Poll: Do you all still want to see a VGC 2018 analysis of Emolga?
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[DISCUSSION] Pokémon of the Day: Emolga!
#1
[Image: IzpF9NN.png]
 
Hey, everybody! It's 0kamii, and let me start by thanking DeviantArt user WittNV for the awesome cover image! Now onto business!

Oh my goodness, Kili is the Pokémon of the Day! At least she was, yesterday...eh, oh well. I don't mind lagging behind a little bit. I still have the screenshot to prove it happened. Besides, now that my finals are over, I can start uploading again a lot more consistently. What do I even say about Emolga? It's definitely one of those pokémon that needed time to resonate with me over the years before I ever even gave it a chance. I wasn't too big a fan of the way Emolga was portrayed during the anime amidst the Black and White saga, but that's probably one of the worse seasons anyway...(*cough* Pikachu lost to Snivy *cough*). But in case you all somehow missed it, Emolga has somehow become my signature pokémon after existing for seven long years. How did that happen? Well, today I thought it'd be fun to travel back in time and look at my history with Emolga, and see just how this little lightning momonga became the Kili that I cherish. Shall we begin?
 
Pokémon of the Day: Emolga!
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Generation 5: 2011 - 2013
If I ever claim to have always loved Emolga, feel free to call me out on it. That was simply not the case. Every generation has introduced a new addition to the Electric Mouse family, and while I don't remember the initial reactions to Emolga, they probably weren't very good. I know that Elesa was notorious for using two of them in a very annoying Volt Switch/Pursuit/Static strategy in the original Black and White, but other than that there isn't much about the little squirrel from the time. Even a quick browse on the competitive history of Emolga in the BW/B2W2 era and the poor thing was immediately lumped into NU, falling thereafter to PU since. No one ever really seemed to give the little guy a chance, not even me. I was going to online high school at the time, and I was more concerned with getting through my Pre-Calc lessons. When I turned on my Black/B2 copy, I was more interested in using mons like Serperior, Haxorus, Excadrill, Hydreigon, you know...the 'cool' Gen 5 mons. And so Emolga sat dormant. I had no idea what she would eventually become.

Generation 6: 2013 - 2016

After teaching myself how to be a pokémon breeder in late Gen 5, I reacquainted myself with the competitive scene as a breeder rather than a battler. I still battled infrequently, but most of my competitive contribution to the Gen 6 meta were breedables. You may very well have battled against one of the mons I breed and trained on Battle Spot. I put in A LOT of work. The only real association I had with Emolga during this time was completing my Living Dex and getting the Shiny Charm. I was aware that Emolga could be found in the Friend Safari, so I caught one, deposited it into my PokéBank file, and that was the end of it. Emolga certainly had a hard time standing out during thisn generation, as literally everyone remembers Se-Jun's Pachirisu at Worlds 2014. Park redefined the Electric Mouse family with his win, and he somehow mananged to make every take the Chus seriously again. Wolfey Glick, our former World Champ, continued this trend in 2016 when he won Worlds with an Assault Vest Raichu. This further pushed Emolga into obscurity, seeing no love from anyone, falling into PU, and just getting outclassed by its move competitively viable cousins. I know I certainly didn't care for it, that is until...
 


 
Generation 7: 2016 - 2019?

November 2016:
I like many other eagerly anticipated the coming European International Championship over in London during the start of the competitive 2017 season. A whole new generation of pokémon had just been released, and I like many others wanted to see which mons would rise to the top of the meta since only mons in the Alola Dex were allowed. Naturally, since the Tapus and Ultra Beasts were permitted, many trainers defaulted to using them. While I was quite bored with the battles I saw a the European International Championship (as many trainers ran the same mons), a few stood out that gave me a glimmer of hope for the format to become a little more creative. I remember Nico Davide Cognetta using a Krookodile in place of Garchomp, Tommy Cooleen successfully used the Double Duck core for the first time, and Incineroar saw its first placement before getting Intimidate. With all that going on, it inspired me to find my own hole-in-the-wall mon to use during the competitive season, and I spend the next month breeding mons for people and doing research as the meta developed.

January 2017:
Here's the part that all of you came for. This is when things started getting interesting. Since Se-Jun's Pachirisu was still living in my mind, I decided to see if any of the other Electric Mouse pokémon had viability in the current format. The only legal Electric Mouse were Pikachu, Alolan Raichu, Emolga, and Togedemaru. Alolan Raichu had already been used in a speedy core with Tapu Koko, and Togedemaru would eventually get reviewed by Wolfey, igniting a chain that resulted in it becoming one of the most popular support mons of the format, even appearing on his Worlds team. Emolga was kind of lost in the background, and the only reason I even bothered to take a look at it was because of its hidden ability, Motor Drive. One thing led to another, and I sat down and wrote this: my competitive Emolga post. I posted it on the 24th, and I had no idea it'd snowball into what it did. Turns out, people really liked the idea of an underused mon having viability, and while I did have a few nay-sayers, the response was overall very positive. That was beginning of my history with Emolga, it only grew from there.

