(ace poké-team)
An Ace Trainer is nothing without her ace partners! …Actually, this Ace Trainer is still nothing with her ace partners. But that doesn’t make them any less ace.
I feel the undying desire to write long rambles about my Pokémon Black team (and Black2 here), rambles that I realize no one will want to read. Nevertheless, they’re my dear friends into whose Level-100 upbringing I’ve invested OvEr 900!!! gameplay hours of my life, so I want to show them off.
*Click any sprite to see the Pokémon’s in-game summary screen with moveset and stuff.*
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UNOVA NATIVES: SUPER SIX 
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Dewott ♂
Nickname: Mishu. Something Japanese due to his ninja-inspired design: it’s a combination of mizu (水 – ”water”) and shu (修 – “discipline,” as in Dewott’s species name).
• My wonderful original partner! I chose not to fully evolve him because Dewott is my favorite Unova Pokemon: the perfect blend of cuteness and toughness. He has NEVER EVER EVER been boxed for even one minute, and never will be. …He and several of my main partners have been taught “Return” because it’s probably my favorite Pokemon move ever; the concept of turning friendship into power is so sweet – and basically what Pokémon is all about, right?
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Unfezant ♀♀♀
Nickname: Inca (like the species of dove)
• Inca is my faithful Flyer, nearly always on hand. I enjoy using her to show Cheren’s silly-masked male Unfezant who’s boss, with her awesome girl power.
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Stoutland ♂♂♂
Nickname: Herr
• On the flip side, not girly at all. My manliest Pokémon. So very manly. Why so manly? *Story time!* Obviously, this guy was caught as a Lillipup two minutes into the game. I wasn’t paying attention to the gender, and, uh, I named him “Lilly.” …Then he started hitting puberty (evolution) and the epic mustache started growing in. I felt so bad about the improper nickname that I changed it ASAP. I knew the new name had to be something super-manly, to compensate for its girly history. Well, what manlier name than the German word for “Mister”? It serves as a subtle Ace Attorney callback for me, and it fits because it sounds like the beginning of “Herdier.” The King’s Rock he holds is to further emphasize his intimidating MANLINESS. … …And no, the irony of such a name that still sounds like a feminine pronoun does not escape me.
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Chandelure ♂
Nickname: Lumi
• For good reason, Chandelure is my second-favorite Unova Pokémon. Who couldn’t love such a stylishly creepy thing? For even better reason, he is my number-one most frequent battler. …That Sp.Attack. Hnnggh.
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Mienshao ♂
Nickname: Xiao
• Especially during the later gym battles, he was my unbeatable warrior, my go-to guy for a sure win. Drain Punch is one of the awesomest moves ever, and Aura Sphere > > > Hi-Jump Kick, because I like accuracy. Also, just as I like how Return embodies the idea of fighting with the power of friendship, I like how Aura Sphere embodies the idea of fighting with the power of your fighting spirit!
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Volcarona ♀
Nickname: n/a
• From the Treasure Hunter’s egg. I never actually planned to make her a major part of my team. Honestly, I tried to get rid of her in GTS Negotiations for the longest time. No one took her. Then when I started doing some breeding, I heard about the thing where eggs hatch faster alongside a Pokémon with the Flame Body ability. So I check her out, and whaddya know… Suddenly, I was overwhelmingly grateful that she never got traded! Since I was gonna keep her for hatching anyway, I figured I may as well start using her more in battle. That’s when I realized… Holy crap. She’s a BEAST! Greatest Bug Pokémon EVER!
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THE STUFF OF LEGENDS 
(AND MOVIE PLOTS)
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Zoroark ♂
Nickname: n/a (obtained in trade)
• I’ve bred a billion of ‘em since, but this was the very first Zorua I got my hands on. Funny story: At the time, I had no idea about Zorua’s ability. When I first sent him out in battle, and up came the name and image of my Unfezant, I completely freaked out. I was like, AHH THIS THING IS HACKED. AHH THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH POKEMON TRADED FROM JAPAN. AHH MY GAME CARTRIDGE IS ON THE FRITZ AHH. …Then he got hit. “Zorua’s Illusion wore off!” I can’t tell you what a good, long laugh I had at myself. It’s pretty impressive when your own Pokémon’s illusion can fool even you!
