Pokémon Thread XXX: Hot Skitty on Wailord Action!

[Lvl 2 Expert]

I have just sort of completed a casual challenge run in White 2. It's a good game for that sort of thing. The only obligatory HM use is Strength on victory road, the level scaling seems pretty decent, the experience system helps a bit against small teams overleveling too much, despite the weird 3D effects every now and then the world looks good, and it's the last generation where the mechanics were not centralized around a big new concept that would be scrapped a generation and a half down the road, so it plays rather timeless. The AI is also surprisingly decent, when it learns I have a Water Absorb mon I can switch in for instance it stops using Surf. (A trade-off I happily abuse to its disadvantage, but it's cool to see.)

But how do you sort of complete a challenge? Well, the goal here was to beat the game with my "if I was an NPC"-team (that's also designed to work under Battle Palace rules) (yes, that's a weird concept for a team) consisting of my favorite pokémon Rhydon and Quagsire with certain moves and held items and such. The goal of the team design was to max out their teamwork in a double battle basically, rather than their effectiveness. They don't run particularly good sets, but they're still both rather decent mon you would think. To beat the champion, not only did I switch out those held items for leftovers and a shell bell (I never picked up the eviolite), I also resorted to emulator save state scumming, saving between enemy pokémon during the match (because I wanted to do a run with cheated-in Pokémon I was on an emulator anyway). I did not give in to the temptation of using trainer items in battle, nor did I use switch battle style, but still, I had to cheat to beat the champion with pokémon of (at the end of the battle) level 68 and 69, ten levels higher than the champion's ace at 59.

I curiously thought back of a runthrough of Red I had done using Rhydon and Nidoking years ago, a pretty similar pair. I looked up the save, from 2011 it turns out. So yes, I used shift battle style, and I may have allowed in battle items, but I don't see any evidence of using save states during the battle. I also looked up the levels of these guys, level 54 and 59, where 59 was also the level of the weakest mon the champion in that game used. Sure, gen 1 opponents used horrible movesets, but in terms of levels he was still more powerful then the champion I just sort of beat.

So, I did it at levels 54 and 59 then, at levels 68 and 69 now.

I must therefore conclude that rather distressingly over the course of the last decade I have become over ten levels worse at playing Pokémon games.

Spoiler: (The details of my (current) team, for chronically curious people.)

Show

Dash
Rhydon (M) @ Pecha Berry
Ability: Lightning Rod
EVs: full HP, half Atk and SpD
Hasty Nature
- Rock Polish (synergy with mud shot, setup for sweeps)
- Smack Down (allows mud shot and drill run to hit)
- Surf (hits all adjacent pokémon, heals Quagsire)
- Drill Run (damage)

Slap
Quagsire (M) @ Soft Sand
Ability: Water Absorb
EVs: full HP, half Atk and SpD
Hasty Nature
- Sandstorm (raises Rhydon's SpD, for finishing off tiny slivers of health and gaining some extra advantage)
- Mud Shot (synergy with rock polish, damage raised by soft sand)
- Sludge Wave (coverage against grass, hits all adjacent pokémon but Rhydon double resistant with pecha berry)
- Waterfall (damage)