PDL3 - A Pokémon Draft League Retrospective (Part 1: The Draft)
I recently took part in a Pokémon Draft League with some friends and was able to take the title home, so I wanted to write a bit about the drafting process and prep that I did. For the uninitiated, a draft league involves drafting (wow, big shock) the ten Pokémon we want for our team in snake fashion, and then playing a match a week against each other — we played in the Regulation M-B VGC format (that's doubles). We had two pools of eight (I was placed in Pool B) with the top 4 from each pool entering playoffs for the crown. It was a fun time (if a bit stressful week to week!)
The Draft
So let's talk about the draft! The draft board divides all the Pokémon available in the format into point tiers — the more powerful 'mons are worth more points, and we had a budget of 100 points to draft exactly 10 'mons. I came into the draft with an idea of which strategy I wanted to go for, but wanted to draft flexibly enough to be able to pivot if the picks I wanted got sniped early. I was drawn as fifth pick which is in my view one of the worst positions to be in — being at either end lets you snap up two 'mon combinations with no fear of getting sniped — so I had to maintain some flexibility. I'll list the Pokémon my opponents snapped before I get to my own.
Start of Round 1: Mega Staraptor, Mega Delphox, Mega Froslass, Sinistcha
Round 1: Mega Floette (20)
Unlike Regulation M-C, which has many, many viable Round 1 picks, in my view, Mega Floette stands head and shoulders above everything else in M-B draft and it was always my intention to grab it if it was still available. Its ability, Fairy Aura, boosts its offence to obscene levels, and it is capable of being run as both a setup 'mon with Draining Kiss, or a full offence Light of Ruin nuker. It also gets a couple of nice coverage moves in Grass Knot and Psychic in case my opponents drafted Sneasler or Swampert. There are also suprisingly few powerful reliable counters available in the draft, and unlike Charizard Y, Floette does not have a x4 weakness so is far less vulnerable to non-STAB coverage moves being run on unorthodox picks. I was very happy to pay the full 20 points for it.
End of Round 1: Whimsicott, Dragapult, Mega Charizard Y
Start of Round 2: Aerodactyl, Palafin, Mega Gengar
Round 2: Incineroar (18)
With a big offensive threat secured and my opponents beginning to snap up the premier support 'mons, I wanted to secure a powerful support option for myself, and who better than Mr. VGC himself? Incineroar gets an absolute plethora of supportive options: Fake Out, Parting Shot, Taunt, Helping Hand, as well as Intimidate and strong offence in Flare Blitz, Darkest Lariat, and Close Combat that make it a menace to prep for. I also only really had played Hyper Offence teams on ladder and wanted to use the league to try out something new — even if I remain a hater of its design I can't deny how useful Incin was in my matches.
End of Round 2: Farigiraf, Kingambit, Hydreigon, Pelipper
Start of Round 3: Garchomp, Hisuian Zoroark, Primarina, Hisuian Decidueye
Round 3: Maushold (16)
With a Fake Out user and an offensive threat, it was time to complete the third part of the balance trifecta by picking up a redirection 'mon. Sinistcha would've been my first choice but had already been snapped up, and I considered Vivillon pretty heavily for its useful Tailwind and Sleep Powder support, but in the end I went with Maushold, who in my view was the MVP of the whole draft for me. Draft league is run with a closed team sheet, so my opponents had no prior knowledge of what I was running. Maushold takes advantage of this because it is very difficult to play around everything it could be packing. It can run a support oriented set with Friend Guard, but can also run Population Bomb to oneshot a frail target with its impressive base 111 Speed. My opponents also had to consider which of Encore, Feint, Helping Hand, Protect, Taunt, Thunder Wave, Switcheroo, Rain Dance, or Sunny Day I might have decided to pack that week. An absolute prep nightmare. Would draft again.
End of Round 3: Meowscarada, Mega Gallade, Venusaur
Start of Round 4: Basculegion-Male, Tinkaton, Ariados
Round 4: Ceruledge (11)
So at the time of the draft, I may have just watched NAIC 2026, in which Dawei Si had piloted this team to the Top 8. You might notice some similarities with how I drafted! This is the team that inspired my fourth pick of Ceruledge, who provides a secondary setup 'mon that is generally good into the Poison and Steel Types that would threaten a Floette sweep. Bulk Up makes Ceruledge surprisingly resilient to most physical attacks that aren't STAB Earthquakes, and unlike Dawei, I only had to deal with one Garchomp in the whole draft! At only 11 points, I think this was a very good value pickup that provided a huge amount to my team.
End of Round 4: Mega Mawile, Vivillon, Scizor, Politoed
Start of Round 5: Grimmsnarl, Toxicroak, Infernape, Morpeko
Round 5: Toxapex (3)
On every draft board, it's important not just to look for the most powerful picks, but also the best value picks. At just three points, Toxapex was quite significantly undercosted for the amount it provides to the team. With the power to trap with Infestation and stall with Toxic, as well as provide valuable Wide Guard support to my team that most definitely does not appreciate Rock Slides (is that some foreshadowing I see?), Toxapex was great value for me. As an added bonus, both of my current offensive threats, Floette and Ceruledge, hate dealing with it, and picking it now meant that my opponents couldn't!
End of Round 5: Kangaskhan, Weavile, Heliolisk Start of Round 6: Mega Sableye, Rotom-Heat, Delphox
Round 6: Mega Aggron (6)
Unfortunately, this one is my first dud pick of the draft. My idea with it was to provide a secondary mode for my team by drafting a Trick Room setter subsequently. At this stage a few teams were lacking strong super-effective special moves into Aggron, and I wanted to stop someone else drafting it as it is a strong Mega into Floette/Ceruledge. But I think I revealed it too early and by the end of the draft all my opponents had strong answers to The Wall, so unfortunately I never ended up bringing it to a match and would eventually sub it out.
