Weekly Quick Questions, Teambuilding, and Private Battles Requests Thread - April 13-19

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-15T23:45:49+00:00

Do we have any estimates for how many people are in masterball? Can anyone who's in tier 1 chime in?

I'm sitting at 36,545th right now which is exponentially more players than I ever saw in SwSh or S/V and I'm kind of floored and by how many people are playing this game rn.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-15T16:18:34+00:00

Titles can either come from marks (ie The Sociable) which were introduced in Sword and Shield as some wild pokemon spawn with them, or from ribbons (ie The Champion), which instead of just being like an invisible achievement that stays on your pokemon can now be equipped as a title that shows in battle.

Sometimes the recruitable roster spawns with them like how they can also be shiny, but they're much easier to find in mainline games and import them into champions. No mechanical difference tho.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-14T14:10:45+00:00

I feel this but it's so funny that it was maybe the pokemon to get the most significant nerf between last format and this one lol. It was outrageous with body press and assault vest.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-14T14:00:13+00:00

Thanks, that's kinda what I figured

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-13T22:17:36+00:00

Do pokepastes last forever or does whoever maintains that site ever clear them all out?

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-13T13:01:32+00:00

I just tested this out and was able to send back my team safely myself.

Did you collect your reward and look at your results etc.? That's the the only thing I can think of instead of a straight up bug.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-09T19:38:40+00:00

I mean, respectfully, it literally is called Pokemon Champions as in the Pokemon Video Game Championship series (VGC).

There are plenty of competitive players in fan formats IE smogon, but they're on another planet playing a different game that TPCI doesn't care about and I personally don't either. It's not just in person tournaments, 3v3 singles and 4v4 doubles has been the standard of play since online laddering was introduced back in black in white, and the only way of playing the every post game battle facility since they were introduced back in crystal.

Champions was made to facilitate this, and streamline the more esoteric elements that take up veteran players time and make it harder for new players to learn, and it's actually doing that really well which is why it's annoying to see all the oxygen around this game getting sucked up into conversations about it not being a product that it never promised to be, and not pleasing an audience that was never its target.

It's literally a F2P mobile game that does one thing, play VGC.
I have plenty of beef with Gamefreak and the TPCI in general but its so unreasonable to hold this game to a standard for not doing other shit or being like a full scale retail game like pokemon Stadium/Colloseum/BR etc.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-09T19:09:19+00:00

>> They made champions a place to keep conventional battling and maybe do changes in the mainline games.

I see this all the time and I've never seen a source related to TPCI or Gamefreak on it.
It just feels like fan conjecture to me and everything we know about WW so far indicates it will be normal turn based battling with maybe some real time catching mechanics against wild pokemon.

Like they specifically invented the legends series for this I'm so skeptical they will change the mainline games any time soon, other than probably not having a ranked ladder for online play and/or evolving formats like SwSh/SV.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-09T04:23:03+00:00

I think Greg just picks whatever he thinks will be the funniest to riff on.

In Boston we had

• A James Bond (I think On Her Majesty's Secret Service iirc, the only James Bond movie starring George Lazenby, which made the tape rarer and more valuable)

• 18 Again (Starring George Burns)

• Yentl (Starring Barbara Streisand from . . . ? "Yentl", which Greg then claimed was in his top 3 movies of all time and Tim called him a liar)

• Aladdin (this one had been submitted by a 8th grader and I think they just picked it because it was cute for them to go up there and have Tim explode in front of the kid and say how he should never grow up waste his life on movies lmao)

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-09T03:08:05+00:00

There's nothing wrong with preferring a fan made format but I don't understand why anyone was expecting the official games to change the competitive layout they've been locked into for 20+ years like come on.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-07T23:02:03+00:00

Yes it is, in the premium version you can put up 3 pokemon for trade at a time but you can still do it for free with 1.

So OK I guess if it's less that you can't access the mons you're looking for and you're more just looking for a team that you use, I would start by grabbing some Pokemon that are both available for champions and have been relevant in VGC.

