otherwise I'd have looked at them. Basically any Psychic would probably be justifiable if you stretched "power" enough, and some of them learn fitting moves(same with Fighting types). And WHY does Furfrou not have a lightning bolt trim? But I like where I ended up.

 

[Ironmage]

On one hand, you could run your batteries in parallel to up the current. On the other, you could run them in series to up the voltage. I was originally going to run with a theme of 'speed' when I noticed which Speed Boost mons are available. The end result is a slightly scuffed Baton Pass team.


Raichu @ Focus Sash
Ability: Static
- Nuzzle
- Knock Off
- Charm
- Teeter Dance
The line is as selfish with its buffs as it is with the spotlight, so Raichu gets stuck with the suicide lead role. Having it in the ace slot is out of the question.


Minun @ Leftovers
Ability: Volt Absorb
- Baton Pass
- Encore
- Discharge
- Charge
There isn't a source of Amnesia+BP within Central Kalos, so I used a move that gives +1 SpD instead. Would it be more efficient to use Quiver Dance Masquerain? Yes, but this is one of the Electric-types I'm feeling less derogatory towards.


Scolipede @ Black Sludge
Ability: Speed Boost
- Iron Defense
- Substitute
- Baton Pass
- Megahorn
The inspiration for pivoting the theme, and the supplier of much-needed Defense boosts.


Plusle @ Mental Herb
Ability: Lightning Rod
- Nasty Plot
- Charge Beam
- Baton Pass
- Discharge
Some extra Taunt insurance in the item slot while adding SpA to the chain.


Exploud @ Assault Vest
Ability: Scrappy
- Boomburst
- Ice Beam
- Flamethrower
- Focus Blast
The first of two receivers. Chosen to represent the bang that occurs when the air's resistance is no longer enough.


Meowstic-F (F) @ Expert Belt
Ability: Infiltrator
- Stored Power
- Thunderbolt
- Psyshock
- Dark Pulse
The Espurr line's lore is about holding back immense power, so it feels natural to have it show what all this has been building up to. I included a secondary STAB just in case the gimmick collapses.

 

[Imperial Magala]

If you put a gun to my head and told me "Use Plusle and Minun.", I'll yell "Shoot me twice". Go look at the Electric types in the Coastal Kalos, and compare it to Central Kalos. Volbeat is the second most viable Electric type to me here.

I'm going with a Rain Dance centric-ish team and bringing transfer moves. If Lysandre's Gyarados can get away with it, so can I.


Focus Sash
-Thunder
-Knock Off
-Grass Knot
-Signal Beam

Standard mixed Raichu. Tempted to bring Surf or Extremespeed for the funsies.


Damp Rock
-Bug Buzz
-Thunder
-Tail Glow
-Rain Dance

Some people cook with love. Right now, I'm cooking with spite. Fireflies are also called Lightning Bugs, and Volbeat learns a decent amount of Electric moves. I don't care about its base 43 Special Attack, I'm not bringing Plusle and Minun.


Expert Belt
-Hydro Pump
-Thunder
-Ice Beam
-Rain Dance

Gyarados is associated with stormy weather, plus Volkner used one in conjunction with Electrive in one of his BDSP Battle Tower teams. If Hurricane was available in Gen 6, I'll replace Ice Beam with it.


Life Orb
-Outrage
-Aqua Tail
-Superpower
-Shockwave

Similar with Steel types in the snow, Thunderstorms attract Dragon types, making them affiliated with Electric types.

Haxorus's base 60 SpA isn't too shabby compared to Volbeat's 43, and I wanted to showboat transfer moves, so Shockwave is part of its moveset.


Leftovers
-Signal Beam
-Flash Cannon
-Electroweb
-Magnet Rise

I considered even more Bug types for this team, with Ninjask, Monsoon form Villion, and Masquerain almost showing up. Wormadam Trash is the only Wormadam form with Magnet Rise, letting it rise above the others and be part of the team.


Gardevoirite
-Hyper Beam
-Dazzling Gleam
-Thunderbolt
-Thunder Wave

Diantha missed out on the Champion trend of running Hyper Beam or Giga Impact that Lance, Steven in R/S and ORAS, Cynthia, Alder, and Iris did with their aces, so my Gardevoir's focused on blowing stuff up with lasers. If Alakazam pulled a Reuniclus and got Thunder with no Thunderbolt, Mega Alakazam would be here.

I took a shower midway through writing this. That's how grimy Central Kalos got dealt with. Two Electric Megas in Kalos, and neither shows up here.

Yet somehow every team I've seen so far is better than Clemont's.

Dedenne was right there. Was imitating Elesa really that important?

