A Taste for Competition

In the past I have dipped into competitive training and battling, but never all that seriously or successfully. I built up a team to face the Battle Frontier in Emerald Version and I trained a handful of competitive Pokemon in Diamond Version but I was really lazy about it and ultimately my heart really wasn't in it. I think when it comes down to it, the primary issue was a distinct lack of ability to easily find and face competition. To do so, you were required to head online into forums such as Neoseeker and Gamespot/Gamefaqs and actively seek an opponent which is something I never really quite took to. With the arrival of Black Version, it's cast of new and interesting Pokemon and Random Match I have new found motivation to enter the competitive arena.

While ease of locating competition is a contributing factor, I believe what really spurred me back into working on and building a competitive team was the fresh selection of Pokemon provided by Black and White. While Diamond and Pearl without a doubt brought several more competitive options to the table (some of which can be found among the candidates for my team), for some reason I have found more appeal in this latest generation. There are a couple main things that I feel contribute to that, but the one that really sticks out to me is the charm factor that most of the fifth generation brings to the table. I know that there are several people out there whining and complaining about the Pokemon designs each successive generation, saying that with each generation the designs are simply getting worse. I honestly couldn't disagree more. When it comes to that charm, there are several Pokemon that I can pick out, but the ones that really stick out to me are Stunfisk, Jellicent, Bouffalant, Alomomola, and Sigiliyph. There's just something about a muddy flat fish with a goofy smile, a jelly fish seemingly designed after the pringles man, a bull with an afro, a pink sunfish, and a just plain awesome looking thing (for lack of anything specific to reference in it's design) that just gets me excited and really interested in using them in competition even though they may not exactly be the highest of performers. Another area worthy of noting is unique typing. Previously mentioned Stunfisk and Jellicent bring two completely new type combinations to the table, electric-ground and ghost-water respectively, and I'm intrigued in exploring the possibilities that they provide (especially with Jellicent's eight resistances).