Draftlocke Review: How I beat Platinum without losing a Pokémon
So I recently did a Draftlocke (that is, a Nuzlocke challenge where we each drafted fourteen Pokémon from a pool) on a Discord server I'm on, and it was a lot of fun! I ended up winning the challenge with zero deaths, and I thought it would be fun to take a look at my picks and talk about what worked, what didn't and what I didn't expect.
Here's the pool we were drafting from:
And here's my box, with the 'mons listed in the order I drafted them:
I figured the best way to talk about this was to do a power ranking my team members and talk a bit about how each one fared in terms of utility on the run. Oh, and if you're curious about the Nicknames, they're all characters from Blood on the Clocktower, a social deduction game I have a mild obsession with and around which the server that was hosting this challenge is themed. So let's start at the bottom, and this one might surprise you but...
14. Banshee the Dusknoir
Pick Order: 6
Literally sat in the box for the entire game. My Duskull had hilariously bad IVs, with 3 HP/1 Def/10 SpDef, but to be honest I'm not sure it would've got much use even if it had better stats. You don't get the Reaper Cloth until after Candice, and after that all that's left is Galactic stuff, which is filled with Dark-types, and the Elite Four, in which I didn't find a niche for Dusknoir to fill. I drafted this with the intention of having a bulky 'Mon for stall strats, but there were always better options.
13. Mutant the Sudowoodo
Pick Order: 14
My last pick did exactly what it needed to: beat Roark and Mars 1, and then sit in the box for the rest of the game with Thief in its moveset in case I needed to farm stealable items like the elemental-resistant berries. It did completely trivialize those two early-game fights and provide some decent stealing utility, so I can't really complain!
12. Sailor the Ludicolo
Pick Order: 8
Ludicolo had exactly two jobs: deal with those annoying Water/Ground types (I actually love Whiscash and Gastrodon, they aren't annoying, I take it back), and learn Ice Beam by TM and become a designated Dragon-slayer for Victory Road. I didn't have any other fast Pokémon to use Ice Beam so Ludicolo did this job well enough, and it took out Wake's Quagsire, but frankly overall was a very underwhelming pick. I think almost any other Grass-type in the pool would've been better, but I'd deliberately deprioritised the type as I didn't see it as too useful overall, so the pickings were slim by the time we got to the eighth round. It would be so much better if it got Leech Seed, but alas, that's an egg move.
11. Golem the Golem
Pick Order: 5
Golem was a bit of a disappointment to be honest. Yes, it has incredible Defense and naturally learns Earthquake, and that's pretty good. It was used in a few situations throughout the run where I was facing Physically-heavy teams, most notably the double battle with Mars and Jupiter where I needed something to be able to take heavy hits from Purugly. It also soloed Volkner with Rock Polish and Earthquake, but to be honest Gastrodon probably would've been just fine there too. Overall, it wasn't bad but didn't see as much use as I'd like from a 5th pick — there were probably better options.
10. Oracle the Xatu
Pick Order: 13
Xatu is a really bad Psychic-type for Nuzlockes. If the Game Corner didn't exist, it wouldn't get Psychic until level fifty-nine — that's the Elite Four level cap. As the Game Corner does exist, Xatu was actually perfectly competant in its role as a Pokémon that can take out Fighting-types. The four-times resistance and decent enough speed meant it performed very well considering it was my thirteenth pick, being a solid counter to the Rival's Heracross and other Fighting-type 'mons vulnerable to Nuzlocke pivot strats. They also soloed Maylene! Good job, bird!
9. Riot the Primeape
Pick Order: 10
I needed a non-Gallade Fighting-type to deal with midgame Normals, Steels and Darks and I would describe Primeape as "good enough". It sat in the box until Distortion World, but got decent use after that, with Low Kick coming in clutch to OHKO Cyrus' Houndoom and several Victory Road 'mons like Porygon-Z. It's fast enough to outspeed and kill what it needs to with Low Kick but there were definitely better Fighting-types in the pool. Still, I was impressed with it for a tenth pick and it was very useful to have around.
8. Harlot the Lopunny
Pick Order: 12
An early-game menace. By running around in circles for a bit you can evolve into Lopunny immediately, and it learns Return naturally by level-up. This means it can one-shot almost every early Trainer's team, and even continues to pack a punch into the lategame (one of my very few good nature rolls — naughty — helped here). Normal typing was also incredibly useful, both for the Ghost immunity (she pretty much soloed Fantina) and the Fighting weakness which I used several times to pivot successfully to Xatu or another Fighting-resist. Really strong and underrated pick that should've been picked up sooner.
7. Flowergirl the Vespiquen
Pick Order: 11
The bulky bee was pivotal to getting a safe setup for my Gallade on the Lucian fight by using Captivate, of all things. It also gets Toxic naturally, and a recovery move (Heal Order) and all in all performed excellently at being a Special tank. I didn't make use of Defend Order on this run, but I can easily see scenarios where that can be used alongside Toxic to stall out something tricky. A sleeper pick for sure.