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Reshiram
Nickname: n/a (I’d feel disrespectful giving a silly name to a legendary creature. I still don’t really consider myself to “own” it.)
• My hero of Truth. The sleek, elegant primary reason I chose Black Version over White. Blue-Eyes White Dragon, I summon choose you!
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Victini
Nickname: n/a
• Yay! The first Event Pokémon that I actually got myself during an event! (Downloaded on the same day I went to see THE MOVIE IN THEATRES. Oh boy, that was amazing.) Event moveset and item preserved.
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YELLOW-YEARS
REUNION 
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Pikachu ♂
Nickname: Pikapal (…Cheesy? Perhaps. But it’s the name I gave to my partner in Yellow Version when I was eight, so…)
• If you ask me to choose just one favorite Pokémon out of all 649, my honest answer can’t be anything but Pikachu. As much as I hate sounding like the ignorant old-school fan who likes Pikachu because it’s the only Pokémon she knows (not true!), Pikachu will always have the dearest spot in my heart. He’s the series mascot for good reason. It’s impossible not to fall in love with him. In the anime: super cute, super strong, and a fantastic personality with a heart as big as his trainer’s. In the games: super cute, and…slightly less strong, but… Regardless, I wanted the experience of raising a Pikachu from egg to 100 and making him as a solid member of my team, to further justify how much I love him. Now I just love him all the more. (…Also, it’s such a miracle I got that Light Ball. GTS Negotiations can truly be a treasure trove!)
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Pidgeot ♂
Nickname: n/a (obtained in trade)
• Second part of my attempt to (semi-)recreate my original team from Yellow. Even with plenty new birds being introduced every generation, I think Pidgeot remains the coolest- and classiest-looking out of all of them.
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Nidoqueen ♀
Nickname: n/a (obtained in trade. …However, in my mind, her name is Nadja. It was a toss-up between that and the other similar, similarly-anime-inspired names Nausicaa and Nadia, but I like the sound of “Nadja” best. There are many subtle reasons for it, but the primary one is that it sounds like “nausea,” referencing her Poison typing.)
• Final part of my attempt to recreate my original team from Yellow. “Nidy♀,” as she was known back then (just when you though my 8-year-old self could get any dumber than “Pikapal,” huh?), was such a superstar, and I was so grateful to her. It’s a shame there’s no way to take your team with you from first-gen, but paying homage to them like this is the next-best thing!
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PAST-GEN 
FAVORITES
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Togetic ♂
Nickname: n/a (obtained in trade)
• Hands down, this is the Pokémon I had the absolute funnest time training. One word: Metronome. It never gets old. Never. Especially the part where I got to see a Level 5 Togepi unleash a ROAR OF TIME on an unsuspecting foe.
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Slowking ♂
Nickname: n/a (obtained in trade)
• Slowking is my favorite second-genner. I like his look. I love using him in battle because seeing the Shellder’s eyes blinking on its back-sprite is amusing to me. I think the concept behind his evolution is really interesting. I admire the versatility and variety in the TMs he can learn. And I also greatly enjoyed his role in the second movie, heh-heh. Everything about this Pokémon is just great.
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Spinda ♂
Nickname: パッチール (JP species name; obtained in trade)
• This Pokémon is very special to me, as he was the last one I needed to complete my Dex. Literally, this is the Spinda whose OT I heart-icon-spammed in GTS Negotiations, the Spinda who earned me the National Diploma. So I kept him and fostered him and grew to love a species to which I’d never before given much thought. With the international-trade experience boost, he was the easiest guy ever to train, and I had a ton of fun with his fabulous combination of Own Tempo + Thrash (+ Silk Scarf~).
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Mismagius ♀
Nickname: n/a (obtained in trade)
• Mismagius stands out from the fourth-gen set as my favorite design. Er, maybe I’m crazy, but… I happen to think Mismagius is quite a beautiful Pokémon. ^^; Sure, she’s got that creepy smile – but look at the elegant flow of her body! And that color is GORGEOUS. Purple is my favorite color, but not just any purple. It’s hard to explain which shade of purple I like, except to Pokémon fans. It’s Mismagius-purple. That’s the perfect purple.
I don’t disagree with the more widely-recognized “most beautiful Pokemon”… Come on. If Froslass’s creepy jagged-lipped ghost face can be considered pretty, why not Mismagius’s too? I just wish this little witch would get a little more love on those lists.