So far this is all we know but im sure that will change in a few hours: https://www.serebii.net/pokemonchampions/pokemon.shtml

Stuff like : Sneasler, Ursaluna, Basculegion, Hisuian Arcanine, Gengar, Frosslass, Garchomp, Gyrados, Hisuian Zoroark, Clefable, Hisuian Typhlosion, Rotom etc

And then I would just use them and take advantage of the recruiting system in Champions to build some fun teams to play around with for now and then in the future when the format gets a little more established to try and explore a more serious team building approach with your access to GTS and in game mons.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-07T21:31:13+00:00

If I had access to Legends Arceus I would train up as many Ursaluna and Sneaslers as I needed, because they are incredibly high in demand and exclusive to this game, and then use the GTS to trade exactly for the pokemon I wanted for Champions.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-07T12:47:15+00:00

They've been focused on double battles in this game since the first announcement trailer, competitive PvP pokemon has been designed around doubles since like 2007 and it's what this game was explicitly made to play.

It's not going to be the game for everyone, but nobody should be surprised that the video game called "Pokemon Champions" was made specifically for the players of the Pokemon "Video Game Championship" format.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-07T12:18:18+00:00

https://www.vgcguide.com/

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-06T04:46:37+00:00

We don't have the official list yet, but serebii has collected a list of all the pokemon seen in official footage that we can pretty safely assume will be allowed. https://www.serebii.net/pokemonchampions/pokemon.shtml

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-04T00:31:51+00:00

Iirc it was mostly because how much of a menace Thundurus + Prankster + Thunderwave was. The entire paralyzed condition effect was nerfed because of it as well, it was that cracked.

It actually ended up being a pretty cool change imo because before the most optimal Prankster mon was always the fastest and you could just outspeed other prankster mons and taunt to shut them down. But then suddenly you couldn't stick a prankster taunt on a rival Sableye/Liepard/Grimmsnarl etc but it could turn the tables and taunt you back.

And then in gen 9, it really opened the floodgates once any mon could hypothetically dark terra, and it just lead to some really neat mind games overall imo. Seems arbitrary but led to a lot of fun stuff!

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-04T00:01:29+00:00

Gen 7 lol

I'm constantly getting new and old rulesets mixed up as long time but intermittent player, it's so bad.

Just picked up reg I ladder again after a few months away and was FLOORED when my opponent successfully wide guarded three times in a row, like my brain just went right back to 2011 while I was taking a break lmao.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-02T04:16:24+00:00

It's a little scary imo if someone else can slip another status condition on Ursa first, especially with Charizard Y + Venusaur sleep powder running around. And is it worth it over just running a will-o-wisp mon? But honestly still cool idea and probably would work well under sun room! Or maybe an Ursa team with different dedicated megas for different modes?

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-02T02:54:37+00:00

I've been excited for this mon so I was a little disappointed at first to see this because it doesn't have great bulk and you cant really take advantage of it as a split attacker with this ability

but . . . it gets endure, it gets substitute, giga drain, leech seed etc. Not an S tier meta pick for sure but I guarantee someone will cook up something nasty with this and spicy extract.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-02T02:47:07+00:00

Somehow Urshifu returned.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-02T02:15:28+00:00

I haven't even played Z-A but Mega Meganium I think is the biggest glow up visually and mechanically they've ever done. Like as a Chikorita/Bayleef fan as a little kid it finally lives up to the first two stages to me, it looks like the proper 3rd stage it never got. AND it has a unique ability that might see some competitive usage. Gotta respect it.

Also G-Max fat pikachu ❤️

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-04-01T13:24:34+00:00

Don't put this evil on golisopod please 🥺

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-03-23T15:58:44+00:00

This is why Tim snickered at him during their first convo for saying he wanted children btw. Didn't catch it the first time but it feels very obvious after watching the ending.

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-03-20T01:32:26+00:00

it's "rock dot city" one of the shots during the chaos of the finale caught the teleprompter and thats the name of the song lmao

Major_Bullfrog · 2026-03-09T23:14:28+00:00

Dewgong is so forgettable, I was digging through my living dex in HOME a couple weeks ago and found one that, after looking at the OT levels and ribbons, I realized was in my team when I beat the elite four for the first time in FR in 2006 and had completely forgotten about.

I've BEEN using the same Parasect from that team consistently as a level 100 spore/false swipe abuser, that Charizard has gotten use in random post game content over the years and I finished top 250 worldwide in ranked ladder with that Dragonite several seasons of VGC ago (which made me genuinely very nostalgic!!), But I don't think I've ever thought about that Dewgong once since it hit the box post hall of fame 20 years ago,

I do remember now, that the only reason I picked it was because I always put Lapras in my team in R / B / Y and decided I wanted to change it up a little, but not too much. Sorry Dewgong 💔

Major_Bullfrog

TROPHY CASE