As this was my 3rd time playing Pokemon X, I wanted to try and make use of the large Dex to use some Pokemon that I've never really had a good opportunity to add to a team before, with Nike the Nidoqueen and Audrey the Ferrothorn being the most notable in this regard. Also, since Pokemon X is usually such a breezy campaign to the Champion, I generally used healing items very sparingly in battle and made use of some rather gimmicky strategies.

For example, Grandleon's Metronome boosted Echoed Voice sure was a silly strat, but one that worked so well that I very rarely used any of his actual coverage. Hell, I probably used Echoed Voice to defeat more Pokemon than any of his staple Fire-type moves. Moonstruck's Leftovers + Grassy Terrain + Calm Mind + Moonblast spam was also very silly but mostly just cause it's the strat I used to sweep half of Diantha's team (but to be fair, I genuinely didn't have a great answer to Mega Gardevoir this time other than utilizing Moonstruck as my designated Special Wall). Speaking of walls, Audrey is continuing a trend that began with my Toxapex in Pokemon Scarlet in which a Physical Wall with some sort of contact-based ability becomes the foundation of my team's strategy, as she was easily my most reliable team member throughout the whole game. Comparitively, Masamune, Nike, and Opera tended to just be solid Offensive Pokemon but they played their roles well with Masamune being a tried and true Surf spammer, Nike providing Toxic utility and Electric immunity, and Opera providing Tailwind support to help get the slowest members up to speed and getting out of danger with U-turn pivots. All-and-all, this team was a lot of fun and showed me the value of using "gimmicky" strategies to add some variety when replaying the easier games in the series.