I figured it was about time I made a random book for updates, random things and whatever else comes up so here it is! I'm DI Gremlin (you can call me Gremlin or Grem for short) and welcome to my random book!

All I really needed was an excuse to actually make this a thing and now I have such an excuse. In a few days, I'll be heading off to London to compete in the European International Championships and I thought it would be fun to share my experiences and offer a little insight into what being a competitive Pokémon player is like. It all starts here with the team that I'll be using. It's something that's a little different but a lot of fun so it'll be interesting to see how successful it is. Anyways without further ado, onto the team.

Up first is the mighty Major Buzzkill (not nicknamed because I got it on GTS) and boy, is he a force to be reckoned with. Buzzwole has an excellent attack stat but is slightly let down by its average speed so I gave the Major a choice scarf to allow him to outspeed a lot of the common threats such as Garchomp, Tapu Koko and even Pheromosa (if they're not fully invested that is). This makes Buzzwole fast and very hard hitting with surprisingly good physical bulk making him an excellent choice for this team and one with a lot of options. Superpower is a STAB nuke, Ice Punch hits Garchomp, Salamence and a few others for big damage and Poison Jab is there for all of those pesky Tapu's running around. Leech Life is mostly for filler but there are a few situations where it can be useful. I really like this guy and the surprise factor that the choice scarf can offer as he can pick up a surprise KO turn 1 and swing the match in my favour or he can come in late game and clean with that wonderful Beast Boost ability.

Pairing very nicely with Buzzwole is Padfoot the ever dependable Arcanine. This Pokémon is pretty much a staple on every team and mine is no different although my main trick here is Helping Hand as this helps several of my Pokémon to pick up crucial OHKO's such as Buzzwole's Poison Jab onto Tapu Koko. My Arcanine is a bit more supportive than most but Extreme Speed and Flare Blitz can also hit for pretty good damage against the right opponent. Overall a very helpful puppy and one that always does his job well, even if that's switching in on an attack purely to get an Intimidate off.

Now we get a little more standard with Squishy the Nihilego. Squishy's job is very simple. Either outspeed the opponent and hit for huge damage or live a hit thanks to the Focus Sash and take out the biggest threat to my team. With coverage of Power Gem, Sludge Bomb and Hidden Power Ice, none of the biggest threats in the metagame are safe. Arcanine, Garchomp, Tapu Koko... the list goes on. Squishy takes them all out, even bulkier variants thanks to Helping Hand support.

Here is the boring thing. Nobody really likes Celesteela. It sits on the field spreading Leech Seeds and slowing the game down and mine is no different. Everybody knows exactly what this thing does but oddly enough, nobody seems to have found a really solid, reliable way of beating Celesteela, especially when it has the right team support and on my team, this thing offers several crucial roles such as offering me a ground immunity and a fairy resist. Even when I have a bad matchup, there is always a way to win with Celesteela as so many teams just can't seem to deal with it.

Norbert is the heart and soul of the team and is the glue that holds the team together. Garchomp can sit next to any other member of my team and the two of them will threaten anything. Make one wrong move against this guy and you've lost. Leave yourself exposed and you could take a Tectonic Rage to the face, costing you a Pokémon but feel too afraid and play defensive and I might just set up a Sword's Dance and then nothing is safe. The amount of times I have a +2 Garchomp on the field at the same time as one of my faster Ultra Beasts and my opponent just can't do anything about it is just... scary. Garchomp is a vital member of this team and is almost always the key to victory.

Last but certainly not least we have the beautiful Ariel (also from GTS) and... this is a weird set. This is a really weird set. It's designed to do several things to try and give me better match ups against certain types of teams as well as support my offensive threats. It can Taunt my opponents, stopping them from setting up nasty Trick Rooms or Tailwinds but it can also Heal Pulse and Swagger the Pokémon next to it, either healing them up or powering them up (and avoiding confusion thanks to the Misty Terrain). It unfortunately means no room for Moonblast or Protect which it could really do with but... it's a fun set and it's a fun team. The best part about this set is that in the right situation, my opponent is forced to attack my Fini even though it's not threatening them at all but it's keeping the real threat perfectly healthy so they have to sacrifice a turn and leave the actual threat (such as +2 Garchomp) alone which is often a very costly move.

And so that's the team! It's a pretty odd team but it's a lot of fun to use so hopefully I can make a good run with it or at the very least have some good games. Next up will be a little blog of the tournament and my experience. Any questions feel free to ask!