March 2017:
I continued experimenting with Emolga, realizing that even without access to Move Tutor moves like Helping Hand, Knock Off, and Tailwind, it still had a good supportive movepool. After much trial and error, I eventually felt confident enough to bring my Emolga team to a local tournament on March 19th. Believe me, when I went to go register, I got more than a few weird looks. But, the joke was one them because they had little to no way of stopping my little friend from abusing Nuzzle, Volt Switch, and when apt, Speed Swap. Even though I won, I felt that it must've been luck, or that it was too gimmicky for anyone to actually take my team seriously. So I refrained from posting it, at least until the demand grew a little more skeptical than I was expecting. As such, I finally posted my 1st Place Emolga team that May, to surprisingly warm reception, even from some of the site's more hardcore VGC players. It was a good sign, as I later learned.

July 2017:
I'm not sure when it was, but Ashton Cox (ever known for his unconventional strategies) used a Speed Swap Emolga on one of his regional teams. I can't find the footage on YouTube, but I know for a fact that I wasn't crazy when I watched it. I believe it was some time after spring break, and around the time I saw Wolfey go up against an Emolga on Battle Spot doubles during one of his Championship challenge videos. It was around July when my association with Emolga started to inspire some people. I even received my first (albeit) terrifying piece of Emolga fanart from my partner, @The_Flaine. It was also about the same time user, now Kahuna, @Kris used my Emolga set in a post of their own. User @Slec also considered putting it on their VGC 2017 tier list, but ultimately refrained because it just hadn't gotten enough use. Unfortunately, time was running out for Emolga to stake her claim in the VGC 2017 meta. Worlds was coming up, and by that point I was already sure I'd used every trick she had to offer.
 
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August 2017:
By the time Worlds rolled around in August, Emolga ceased to appear on any VGC teams except my own. Even then, all I had under my belt was my locals victory in March. To be fair, the current World Champ, Ryota Otsubo, definitely showed us that creativity is rewarded. He won with a very interesting teambuild, mixing elements of both standard and non-standard elements. He also popularized Normalium Z Whimsicott. Even though I was upset that no one was crazy enough to bring my Emolga set to Worlds, I was proud of the attention that she'd gotten over the season. I got a few people asking me to do a VGC analysis of Emolga for the VGC 2018 meta, but as of now I'm still unsure if that's going to happen. Emolga took a back seat when US/UM came out in Novemeber, and I hadn't really touched on her for a while after that.

December 2017:
Between August and December, my partner drew me another piece of Emolga fanart, this time incorporating my other favorite video game character, Amaterasu from
Ōkami. To this day, it's still probably my favorite piece of Emolga fanart I've received. I still can't believe how incredible it looks! I know Flaine won't be reading this, but thank you anyway! And thank you for all the artwork that you submit to the site. I did use an Emolga as one of my anchor mons during my second playthrough of Ultra Moon. She was the early game sweeper, and late-game support mon as I progressed through the main story. That's about all I did with Emolga during the initial launch of US/UM, and then during the following year...
 
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January 2018:
A whole year after first posting my VGC analysis of Emolga,
Amethyst 0mega breeder @RetroTyphlosion hosted the BR Signature Pokémon Giveaway, featuring an Emolga as my 'signature' mon. If it hadn't already, this firmly cemented Emolga as my signature pokémon. A whole seven years after it was first released. It was quite a long and strange journey, but I wouldn't have had it go any other way. As of today, that initial Emolga post has over 8,000 views, which is more than I ever could have imagined it would. For all I know, Ashton Cox could've been one of those people, and decided to try it out at regionals since he already had enough CP to get invited to Worlds. Emolga is also the most frequently used pokémon that has been featured in A0 hosted giveaway, being featured not just in the BR Signature Pokémon giveaway, but also the debut giveaway of Amethyst 0mega as a guild, and also the upcoming May giveaway (details to come). This makes Emolga the most popular pokémon we've featured as a guild, and I expect it to make more appearances the longer we're in business.

March 2018:
I haven't participated in any tournaments, as the last five months I've been swamped with schoolwork, but I will end by saying that I've recently commissioned a custom Emolga t-shirt, because believe me, they are hard to find. If that doesn't make Emolga my signature mon, nothing does.
 
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May 2018:
I've been working on my newest Emolga set for the VGC 2018 season, just because I'm also curious to see if she's still viable, and in case you're curious, this is the set I've currently been testing. Kind of basic, I know. But hey, simplest works the best sometimes!
 
[Image: emolga.png]
Emolga @ Focus Sash
Ability: Motor Drive
EVs: 4 HP / 252 Sp Atk / 252 Spd
Timid Nature
- Protect
- Tailwind
- Helping Hand
- Volt Switch
 
This is easily one of the wordiest posts I've ever written, but I've been absent for a while and it occured to me that I've never given an in-depth explanation on my history with the Sky Squirrel Pokémon. I hope all this made up for my lack of posts, but again, school comes first. Thanks so much for reading everyone, and don't forget to let me know who YOUR signature pokémon is in the thread below. And stay tuned for details on Amethyst 0mega's May giveaway, the theme this time is going to be BR VGC Electric Mouse Pokémon, which will be the third time Emolga has appeared in an A0 giveaway. Thank you all so much for the support you've shown me since that fated Emolga post last January. I wouldn't be a mod right now otherwise!

Thanks so much for reading, everyone! Battle onwards, friends!

- 0kamii
Amethyst Ωmega - Guild Leader/Founder 
 
#2
That lifts my heart up so much.❤✨


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