6. Nightwatchman the Noctowl
Pick Order: 7
The second part of the Debuff Duo (alongside Vespiquen) that helped Gallade get a safe setup on both Mr. Mime and Roserade. Roost and Hypnosis (especially alongside Zoom Lens, to boost the accuracy to a much more reasonable 72%) are phenomenal support moves — and it gets Reflect too. I didn't use Noctowl offensively much at all, but he came in clutch on those big fights where I needed his help to get a setup going.
5. Fisherman the Lanturn
Pick Order: 9
The most surprising thing about Lanturn was how little I missed not having Volt Absorb. I rolled Illuminate, which I thought would mean Lanturn would be consigned to the box for most of the game, but there really aren't that many Electric-type switch-ins that I needed Lanturn for and it turns out that just being a bulky Water/Electric type (I EV'd this one physically defensively, since Gastrodon was a special tank) is really good. By far my proudest moment was using Lanturn with a Shuca berry as a safe pivot from Typhlosion to Rotom on the Cyrus fight, ensuring there was zero risk of a loss, even from a crit.
4. Chef the Typhlosion
Pick Order: 4
At the time I went to draft my Fire-type, I had a choice: Cyndaquil or Charmander. And I have zero regrets about going with the Johto option. Typhlosion proved to be an amazing Fire-type, cleaning up Gardenia, Candice, and Aaron. I did get very unlucky with a low Speed IV and a minus Speed nature, meaning I missed some key breakpoints, but despite this Typhlosion pulled through and Flamethrower just melts so so many threats. There were a few good Fire-types in the pool but I'm very satisfied with Typhlosion's performance.
3. Engineer the Rotom
Pick Order: 2
Rotom didn't come to the Elite Four, but it did just about everything else I could've wanted. We didn't have access to Rotom's forms, but it turns out having three immunities and being decently fast with STAB Thunderbolt is just really really good. It can pivot in on so many things - Earthquakes, Fighting moves, Air Slashes from the innumerable Golbats and Crobats from Team Galactic, and it's fast enough that when EV trained it can outspeed almost everything you could ever want it to. It also hard walls a surprising number of Pokémon, especially early game where there are lots of Normal moves, as well as Maylene's Lucario, and is obviously extremely good against Gyarados, especially Cyrus' which you can pivot in on an Earthquake and outspeed. Really, really good pickup.
2. Ferryman the Gastrodon
Pick Order: 3
This thing is unbelievably good. Water/Ground is absolutely bonkers typing in a Nuzlocke, because not only do you only have one weakness (on a very bulky 'mon no less), you can also guarantee Grass moves for pivoting strats. I EV'd mine specially defensively and it just tanked everything. It solos Byron easily, and probably would also do Volkner, Bertha, and Flint, if I didn't have cleaner (or more necessary for Gallade experience reasons, in Bertha and Flint's case) strats. It also has a great movepool, with Surf, Ice Beam, Earthquake and Recover making up my moveslots. Oh yeah, it gets Recover, so you can also use the slug for Toxic stalling if that strikes your fancy. Ridiculously good Pokémon.
1. Empath the Gallade
Pick Order: 1
Gallade was my first pickup, and the entire Elite Four strategy was built around him. I was 1 IV short of outspeeding Garchomp, so I concocted a strategy where I fed enough experience to him via Exp Share on Aaron, and Lucky Egg on Bertha, to be Level 63 going into Cynthia. I was very protective of my Gallade on my run, so he actually sat in the box for most of the game unless I absolutely needed him. But he rewarded my patience with Swords Dance sweeps on Bertha, Flint, Lucian, and Cynthia. Yep, four out of five of the League were destroyed with Swords Dance Gallade sweeps. I would first pick this guy again and again and again.
What went well?
My decision to deliberately avoid the Ice-types in favour of bulky Waters really worked out. Both Gastrodon and Lanturn were amazing and could make use of Ice Beam better than something like Glalie for sure, and I even had Ludicolo as a backup Garchomp answer for the Elite Four. I'm also really happy with my first four picks especially — these four formed a core that could clear most of the game, which meant I could fill out my lower picks with answers to specific fights (such as the Hoothoot and Lopunny pickups, which ensured a clean Fantina).
What did I miss?
So overall my team performed really well, but there were a few dud picks for sure. My team struggled a bit with Psychic-types due to its lack of Dark or Steel-type on the roster. I definitely think drafting at least one of each of these types would've been a good idea — foolishly I thought my strong Ghost-type picks would be able to handle Lucian but the lack of resistance made that a fool's errand. Secondly, there were a fair few Intimidate users on the list and I didn't get any of them. Even having a weaker Intimidater like Masquerain or Mawile would've been very very useful for some fights, especially now that I have a good understanding of how switch-in AI works.
What remains a mystery?
Why the heck did Cynthia switch out after 3 turns of taking Surfs that did around 50% of her Spiritomb's health? Luckily it still worked out as I could still set up on the Roserade, but dang, that was weird.
Overall this was super fun! I wasn't sure if I was the kind of girl would would enjoy spending hours in a damage calulator meticulously planning every battle, but it turns out I'm absolutely that kind of girl. I look forward to the next one!