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Sudowoodo ♀
Nickname: n/a (only because I think the species has one of the cleverest Poké names of all time!)
• I’ve gotta be honest: I greatly dislike Rock types. Sudowoodo would qualify as my “favorite” Rock type only because…I don’t like any of them much at all. Not only am I unable to find a single Rock-type species (besides this gal) appealing to me for my personal team, but I also HATE battling them. Training this Sudowoodo from egg to 100 was my way of forcing myself to give Rock-types a shot. I built her up as the epitome of everything I hate in opponents, and everything that’s contrary to my own typical style:
Stone Edge = “High critical hit ratio”? Sheesh, no kidding. My poor friends have been knocked out by this move too many times to count. Time to unleash it back on you, NPC trainers. …Too bad low-accuracy moves always seem to work when your opponent uses it and miss when you use it yourself. Sucker Punch = If you’ve been clicking on the sprites to see their profiles, you’ll have noticed that my team’s movesets are heavily, if not purely, offensive. (I admit I’m a sucky, strategiless battler, okay?) Thus, I am extremely vulnerable to this attack because I am always preparing a move, so it never fails. It’s not as rewarding as I thought when I use it against others who keep using defensive moves… Stealth Rock = ASLAGFHAF. ALL OF MY RAGE, CHEREN. LET’S SEE HOW YOU LIKE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOUR MONS GETTING STABBED AS THEY COME OUT. The Sturdy ability on in-game opponents also drives me crazy (because, lacking defense tactics, I tend to rely on OHKOs for my partners’ survival…) so I appreciate the chance to use it against others… … But… Yeah. Unfortunately, I still didn’t quite learn to love Rock types after this experience.
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ALMOST
FORGOTTEN
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Simisear ♂
Nickname: Blaze
Zebstrika ♂
Nickname: Shima
Gothitelle ♂
Nickname: Lita
• There are always those few Pokémon you use early on in the game and then eventually forget about, right? That’s who these three are. They had been set aside for a long while, but just recently I turned back to give them some more attention, and the dignity of completing their training to Level 100. They very nobly helped me win a lot of early battles in the game, so I felt that they deserved it.
In Gothitelle’s case, she– I mean, he helped me with his Frisk ability to snag a bunch of held items from wild Pokémon that I was desperately needing at some point for one reason or another. It was a long and frustrating search, but a good bonding experience, which I why I couldn’t bear to get rid of him afterward.)
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WHAT’S IN A NAME?
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Butterfree ♀
Nickname: Pizza (PIZZA PRIZE! HIT TO KEY!)
Excadrill ♂
Nickname: Simon (His drill is a drill that will pierce the heavens!)
Clefairy ♂
Nickname: Puck (obtained in trade, and I thought it was just such a clever name for a male Clefairy that I couldn’t get rid of it!)
Rotom
Nickname: Eeks (from the in-game trainer trade)
• These are some of the ones I keep mostly because of their name history. The first two are self-trained; the latter two are traded.
…I love raising traded Pokemon, but the lack of option to re-nickname them sometimes gets me down. After making Eeks, the appliance-possessing ghost, relearn the move “Trick,” and hold the otherwise-completely-useless item Black Glasses, I’d love to be able to call it something else~… (Hm, and I wonder if I should replace the Glasses with the equally-useless but equally-appropriate Comet Shard.)
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& 
Empoleon ♂ & Chatot ♀
Nicknames: Miles & Nicky
• First Rotom — now, while we’re on the topic of Pokémon inspired by Shu Takumi games…
» more info »
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Farfetch’d ♀
Nickname: Miku
• A trade gift from my brilliant friend Karchan: This leek-loving Pokemon’s perfect name hardly needs an explanation~!
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Castform ♀
Nickname: Nami
• From Karchan: Representative of our shared Harvest Moon fandom, this forecaster is named for bachelorette Nami from A Wonderful Life, who appears as a weathergirl in Magical Melody.
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Milotic ♂
Nickname: Julius
• Also from Karchan: This fabulous Pokémon is named after the fabulous bachelor Julius from Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility and Animal Parade. I always HAVE viewed Milotic as an androgynous sort of beauty! So fitting!
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Houndour ♂
Nickname: Calveros
• …And no set of Harvest Moon references would be complete without a reference to my favorite HM character of all time~! This hellhound is modeled after Jamie’s dog from Magical Melody (alas, “Calvervtutrp” simply wouldn’t fit).
