Pokéwatch: Relentless Assault

In my last blog, we went through the first three heroes of Overwatch and assigned three Pokémon to each of them, based on that hero's moveset and apparent personality.  Today we'll be finishing up the Offense team of characters, taking a look at Reaper, Soldier: 76, and Tracer.

Don't forget that each hero only gets 3 Pokémon, and that no two heroes can share the same creature.  Once we're done with today's heroes, the Offense class will start a friendly battle to see who the best trainer is.

Reaper

Reaper/Darkrai artwork by Elstrawfedora at Deviantart.  You'll probably be seeing more by this artist as the week goes on.

Reaper is the result of mashing every emo kid in the world together and leaving the resulting blob to fester for a few years.  There's a reason the @Reapernames twitter has become so popular since Overwatch went into open beta, and it's because this character seems to attract a certain type of player.  Reaper is a skull faced, gravel-throated dude who blasts at opponents with his twin shotguns, throwing them to the ground with contempt when the clip is empty. He can also enter Wraith form to become immune to all damage for a few seconds, and can make use of a short-range teleport to sneak up behind an enemy team and unleash his ultimate, Death Blossom.  This deals incredible damage to anyone who's near Reaper, though it can be cut short if he's stunned, killed, or otherwise incapacitated.  His passive ability causes a soul orb to drop whenever he gets the killing blow on an enemy, and consuming it grants him a medium health boost.  If there's a physical embodiment of Occam's concept of Darksiders 2, it's Reaper.

Lead Pokémon: Darkrai (#491)

Type: Dark

Reason: Reaper's passive ability allows him to consume the souls of enemies he's slain to extend his own life.  Darkrai's signature move, Dark Void, allows it to put an entire enemy team to sleep.  It can follow this up by using Dream Eater to steal the life from its opponents.  And while the aesthetic similarity to his wraith form is undeniable, Darkrai also learns Double team, which makes it much harder to hit.

Support Pokémon: Duskull (#355)

Type: Ghost

Reason: Maintaining the visual theme of his team is important to Reaper, who understands that demoralizing his opponents can be a great asset on the battlefield.  People are a lot easier to shoot at if they're running away from you. For this reason, he chose Pokémon that match his chosen style, and Duskull's cowl and skull mask combination make them look like they were made to be together.

Finisher: Mega Houndoom (#229)

Type: Dark/Fire

Reason: Reaper's ultimate, Death Blossom, greatly increases the power of his twin Hellfire shotguns and punishes a team for doing what they're supposed to do, sticking together.  Mega evolving Houndoom makes it look much more threatening, upping the percieved threat factor that's so important to Reaper.  Having a literal hellhound beside him might cause an enemy team to break and scatter, where they'll be much easier to pick off one by one.

Analysis: 

 Reaper's team is all about maintaining a certain aesthetic, focusing on terrorizing the enemy as much as it does on overwhelming force.  Two of his three creatures are Dark types, which are immune to Psychic attacks but take double damage from Fighting, Bug, and Fairy type moves.  Houndoom won't need to worry about bugs since it can burn them away, but a strong Fairy type may cause his team problems.  Using a Ghost type as his support is a good play since they're immune to Fighting type moves and can switch in as a counter, but using the un-evolved form means that Duskull doesn't have the bulk to take hits like Reaper's other two creatures.  If an opponent can take out Duskull early and then capitalize on the Dark type weaknesses without being put to sleep, Reaper's team will be in serious trouble. 

 Soldier: 76

Soldier: 76 image from https://www.funnyjunk.com/channel/overwatch-time/Protect+the+children/knbjLxa/8

Soldier: 76 is the former leader of Overwatch, and many of the other members still look up to him.  He's older than most of the others and serves as a surrogate father to the rest of the team, but he's not sure that reactivating Overwatch was such a good idea.  He's depicted as a cranky, grumbling old man, but he still believes in protecting the innocent from those who would do them harm.

Lead Pokémon: Omastar (#139)

Type: Rock/Water

Reason: Soldier: 76 is a man who's set in his ways.  He's been there and done that, and he never bothered to try any of the newer games since he feels that the first one was just fine as it was.  He feels like a man out of time, so he chose Pokemon he feels he has something in common with.  In Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow, it's possible to resurrect three different Pokemon from fossils.  Since Soldier: 76 thinks he's something of a fossil himself but doesn't acknowledge any Pokémon beyond the original 151, he chose these three as his representatives.  

Support Pokémon: Kabutops (#141)

Type: Rock/Water

Reason: Soldier: 76's passive ability allows him to sprint at will, moving considerably faster than most other members of Overwatch.  Both Kabutops and Omastar can benefit greatly from having rain active, similar to McCree's team.  Each has the potential to have the Swift Swim ability, which doubles their speed in the rain.  Soldier: 76 definitely wouldn't care about abilities or weather effects though, since they weren't introduced until later generations.  Still, Kabutops has a decent attack and speed stat on its own, and it'll probably be able to do some damage before it gets taken out.

Finisher: Aerodactyl (#142)

Type: Rock/Flying

Reason: Although Aerodactyl gained the ability to Mega evolve in the sixth generation, Soldier: 76 isn't having any truck with that nonsense.  He raised his Pokémon years ago, and he doesn't want to learn any newfangled mechanics.  And while we're on the subject, one Special stat for both offense and defense should be enough for anybody.

