Pokémon Champions - Coach House - Sep 3 26

Well, the 2026 World Championships have come and gone—I wasn’t able to go to it or Pokémon XD due to the travel costs involved (and lodging spiked in price around that weekend; I’m not sure if they knew a major event was going on or if they simply saw a jump in demand for lodging that weekend and responses accordingly). I had a feeling they weren’t going to announce anything for Pokémon Wind and Waves yet, not until 2027, but they would have something for Pokémon Champions. Did not expect a fully animated trailer! I still think it’ll be crazy, but logical, for Mega Baxcalibur to get Sharpness and Glaive Rush changed to a cutting move. It would have one-hit KO potential for near anything that isn’t a Fairy-type. 00:00 - Battle #1 Type: Double Battle Opponent: Kira Battle Court: Battle Arena Music: Trainer (HeartGold & SoulSilver) My Pokémon: Kane (Mr. Rime), Poindexter (Overqwil), Mabel (Clefable), Ferdinand (Tauros) (Kantonian) Opponent’s Pokémon: Banette, Medicham, Sneasler, Maushold My opponent used an interesting strategy, one I hadn’t seen before: Mega Banette uses Skill Swap on Medicham, allowing Mega Banette to hit for double power off that colossal 165 Attack while Medicham gets Prankster priority uses of Coaching to boost its Attack higher. (And Defense.) This Banette can be unstoppable if you take too long to get rid of it, though it is vulnerable to a more or less idle first turn and to special attackers. It also requires two turns of attacking with just one Pokémon: the first turn is taken up with Banette using Skill Swap, and the second with Medicham using Coaching. And if Medicham doesn’t switch out to regain Pure Power (and another use of Fake Out), it becomes a millstone, as a Pokémon with very low stats (though it can continue to use Coaching with the Prankster boost, hence all the physical attackers: this is not a tentpole team, as I had originally thought, where there is one main attacker and everything else is support). 04:00 - Battle #2 Type: Double Battle Opponent: Kash Battle Court: Battle Arena Music: Ivor My Pokémon: Vincenzo (Sceptile), Ferdinand (Tauros) (Kantonian), Poindexter (Overqwil), Mabel (Clefable) Opponent’s Pokémon: Heliolisk, Tyranitar, Gyarados, Cofagrigus Heliolisk is, on rare occasions, used to counter Basculegion, as one of the only Pokémon with immunity to both Ghost (via the Normal-type) and Water (via Dry Skin). Heliolisk can also hit back with super-effective Electric-type moves. Obviously, this team I’m using doesn’t have Basculegion, so that won’t apply, but Heliolisk turned up anyway. Speaking of Electric-type moves, I’m sure the intent behind Volt Switch was to quickly get Heliolisk out of the way of a bad matchup, but it instead fed Lightning Rod on Vincenzo (Sceptile), with a Sp. Attack boost strong enough for a one-hit KO on Cofagrigus, it seems. I was pretty surprised about that myself. 08:06 - Battle #3 Type: Double Battle Opponent: やま (Yama) Battle Court: Battle Arena Music: Canari My Pokémon: Poindexter (Overqwil), Ferdinand (Tauros) (Kantonian), Bjorn (Lycanroc) (Midday), Vincenzo (Sceptile) Opponent’s Pokémon: Aerodactyl, Gallade, Incineroar, Gallade Mega Aerodactyl is a popular Pokémon people use to set Tailwind if they’d rather not use Whimsicott or some other Prankster user: with a base Speed of 150, it practically gets first dibs on the first turn anyway. I’m guessing this one got stat points in Defense, maybe Sp. Defense, because those Rock Slide attacks were nothing to write home about, but this Mega Aerodactyl was more resilient than those stats would suggest (80 HP, 85 Defense, 95 Sp. Defense…not glass cannon fragile, but not “takes only 40% damage from Close Combat” bulky). The major thing about Tailwind I consider is that it lasts four turns, so my goal is to hold up until it goes away and hope that the Tailwind user is either Knocked Out or can be Knocked Out before it can set Tailwind again. 13:00 - Battle #4 Type: Double Battle Opponent: Raimu Battle Court: Battle Arena Music: Gym Leader (X & Y) My Pokémon: Poindexter (Overqwil), Ferdinand (Tauros) (Kantonian), Kane (Mr. Rime), Vincenzo (Sceptile) Opponent’s Pokémon: Rotom (Wash), Sceptile, Garchomp, Sinistcha Here is another person making use of Mega Sceptile! This lizard has incredible Sp. Attack and Speed, and he effectively stops Wash Rotom in its tracks with Lightning Rod and a double resistanc to Water. I’m sure my opponent knows that though. Of course, a big difference is that they picked Sceptile as an opener, whereas i picked my Sceptile as a closer, at least for this battle. Mega Sceptile can lay waste to various Pokémon, but it can’t deal with any moves it’s weak to. Hence, I could be sure I could fight that Garchomp with Vincenzo: either it doesn’t have Choice Scarf and would be slower than him, or it does have Choice Scarf and is locked into Earthquake, which Vincenzo resists.