2026 has had a very “humans vs AI” vibe. This inspired me to find a way to destroy one. I couldn’t think of a better way to do this than to humiliate the Pokemon league champions in creative ways. I understand that the true AI villains of 2026 are the water gluttons and not video game characters, but I know I can destroy the latter without any negative climate change consequences.
As someone heavily involved in PVP from 2007 to 2009, my personal opinion is that creativity is punished in PVP. Usually 5% or less of all Pokemon are able to stand a chance in a tournament at any given time and anyone who chooses not to use those Pokemon will be punished. This led me to switch my focus to an alternative channel.
When the focus is humans vs AI, creativity is rewarded. In a typical playthrough, players will typically build a team where there are no two Pokemon of the same type, no two moves of the same type, a balance of physical and special move users, and a balance of offensive and defensive Pokemon. There are many ways to put a team like this together. The rewarding part is being able to include your favourite Pokemon on your team as their shortfalls will be covered by their teammates.
For this video when I built my team I instead asked myself “does this Pokemon enable the best strategy available for this game’s strongest opponents?” Sometimes that means doubling up on types. I believe that having the best strategy means you can succeed with underleveled and/or underrated Pokemon without opening the bag during battle and while playing without shift mode. Ideally all Pokemon and moves used can be acquired in the region of the Pokemon challenge before the challenge is fought. Some people believe that banning setup moves creates a bigger challenge. I won’t argue with that, but I believe enabling setup moves maximizes strategic depth.
As Pokemon XD doesn’t have a Pokemon league I had to get even more creative. I decided to take on Mount Battle before visiting Citadark Isle. Battlus was very difficult to outmatch. My plan going into the battle was to charm the Dusclops to -6 attack so I could focus on taking out the larger threats. However, it turns out that Battlus just switches out when its attack stat gets too low. This led to me using 2 hyper potions which I was hoping to avoid. I knew I would have lost without them. At least with the imprison threat out of the picture I was able to use ice beam. I would love to watch or read what strategy you believe is best for this challenge.
I am very grateful to be part of this community of people striving to become the best. As humans, we will need to work together to ensure that our strategies will always outmatch the strategies executed by future AI. Let’s see your way of humiliating the AI.