 

[Eeveeto]

Just like almost everyone, my team will be designed for Double Battles:

Item: Focus Sash. Ability: Lightning Rod. Moves: Fake Out, Electroweb, Charm, Endeavor. Ok, this is a Pichu. What does have Pichu over Pikachu and Raichu? Lowest possible bulk, Pichu is meant to die quickly. But not before using Fake Out and activating Focus Sash. Pichu supports its lead teammate with Lightning Rod redirecting opposing electric moves, giving him free turns to boost with Charm and Electroweb. Endeavor is a move that abuses the broken Sash. Honestly, one of the best things of BDSP is that said game started giving actual competitive movesets to almost all important trainers. This allows Mons like Pichu to truly shine despite having pathetic Stats.

Item: Gyaradosite. Moves: Dragon Dance, Crunch, Waterfall, Ice Fang. Platinum/Shield Pokedex: Once it begins to rampage, a Gyarados will burn everything down, even in a harsh storm. Harsh storms could be storms with thunders. In fact, Gyarados does learn some electric moves, despite not using them in this team, so it fits. Gyarados is meant to welcome all those challengers that came to the Gym with Ground Mons expecting no resistances. It uses Dragon Dance on the turn Pichu uses Fake Out and goes wild after that, supported by Pichu and next teammates. One thing that almost never happens in games is the Mega Evolution being used as a lead, its nice to do these kind of changes.

Item: Shuca Berry. Ability: Minus. Moves: Electro Ball, Nuzzle, Helping Hand, Mud Slap. The whole point of a Double Battle is to use this guy and its partner. Minun is the bulkiest of the 2, so it has a less offensive set and more focused on supporting with Mud Slap, Nuzzle and Helping Hand.

Item: Life Orb. Ability: Plus. Moves: Thunder, Helping Hand, Grass Knot, Signal Beam. The other pikaclone. Still can support with Helping Hand but this one actually hits hard and has coverage.

Item: Light Ball. Ability: Static. Moves: Volt Tackle, Dig, Brick Break, Discharge. The original Pika. Hits really hard with Volt Tackle before the ace Pokemon appears. After the ace Mon appears, it should be using Discharge to support the ace while doing damage to the foes. Pikachu in the anime always is represented as a fast Mon that avoids hits, well this one has Dig to simulate that, despite being slower than Raichu in games. Its important to have Static as ability on Pika in order to not redirect ace Mon's Thunderbolts.

Item: Air Balloon. Ability: Lightning Rod. Moves: Nasty Plot, Thunderbolt, Surf, Focus Blast. Unsurprising ace, it really is the strongest available electric Mon. Its bulkier than Pikachu, which allows it to use Nasty Plot. It benefits from every surviving teammate using Electric Moves to hit even harder, using Lightning Rod. With a +3 (at least) boost, it should be a powerful final challenge.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

More of a suggestion but I think that it would be cool if you linked to the prompt post so people could easily see everyone's ideas for a given topic. Otherwise this is a really cool thread idea, thank you for making it!

Looking back I totally thought I did this already but apparently I did not. Have linked all the prompt posts in the OP for the sake of ease, (belated) thanks for the suggestion.

 

[SturdyShedinja]

This team is built around using entrainment to pass around plus and minus in doubles to give the whole team the special attack boost.


The actual electric types. Plusle and minun can pass their abilities to their allies to make them stronger, while raichu can abuse the added power or can keep lightning rod to support its teammates.


Audino is not only, the only other entrainment user in central kalos, but it also learns a surprising amount of electric moves. I moved it to the lead slot with plusle since it is bulky enough to pass plus multiple times. It’s only not mega evolved because the audinite didn’t exist until ORAS.


Talonflame was chosen as the primary lightning rod abuser since it provides more kalos representation (and, if bad puns are worth anything, it’s lightning fast). Talonflame also has a usable special attack stat to abuse plus or minus and can learn tailwind to support its surprisingly slow teammates.


For the last slot, I wanted something that could abuse the special attack and speed buffs its teammates could provide while also fitting the electric type theme. I didn’t originally plan on using pikachu, but it fit the bill very well. It’s moveset is a bit odd, but extreme speed, surf, and fake out all had compatibility issues.


Movesets here!
Thank you for reading this far! This round has been a challenging one, but it’s been very interesting to see what everyone has come up with.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

I just remembered I'll be out tomorrow night when the deadline for the current round closes so I'm going to close it early, apologies for any inconvenience (we've not had any posts for a few days anyway so I highly doubt anyone will actually be inconvenienced by this)

But if you have not yet, post your team idea before 9PM GMT tonight! You have approximately seven hours.

 

[QuentinQuonce]

https://strawpoll.com/poy9WNKW2gJ​

New poll is up! We have a hearty 11 contenders. Nice to see a couple of new faces, hope you all take part again. You have until July 14th, 9PM GMT to cast your vote.