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NON-BATTLE
BUDDIES 
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Squirtle ♂
Nickname: Squirty
• Okay… So, on my #7th birthday (how appropriate!), I was given a big plush Squirtle pillow, and I called him Squirty and talked to him and played with him all the time. More than ten years later, he remains my faithful companion. Since this species is so important to me, I knew I had to raise one in-game for myself, in my good friend’s honor. Now, just as he sleeps soundly on my bed in real life, Squirty sleeps soundly in the Dream World, ready to explore whenever I log in.
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Teddiursa ♂
Nickname: Teddy
• Though not one of my all-around favorite Pokémon, I’ve always been a huge stuffed-animal lover, so his cuteness touches my heart in a special way. I’d call him the second-cutest Pokémon, after Pikachu. He was a hassle to train, since he’s a lover and not a fighter – but I love his Pickup ability! Always good to have him around for a constant treasure hunt.
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Ditto
Nickname: Duplique (Though originally named “Duplica,” after the anime’s character-of-the-day, I decided to switch to a more appropriately genderless name.)
• I, er, never trained this poor dear in battle once. It went from catch-level to one-hundred completely in the Day Care, where I used it for, y’know, what everybody uses Ditto for. Ultimately I decided to give it a well-deserved break from that duty, vitamin’d it up, and briefly gave it a chance to see the light of battle for a change. …Entirely for Duplique’s own sake. Not just because I found out about the Masuda method and wanted to put a Japanese Ditto in its place. Totally not just because of that.
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COOL
COLLECTIONS
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Unown (A-Z + !?)
• Man, it sure took a while to collect ‘em all in trades. But it was worth it: I’m now officially fluent in the Unown alphabet. Unlike the rest of my team, my “collection” Pokémon aren’t vitamin-maxed or level-100-trained, but I keep these as a lovely complete set in case I meet another Unown trainer on GTS Negotiations with whom I can carry out a whole conversation all in symbols!
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And, finally…
The quickest way to an awesome variety: all the starters and all the Eevee evolutions! They’re all so interesting in their own ways. And so pretty and colorful to look at. Oooh. Aaah.
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おまけ: MY PRIDE AND JOY 
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Glaceon ♂
Nickname: Chiru
• …THE STRONGEST POKÉMON!!!!!!!!!
He’s my first and only self-hatched Shiny ever, and so receives special treatment: He’s got a two-syllable Japanese-esque nickname, on par with my precious starter Mishu. Incidentally, chiru (チル) can be alternately romanized as “chill,” which suits his ice-typing — but more importantly, of course, it is derived from everyone’s favorite ice fairy Cirno (“Chiruno”).
So what if he’s male? As far as epic namesakes go, I think this one’s quite appropriate.
“キラキラ ダイヤモンド 輝く星のように”
“A SPARKLING DIAMOND, SHINING LIKE A STAR…” ♪
Least-practical but most-witty held item: Genius Wing. I was also thiiiiis close to halting his training as soon as he reached Level ⑨⑨ — but nah, he’s just too pretty to box away!
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Leafeon ♀
Nickname: n/a (obtained in trade. Official unofficial name: Kiri.)
• This is Chiru’s mother. Although I was ⑨ enough to use a non-nicknameable Eevee to do the job, I would in my heart like for her to take the name of the lake in Gensokyo that the character Cirno calls home. Oh, dear Kiri, thank you for all of your egg-popping efforts!
Besides the “mist” of “Misty Lake,” kiri (切り) can also mean “cut” (like her Leaf Blade or her X-Scissor attack, I suppose). Or, even more fittingly, kiri (限り) can refer to an “ending” or “finale.” …Well, in fact, evolving her into a Leafeon (which happened after she’d had Chiru) gave me the final type I needed to round out my team. Before these Eeveelutions, I owned a Pokémon of every type sans Grass and Ice. Once I chose the path of Ice for Chiru, all that remained was Grass. Kiri was then the last missing power-player: the perfect blossom whose leaves are evergreen and imperishable.
And since I haven’t spewed quite enough lame references yet, just allow me to mention that her beloved tomboyish son took 459 eggs to hatch. 4+5+9=18, 1+8=… Well, y’know.
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Now, regardless of how I fail at battling, I consider my team to be picture-perfect. :D