Analysis: Since Pokémon battles now scale the level so that both teams are on an even footing, the fact that Soldier: 76's team has all been at the level cap of 100 for 15 years means a lot less.  Back in his day, there were no limits on how strong a Pokémon could grow, and you can bet that he'd have kicked your ass.  As it stands now however, Soldier's team has some pretty serious weaknesses.  Both Omastar and Kabutops take quadruple damage from Grass type moves, and Aerodactyl takes quad damage from Ice.  All three of his team take double damage from Steel and Fighting moves due to their shared Rock type, and each has a weakness to Electric attacks as well.  His refusal to use hold items or allow Aerodactyl to Mega evolve further limits his team's effectiveness.  While he'll do very well against Fire and has a decent chance vs. Ground types, it's unlikely that he'll make it out of the first round due to his stubbornness.  His best chance for winning is a lucky break with Ancient Power; it's thematically appropriate, all three of his Pokémon can use it, and if it hits, there's a small chance that the user's base stats will all go up at once. 

 Tracer

Once again, this image was created by ElStrawFedora on Deviantart. 

 Tracer was our introduction to the world of Overwatch, and players took a shine to her immediately.  Unlike several of the other characters, Tracer just seems like she's having fun as she blinks around the battlefield, making use of her Chronal Accelerator to outmaneuver and harrass her opponents.  The device gives her the ability to make use of a short range teleport in any direction which she can use to move from cover to cover, flank and attack entrenched enemies, or get in close to place her Pulse Bomb where it'll do the most good.  She can also rewind time for herself by a few seconds, giving herself a second chance if she makes a mistake or would prefer to try a different tactic.

Lead Pokémon: Deoxys: Speed Forme (#386)

Type: Psychic

Reason: Tracer's ability to blink forward makes her one of the speediest, hardest to hit members of Overwatch, so it makes sense that she'd want an equally speedy Pokémon to train with.  Deoxys is an alien Pokémon that can assume any of four forms, each one focusing on a particular statistic.  The Speed form of Deoxys is one of the fastest Pokémon available and is very difficult to outrun.

Support Pokémon: Pikachu (#25)

Type: Electric

Reason: Pikachu and Tracer have a lot in common.  They're both the face of their franchise, they can both use a version of Quick Attack to move around the battlefield ahead of their enemies, and they both have cute yellow butts.  While Pikachu isn't as strong as Tracer's other two choices, it can make up for that by taking advantage of its natural speediness and by holding a Light Ball, an item that doubles both of its attack stats. 

Finisher: Dialga (#483)

Type: Dragon/Steel

Reason: The most immediately noticable part of Tracer's design is the glowing chest piece, the Chronal Accelerator that provides her abilities.  Not only does Dialga share this design element, but it serves as the Pokémon representation of time, something that Tracer freely bends to her will.  They even have the same basic head shape with Tracer's hair formed into a series of spiky locks.

Analysis: Tracer has some heavy hitters on her side, the Pokémon embodiments of both speed and time itself.  Deoxys will have to look out for Dark types because they're immune to Psychics, and both Pikachu and Dialga will need to avoid Ground type attacks.  Dialga also takes double damage from Fighting moves, but Deoxys should be able to burn down any Fighting types for it before they can pose a threat.  

That takes care of the Offense players, so let's see which of them would come out on top.  Each hero will battle with the one to their right in a single elimination, and those that remain will move on to challenge the winners from the Defense team.  

Genji Vs. McCree

While McCree's team has a theme that will serve it well in most encounters, it's just bad luck for him that Genji's Ninjask is a strong bug type that can cripple his team by removing his Ludicolo.  After that, McCree will be on the defensive and his other two Pokémon are no match for Mega Rayquaza.  Genji wins this fight handily.  Much like in Overwatch, Ninja beats Cowboy.

Winner: Genji

Pharah vs. Reaper

This is a close match, but Reaper's decision not to evolve Duskull costs him the victory when Pharah's Cofagrigus takes it out with a single Ghost move.  Houndoom would be a good matchup against Phara's Skarmory, but Fire moves bounce right off of Mega Charizard, which has a 4x resistance to them.  Reaper's Darkrai gains him some ground, but Pharah's Skarmory is able to tank it after Cofagrigus lands a Will-o-wisp that reduces its attack and slowly burns it down.  At the end of the match Reaper curses, throws his Pokéballs on the ground, then shadow steps away.

Winner: Pharah

Soldier: 76 Vs. Tracer

Tracer barely has to try here, as her Pikachu's Electric attacks and Dialga's Steel both deal double damage to Soldier's entire team.  Tracer is happy about the victory, but feels a little guilty about beating an old man so badly.

Winner: Tracer

Since we have an odd number of matchups now, we'll wait until tomorrow to continue the battles. Tune in next time as we begin the Defense team.

 Once again, special thanks goes to Pokestadium, where I found the Pokémon sprites, and also to Pokecharms for their trainer card macro.  And a big thanks to Curvedlines, who posted all the sprite sprays for the Overwatch heroes.

LOOK WHO CAME:

Kevin McClusky   

Agent9   11

Nic Rowen   10

Isuma   5

Batthink   1

itsalita   1