A trainer won an important Pokémon Crimson and Crimson tournament with an unusual team. He renounced on some Meta-Pokémon because he was following a specific strategy.
Which player is it about? Joseph Ugarte is a professional Pokémon player from the United States who competes in competitive Pokémon tournaments in the VGC format. He’s currently competing in Pokémon Crimson and Crimson.
What was that tournament? This past weekend, Joseph competed in a regional Pokemon tournament in Portland and made his way to the finals over two days. There Joseph met Zishuo Ding.
For the win, the American received prize money of 2,000 and 200 Championship Points (CP). These are points that Pokémon players earn to qualify for the Pokémon World Championships.
Earning 200 CP is therefore an important step on the way to becoming the best trainer in the world.
Joseph is banking on sunny weather
What was Joseph’s plan? Joseph played a so-called sun team at the tournament in Portland, based around the Pokémon Qurtel and Papunga. On top of that, he had the two Paradox Pokémon Flutterhair and Giant Tooth, the legendary evil monster Baojian, and Gladimperio on his team.
Qurtel is supposed to bring about sunny weather with his “Drought” ability, which, in combination with the ability of Flutterhair and Giant Tooth Paleosynthesis, further increases the strongest stat of the two monsters.
Papunga also benefits from its Chlorophyll Ability, which doubles the Grass Flying Monster’s Ability in Sunshine, making it a fast support Pokémon. Joseph plays this with the attacks Leaf Storm, Sleeping Powder, Endurance and Tailwind.
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Joseph deviates from the meta
What Pokemon does Joseph skip? Because Joseph uses Papunga and Qurtel on his Sun team, he’s missing out on two Pokemon that are heavily featured in the current meta and are among the top 12 most played Pokemon at the Portland tournament. Gladimperio, although a very strong monster and played frequently, is not in the top 12 of the tournament either.
While both Flutterhair, Giantfang, and Baojian are heavily played in the current meta, Pokemon like Arcane, Dragoran, the Heerashai/Nigiragi combo, Delfinator, or Ambassador are completely absent from his team.
The 12 most played Pokemon at the Portland Regional, Days 1 & 2
What advantages does the unusual team bring? A similar role to Papunga fills the current meta of Pokémon Crimson and Crimson Hutsass. The mushroom-like plant poison monster is mostly played with the attacks Rage Powder and Mushroom Spore.
Mushroom Spore can put your opponent’s Pokémon to sleep, so it serves the same purpose as Jospeh’s Papunga’s Sleep Powder attack. While Sleeping Powder has lower accuracy and can miss, the Chlorophyll ability makes Papunga a lot faster than Ambassador. In the Portland finals, he was able to put the opposing Pokémon combination Heerashai and Nigiragi to sleep.
On top of that, Papunga, which is comparatively rarely played, can use the Tailwind attack due to its Flying-type, further doubling the speed of all of the user’s Pokémon – a strategic advantage that Ambassador can’t help with.
How important is strategy in Pokemon? In competitive Pokémon matches, Trainers have to make a lot of strategic decisions.
It starts with the choice of the six Pokémon that a player takes on his team. But the four attacks that a Pokémon learns, the skills played, items or the distribution of stats are just as important.
At the tournament in Portland, three Pokémon were played on both days with Delfinator, Iron Bundle and Fuzzy Hair, which were considered very strong shortly after the release of Crimson and Crimson:
In Pokémon Crimson & Crimson, 4 monsters are overpowered that you would never expect to be