#nuzlockes

His name is Arian because it just so happens to mean Silver in Welsh and in case he weren’t already obvious he’s meant to serve as a parallel to none other than Silver the Hedgehog while also sporting a little visual nod to Gary De Snake from Zootopia as I’ve become rather fixated on the franchise since seeing it at the start of this year and I thought it’d be cute if he took some inspiration from the characters physical features.

For a character that serves as a reflection to a Hedgehog with Psychokinesis however you might be wondering why I choose a Totodile of all things over a Psyduck or Cyndaquil based off the options available to me within the Rescue Team games. Well admittedly… as weird as it might sound given the circumstances… I chose Totodile because I once knew someone from my youth who not only was a major fan of Silver the Hedgehog but one of his favorite Pokemon just so happened to be Totodile so I guess you could say…despite everything he and his twin sibling put me through and all the psychological scars they left behind…it’s my way of holding onto a good part of him till the day I die even if he’s no longer in my life nor can be. It also just wound up working out from a gameplay perspective as well as one other reason I won’t get into for potential spoilers for a future project I’m quietly working on behind the scenes!

I say “Blind”, but i had played DP before and I did know the levels of the gym leader + champion beforehand.  In terms of my rules, I played on set mode and didn’t use healing items in battle, and I tried (keyword: tried) to keep my pokemon’s levels. on par with my opponents.  Anyway...the team!

-Eminence the Empoleon -Flaire the Mismagius -Rosemary the Clefable -Willow the Roserade -Crown the Rapidash -Bullseye the Ursaring

Honestly, in terms of a blind team?  I really loved this one. 

As far as Sinnoh teams go, I did my best to reject the typical “Sinnoh Starter Pack” team, and sought out Pokemon that were at least a little stranger-though I did have to go with Roserade in the absence of other, weirder grass types I thought would be available.  Empoleon was my starter of choice as it was easily the one I had used the least in my years of replaying Platinum (and Diamond...once).  Rapidash filled the rare file slot, and I lucked into getting my favorite pokemon-Clefable-with an incredible Modest nature to boot!  I chose Shining Pearl due to Misdreavus being an exclusive, and was able to get one at the earliest possible chance in Eterna Forest,  Choosing SP as my version also let me get a new addition to the story in the Grand Underground’s Teddiursa!

...Ursaring, in particular, was the start of something special.  Her pickup ability let me snag early Dusk and Shiny stones for my team, which was potentially what saved us from an early-game Gyarados.  Once evolved, that turned to annoyance at the affection mechanics of BDSP-I kept trying to take advantage of Guts, but she kept shaking off the status-but in the end that only endeared Bullseye to me even further.  She’s not the only one I loved, though-in my mind, everyone on this team was an all star!  Stuff like Crown and Willow sweeping the first two elite four members and Rosemary just generally being the MVP of tankability stick out in my mind.  We even only had one death throughout most of the game-a little Swinub I lost to a guy with three Sudowoodo.

However...there’s a sad ending to this team.

We wiped to the Pokemon league.

I had heard going into this league that this may be the hardest pokemon endgame on record, but after the first two went down easy I was feeling good about things.  Flint changed that.  After weathering the rest of his diverse team, the weakened team had to face his Infernape with basically no counter.  Rosemary was our best chance and...she got crit twice in a row, which was the only way it could have killed her.  After losing Crown and Eminence to it, too, Willow of all pokemon came in with the earlier bane of my existence, affection, living one one hp and killing the thing.  We’d made it out with three pokemon on pure luck.

Flaire was able to calm mind sweep Lucian after that, and we almost pulled off the same thing on Cynthia...but her last pokemon, Garchomp, outsped and killed Flaire.  My only chance was a guts-boosted Giga Impact from Bullseye-but in my stress, I had forgotten to teach the tm.  Slash only did a meager half hp to Garchomp, and Cynthia finished our run for us.

Despite the wipe, despite everything, despite BDSP being...well, BDSP... adored this team.  it felt so unique and so “me” for being from game with such a meager selection, and even without sticking the landing I can’t help but give this team a 10/10.