Definitely a fun (and challenging) round. Electric is a much harder type than others to lean into; I'm inclined to think that its lack of relationships with other types plays a part in this. Whereas, say, Grass/Bug/Poison and Rock/Ground/Steel all have areas of overlap, or the way in which Psychic/Fighting are noted for their longstanding opposition, Electric is notably only weak to Ground and strong against Flying and Water. Of these, it finds the most association with Water overall thanks to the synergy between rain and electricity. This round could easily just have been rain teams all the way down, but once again everyone's creativity and interesting wildcard picks made it incredibly fun to read and decide who deserved the most points in the poll.

Numbers, and thoughts on said numbers, within:

Numbers

Raichu: 9
Plusle: 9
Minun: 9

Pikachu: 6

Meowstic: 4

Exploud: 3

Seaking: 2
Gyarados: 2
Gardevoir: 2
Beedrill: 2
Volbeat: 2
Medicham: 2

Pichu: 1
Haxorus: 1
Linoone: 1
Ninjask: 1
Wormadam: 1
Vespiquen: 1
Dunsparce: 1
Furret: 1
Azumarill: 1
Scolipede: 1
Scrafty: 1
Smeargle: 1
Talonflame: 1
Audino: 1

Oh hey, I think this is the first time we've ever had all the members of a three-stage evolutionary line make an appearance!* That's nice.

Stuff I expected to see more (or at all)

Seaking. We had it twice, sure, but looking at the list I was certain that having Lightningrod would make it a near-guaranteed inclusion like Sawsbuck in the previous round. Just slap Discharge on all your other squad members and go NUTS!

Diggersby. Doesn't seem like the most fitting, but given the positioning of this round a lot of the teams ended up being composed of cutesy animal types and/or the sort of species you'd encounter relatively early-game. Diggersby fits the bill on both counts.

Linoone. I had the same thought as DuoM2 re that one Zigzagoon in Wattson's gym that knows Shock Wave. Though I believe there's also a Meditite in that gym (and Lavaridge's too! Meditite is everywhere in Hoenn) so the same logic should really apply to Medicham.

Farfetch'd. Like yes on paper this is incredibly out of place but to me somehow it just fits. Has that quirky, luck-based vibe that somehow suits Electric.

Dodrio. Learns Tri Attack, what else is there to say.

Illumise. Ah, poor thing got overshadowed by her (marginally more useful) counterpart. But as Plusle and Minun go together so do Volbeat and Illumise, even if nothing about them actually incentivises using them as a pair.

Short list this time. But then a lot of stuff got used!



*I was going to say "all the members of a line", but iirc someone used both Jigglypuff and Wigglytuff during the "Fairy in ORAS Hoenn" round.

 

[Hugin]

Only 4 double battle teams was a bit surprising, I really expected everyone to go that way. I was also expecting everyone to use at least one bug, because there were so many good bug options. Given that it wasn't mostly doubles, the fact that more people didn't take Pikachu315111's option of telling Plusle and Minun to screw off is a bit surprising to me. Or even just using one of them rather than both.

One thing I noticed was that because it's all Pikaclones, the teams felt more similar even if they weren't. The first slots on QQ's official list in the suggestions post are all identical yellow rats, no matter which specific yellow rats of the 5 available got used.

And I have one more thing I want to say, but it deserves it's own post.

 

[Hugin]

So, we now have 6 challenges completed, and a seventh in the works. Given that, and while we wait for votes to come in...I'm curious what everyone's favorite out of your own teams is. Use whatever reasoning for favorite you want, I'm just curious what people think.

-You are a Dragon-type trainer in DP Sinnoh. How do you best represent your chosen type?
-You are a Poison-type trainer in BW Unova. How do you best represent your chosen type?
-You are a Fairy-type trainer in ORAS Hoenn. How do you best represent your chosen type?
-You are a Ghost-type trainer in GSC Johto. How do you best represent your chosen type?
-You are a Steel-type trainer in LGPE Kanto. How do you best represent your chosen type?
-You are an Ice-type trainer in BW Unova. How do you best represent your chosen type?
-You are an Electric-type trainer in Central Kalos. How do you best represent your chosen type?

Personally, I really enjoyed my answer to Johto-Ghost. In a game with just Gengar and Misdrevus, coming up with 6 wasn't easy, but doing the life/death theme I thought was really fitting. AND I got to reference one of my pet theories while using one of my top 10 mons in Scyther. All in all I really enjoyed that one.

 

[R_N]

I feel like keeping both rabbits was down to just like...I think a number of people do want to use all the options given? See also: the time where people were using Alolan forms in LGPE and others went "i dont get why people used all of them"
The fun, for me, is filling in the gaps, not making more gaps to fill in.


Aside from the GSC-Ghost team, that was me getting too cute for no reason.

I think I'm fond of my poison team the most. Ghost was fun too.

 

[misterdarvus]

Dragon-type is DP was my favorite because while everyone really desperate for dragon stand-in other than Chomp. And then I present them Gabite and everyone just agree it works wonder. Even thought I did not win, I'm glad have become a trendsetter.