This is a post about video games (specifically Pokemon), so if you’re not interested, feel free to skip it!

I haven’t really posted anything except maybe an off-hand comment about anything related to video games here before. But it’s a major part of how I chill out and de-stress, so I’m going to start posting about it occasionally.  Later, I want to explore this more seriously in connection with managing PTSD, but today it’s just going to be nerding out about Pokemon. And when I say nerding I mean it—this is stuff probably only competitive players know or care about, so even if you play you may still be confused by some of this stuff. Pokemon is a game with a lot of hidden aspects to it, and I don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty here. There are plenty of guides elsewhere on the internet if you really want to know what I’m talking about, though.

Right now, there’s a pokemon tournament going on called the Spooky Cup. I don’t usually do tournaments, but I am a goth little princess so I can’t resist when it’s ghost-themed. I had a lot of fun with last year’s ghost-only tournament even though it was single battles (I kinda hate singles, I like doubles and triples much better). I got to play with Mega Banette, which is probably my favorite mega art-wise, and while I would’ve chosen Trevenant over Gourgeist if I had the choice (last year it was required to have a super-sized Gourgeist on your team), it was really interesting to see what the giant pumpkin could do.

This year my biggest gripe is that Volcarona is allowed but Mandibuzz isn’t. I don’t see what’s “spooky” about Volcarona! Or Pikachu, for that matter, but Pikachu has always been an exception because it’s the mascot, so whatever, I guess. But… no Mandibuzz? What? She wears a SKIRT MADE OF BONES, how does that not fit the spooky theme?

Marowak is allowed, but not Mandibuzz. I don’t understand. I don’t think Mandibuzz is particularly game-breaking or anything.

I think my favorite thing about this tournament is that mega stones aren’t allowed. It’s nice to not just see M-Gengar and M-Banette over and over again like last year, even though this year there would also have been non-ghost types allowed.

Anyway, here are some interesting things I’ve encountered:

• Life Orb Zweilous was something I never would’ve expected to see.
• Fortunately that guy didn’t expect my Jellicent to have the item/moveset I gave it either. Very few people seem to consider it—they didn’t expect it last year, either. It’s been a good counter to Gengar.
• Someone actually used a Pikachu! And it 1-shotted Jellicent! (I still won though.)
• Scrappy Boomburst Exploud seems really exploitable in a tourny like this, but I came prepared for that. Only seen a few people actually use it though.
• Fridge Rotom and Froslass got me. I should’ve expected it. Especially because I use a Hail triples team in the Battle Maison.
• I would’ve expected to see more Prankster Meowstics. So far only 2. I really wonder how well my usual Harvest Trevenant/Sunny Day Meowstic combo would’ve done in this tournament, but I wanted to try something different.
• Interesting environment for Hydreigon due to very few fairy types. 40% of my opponents so far have had one on their team. It’s easy enough to counter with Dazzling Gleam though.
• Gengar is also in 40% of my opponents’ battle boxes. I usually don’t have trouble with Gengar either.
• Volcarona is almost as prevalent as Gengar and Hydreigon, but much more annoying.
• Only seen 4 other Sableyes so far, which is good because Sableye vs. Sableye sucks. That was very annoying last year, in singles. Doubles makes it a lot less terrible at least.
• Zoroark is so much fun to play. So far, I’ve only seen 2 others using it, though, and neither of them picked it for the match. That’s a little disappointing, since I’d like to play Spot the Zoroark, but I suppose other Zoroark users don’t think they can trick me with it. There are still some mind games before you know that they didn’t pick it, though, so that’s fun.
• Only one person has ragequit on me so far. Four people respectfully forfeited when things didn’t go their way. Ragequits have been a serious problem in the past so that’s nice.

So far my win rate is about 66%. I’m not an especially good player, but hey, I’m doing better than I expected! We’ll see how tomorrow goes though.

Edit: Finished yesterday with a 60% win rate (27/45) and then collapsed into bed. Now that it’s over, I’ll post some of the most amusing battles below for the few of you who might enjoy them. (Here’s how to view battle videos.)

Btw, my trainer’s name in this game is really weird because it was originally just a Nuzlocke run, and I wanted an easy way to tell later. Then I decided I really don’t want to ever play through Alpha Sapphire again, because the Zinnia thing at the end is really annoying (although the music is great).

Battle videos:

• HSVG-WWWW-WW3W-932H — Jellicent was amazing on the last turn of this one.
• 9URW-WWWW-WW3W-97E3 — Zoroark and Sableye work together really well.
• NRHW-WWWW-WW3W-9B7U — This guy’s Rotom’s tricking shenanigans made me have to be really careful and creative to win.
• ACDG-WWWW-WW3W-9CLM — Gengar somehow managed to hang on for more turns than it should have all alone at 1hp and got all three of Mizore’s remaining pokemon by itself. I don’t even know. I thought I’d lost!