High Life (Day 98)

Man, I thought I'd be resuming my playthrough of Lost Odyssey today, but I have been glued to my computer screen for the past--oh, 14 hours?--playing Pokemon Showdown. The speed of the gameplay and the incredibly user friendly interface have led to an almost incurable addiction. All of the team compositions I've wanted to try over the years are now at my fingertips--and evidently all the Smogon articles I've read during that time have paid off. My win rate has been surprisingly decent.

The novelty may eventually wear off, but I'm now almost ready to go to sleep and I'm still playing. I've fallen in love with some Pokemon that I only had a passing familiarity with before. Avalugg's ability to tank even super-effective moves and counter with double power Avalanches has been invaluable. Chesnaught's ability to shut down physical attackers with Rocky Helmet and Spiky Shield and then wear them down with Leech Seed really fits with my playstyle. Similarly, Breloom's staying power with Toxic Orb + Poison Heal and Leech Seed/Drain Punch is terribly frustrating to play against--luckily, it seems I'm the only one doing it.

I've also had a lot of success with Malamar, the new Psychic/Dark type. It has unremarkable (although solid) stats, but what really makes it stand out is its hidden passive ability Contrary. With this ability all stat changes are reversed--boosting moves like Swords Dance would reduce his attack two stages, rendering those moves all but useless. However, Malamar has access to the extremely strong 120 base power Fighting move Superpower. What balances out this move on most Pokemon is the fact that it reduces your attack and defense one stage after each use. On Malamar, his stats are raised instead, making it an extremely powerful boosting tool.

With his (I believe) unique Psychic/Dark typing, Malamar is only weak to Bug and Fairy and immune to Psychic. Unfortunately, he has no other resistances--but with repeated uses of Superpower he will be capable of tanking strong physical hits. I feel like Malamar is particularly strong with Baton Pass support. I've been passing him speed and attack boosts from Ninjask and occasional Substitutes from Vaporeon so that he can dig in and start bulking up. With Superpower, Psycho Cut, and Dark Slash, he has very respectable coverage on a variety of types. If set up properly he is almost impossible to stop.

The last slot on his moveset is Malamar's signature move, Topsy-turvy. Similarly to his hidden ability, Topsy-turvy reverses stat changes, but in this move's case, it can be used on enemies. If an enemy sweeper were to stack a couple of Swords Dance boosts on himself he might find himself dismayed to have this move used against him. Instead of having quadruple attack, he would now have 1/4th instead, generally forcing a switch, giving Malamar a free Superpower (unless they switch in a Ghost type).

Basically I am saying that Pokemon battling is a lot of fun, especially when all the tedious bits are surgically removed. I imagine I'll be using this website off and on for quite some time!