B: Buena
W: Whitney
B: Gooood evening Johto! We are two weeks into the new year, and you know what that means!
B: That's right: the first premier International Pokemon League Association event, and my personal favorite, is right around the corner!
B: The Mono Type Tournament is being held in Vermillion City, Kanto this season. To help give all of you, my dear loyal listeners, the inside scoop on what to expect, I have a very special guest in studio today: Goldenrod's own gym leader, Miss Whitney Akane.
W: Thanks Buena! Always an honor to join Goldenrod Cities' most popular evening pokemon battle radio program.
B: For five years running!
B: So, the MTT, grand opening of the competitive battling season. What's special about this year?
W: Well, it's in Kanto. The Indigo League hasn't hosted it for a while, so we'd like to have a strong showing for the home crowd
B: Especially after collectively dropping the ball in October, huh?
W: Hey now, we didn't do that badly in the world championship. If-
B: Lance spent all winter saying the opposite.
W: -We had a lot of really close battles, ok? It wasn't our tournament. Stuff happens. Lance has been riding all of us to open strong this season, and we will.
B: Yes, but I somehow doubt we're going to see a whole lot of Indigo League solidarity. Isn't that right?
W: There's always been people wanting Johto to split from the Indigo League. Clair's hissy fit with Lance isn't changing anything.
B: Maybe, maybe not. Rumor has it what's really happening is a split between the Johto and Kanto dragon tamers. That would be something.
W: I'm just a gym leader Bunea.
B: Fair enough.
B: So, hows the prep for the MTT going?
W: Goin' good. I mean, I can't talk about everything, but the johto gym leaders have been practicing a lot. We think we've got a good game plan.
B: Isn't that always a little awkward, though? You practice with your biggest rivals, and then battle each other in the tournament anyway.
W: Yeah. I mean, we all want the rest of us to do well, but we all want to be the one that does the best. We know each other pretty well because we do all this league business together, but we're never really on the same team.
B: Not even when your champion finds it convenient to pretend otherwise?
W: I-I don't think I should answer that on the air.
B: And with that, it's time for a break, but don't you go anywhere! The interview with Whitney will continue after this word from our sponsors.
B: Annnd we're back!
B: The big question of the mono type tournament is always: who is bringing what type? What's going to be popular?
W: I can't say a whole lot about that. Whatever we may or may not know we want to keep to ourselves.
B: But, generally speaking of course, theres always trends.
W: Well yeah. The rule us that your team has to have a majority of one type, and us gym leaders don't have to use the same type we do for our gym battles.
B: And not all types are equal.
W: Uh-huh. Some are more common, some are rarer, some tend to have stronger pokemon, some have weaknessess and strengths that are more significant in this format than in a typical full battle.
W: Most trainers that bring dragons use fighters for one or two of their off-type pokemon, because fighting types cover the dragons' ice and steel weaknesses.
B: But that makes them vulnerable to fairy types, doesn't it?
W: It does, yeah, cuz fairies have a huge edge against dragons and a strong advantage against fighting types, but hardly anybody brings fairies as their type because you don't have many options and they aren't nearly as good against everybody not bringing dragons and fighters.
W: A lot of people will bring one fairy, and maybe one ice type, and that's it.
B: Lavarre gym leader Valerie's performance a few years back being a very notable exception.
W: Yup. Made top 8 with six fairies running through Clair, Lance, Iris, and Drake losing three pokemon total.
B: She lost to Norman after that, didn't she?
W: Yeah, but the entire stadium was on her side by that point. Even Norman's own son was cheering for her. No tournament I've ever been to has had a crowd like that.
B: It really was something special. Every time someone asks why the mono type tournament is my favorite, I show them that picture of Iris after she lost to Valerie.
B: But how common is it really for trainers to bring dragons to the mono tournament?
W: Most trainers don't have four four dragon pokemon trained to a pro standard, right? Thats why you don't see many dragon users at the lower-level events that use the same rules as the mono type tournament. But the MTT is the highest level of competition with that rule. The trainers that have a shot at winning have access to whatever pokemon they need.
W: Dragons are never a common type overall, but they are very common among the top places pretty much every year. Even with their weaknesses.
B: I know you can't give away too much, but what would you say to an aspiring trainer hoping to break into the scene at the MTT, and at other events with the same rules?
W: That's what a lot of people do, because learning to train one type of pokemon to a competitive level is a lot easier than training pokemon of every type. And tournaments like that can be really swingy, since there's such a big chance of any given trainer running into a team they have a huge advantage or disadvantage against. If you're nobody, this is your best chance to make a name for yourself upsetting a somebody.
W: And what type to focus on? If you have to ask a question like that, its because you're stuck with what you can get. And if you're in a lower level event, odds are everyone else has that problem too.
W: One of those things that I think a lot of people forget when they focus on the tippy-top of the competitive scene is that most people aren't playing that game. The huge majority of competitions are very local and regional, and the pokemon that get used reflect that.
W: If you're gunning for a local tournament win, you need to look at what gets used in that tournament. Goldenrod sees a lot of bug trainers because we have a lot of really strong bug pokemon in Eterna Forest and the park. We don't have very many fire or rock types, so a lot of people train up flying types to fight the bugs.
W: Scyther and Fearow aren't powerhouses on the international scene, but they are in the dozenish weekly events in Goldenrod, Azalea, and Violet City.
B: Great tips as always, Whitney. I hope our listeners were taking notes. But if you weren't, you can listen to it all over again on our website at-
W: Don't I get to say I'm leaving before you say that?
B: Didn't you though?
W: No!
B: Well, here's your opening Miss Akane.
W: Hmph. Time for me to go, Buena. I'm going back to hang out with my friends because that's what people with real jobs do on Saturday night.
B: Wait wait wait. Aren't you forgetting something?
W: Oh yeah. Tonights password is Nothing, what late night radio show hosts have to look forward to after they turn 35.
B: Far be it from me to argue with our local gym leader, or to ask what she has to look forward to after she turns 25.
B: And with that, it's time for another commercial break.