End of Round 6: Mega Metagross, Mega Greninja, Rotom-Mow, Armarouge
Start of Round 7: Gengar, Alolan Ninetales, Lycanroc-Dusk, Aurorus
Round 7: Mega Blastoise (14)
Blastoise, on the other hand, ended up working fantastically as a secondary Mega for my squad. It provides two alternate modes for the team: a Shell Smash setup mode that is supported by my current support 'mons, but also gives my viability for a Trick Room mode (don't worry, a Trick Room setter is on the way!). On top of that, a nice quirk of the system is that you don't actually have to Mega Evolve your Pokémon. Blastoise actually gets a wide range of supportive options, including Fake Out, so I had the option to run it as another member of the support squad (albeit without an item) in matchups where I didn't feel it would work as an attacker. In hindsight, I don't think any of my opponents were going for this pick so I could've left it until later as a surprise, but no other 'mon on the board could fulfil the role I was looking for from Mega Blastoise, so I erred on the side of caution and secured the pick sooner rather than later.
End of Round 7: Pangoro, Rhyperior, Mudsdale
Start of Round 8: Chimecho, Snorlax, Mega Eelektross
Round 8: Gliscor (4)
The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed a glaring weakness in my lineup so far. I have a grand total of four Ground weaknesses, and zero resistances. Now, to some extent, Ground is a fake weakness when you have Intimidate and the special-attacking Ground type options are, well, extremely limited at best. However, I didn't want my opponents to have a totally free ride spamming Earthquakes at me, so I wanted to pick up a couple of immunities or resistances. Gliscor provides that, but in addition is a nice physical wall and gets a setup option in Swords Dance. When you've got a setup oriented team like mine, I wanted to have as many setup options as possible for different situations. Gliscor also gets Tailwind, which is nice, though a bit difficult to set up compared to the premier Tailwind setters that were more expensive. Still, at 4 points, I thought Gliscor did okay over the course of the draft but was by no means spectacular.
End of Round 8: Noivern, Bastiodon, Simipour, Meganium Start of Round 9: Emolga, Camerupt, Watchog, Lopunny
Round 9: Altaria (2)
For only two points, Altaria was drafted to deal with opposing weather with its Cloud Nine ability. The idea was that I could stop any nasty Venusaur Solar Beams or Pelipper Weather Balls by sneakily switching it in at the last minute. I do think it was a decent value pick, but I ended up utilising it poorly and subbed it out after the last weather matchup of the regular season for something a bit more versatile.
End of Round 9: Lycanroc-Midday, Victreebel, Slurpuff
Start of Round 10: Manectric, Skarmory, Milotic
Round 10: Runerigus (6)
I'd made sure to leave enough points at the end of my draft to take my opponents off guard and grab one of the value Trick Room setters that were still up. Having a Trick Room mode was super valuable for my team, who were not the fastest squad on the block. Having redirection and Fake Out support also meant I could get it up quite reliably in the matchups that mattered. Runerigus performed extremely well for me throughout the league — I was surprised by how many times I brought it and it ended up being really strong. Once under Trick Room, it is a potent offensive threat too, with Poltergeist, Earthquake, Rock Slide and Body Press all as great options. I highly recommend giving this one a go if it's a low-cost pick in your leagues.
End of Round 10: Mega Camerupt, Lopunny, Watchog, Camerupt
With that, the draft was complete. I made a couple of transfers over the course of the season that I'll also go through now:
Sub 1: Chesnaught (5)
Chesnaught was brought in to sure up my weakness to Water-types and, especially, to be a good bring into the player who had drafted Mega Gengar if I were to face them in playoffs (I misunderstood the format at the time and thought playoffs were within our pools, which would've made them my first opponent). Chesnaught gets Bulletproof making it immune to Sludge Bomb and Shadow Ball, amongst other things. It also gets Wide Guard and can set up with Iron Defense/Body Press. It definitely had more potential on my Team than the Mega Aggron it replaced, but due to the way playoffs went, it didn't get to shine due to the matchups being unfavourable for it. Alas.
Sub 2: Musharna (3)
Runerigus did great work for me over the course of the League, but I wanted a second trick room option for when Runerigus didn't work. Musharna has a much better specially defensive profile compared to the physical bulk on Rune, and also gets access to other support options such as weather setting and screens. I brought Musharna in one matchup in the playoffs and it did well, which makes it a worthwhile transfer in my opinion.
Was the draft a success?
The final draft board, after transfers, looked like this:
So what went well, and what didn't?
The Good
- My draft let me craft teams with a gameplan. Floette offense, Blastoise Trick Room, Ceruledge setup were all very clear win conditions that I could use as a base. I could focus on my own gameplan primarily for many matchups, eliminating the lead guessing game.
- There were several clear modes. My opponents had to work out which mode I would bring into them as there were a huge number of 'mons that could run setup or Trick Room strats. I took my opponents off guard in many cases by not bringing what they expected.
- The first three picks. These were super strong to build from and getting good support options early made it easier to build around.
The Bad
- Weaknesses to Ground and Water types. I consistently struggled into these due to my somewhat samey type spread. I definitely could've done with a Grass or Electric type earlier on, as well as stronger Ground resistances than Gliscor and Altaria.
- No reliable Tailwind mode. My middling speed team left me open to a lot of bad crit and flinch luck because I could not reliably set up Tailwind with my premier picks. A fast Tailwind user would have been huge for the team and opened up a more hyper-offence style gameplan.
- Physically based team. Outside of the Megas, pretty much all my damage was physical, making me very vulnerable if my opponent resisted the moveset I was running on Floette or Blastoise.
Next time...
Come back for Part 2 where I'll be covering the how individual matchups week to week went! Thanks for reading!