First of all, I’m writing as someone who has watched and taken part in draft league Pokemon since the very first GBA season. Combining Pokemon and sport (even if it’s American style sport!) was something that suited both of my interests perfectly! I love draft leagues and it’s my favourite way of playing Pokemon and although I’ve never won a league, I’ve reached two finals and made it to play-offs in all but one season in years.

Hopefully that explains my history and experience enough to justify my right to have an opinion on this!

In draft leagues, each coach generally has a list of things they want to tick off that looks something like the below:

• Stealth rocks
• Spikes/Toxic Spikes
• Fire, water, grass (FWG) core
• Fairy, dragon, steel core
• Ground type
• Bulky water
• Momentum
• Grounded poison
• Fast electric type
• Dark type/strong knock off user
• Differing speed tiers
• Cleric/wish user
• Priority

While you can tick off a couple of these slots with a single Pokemon, in a 11 or twelve Pokemon draft, that’s a lot of Pokemon that are seen as essential. You’ve pretty much filled your squad before even looking at something cool and different that you want to use.

So, to create space for a Yanmega or something I’ve always wanted to pick, I looked at which of the above ‘essential’ picks could be abandoned, and looking at the list above, I would be leaving out the fire, water, grass (FWG) core.

Why Do People Like It?

Starters

Honestly, I think the obsession with this core starts with the three Pokemon you choose at the start of the game. This type trio, is pushed onto us with every generation of Pokemon and we have a sense of attachment with them. Having said that, these three types were selected as starters for a reason; see below.

Type Effectiveness

Each type is super effective against one and resists another, which seems like the basis of a good core, especially as there is no other type that can hit more than one of your FWG core super effectively. To be fair, that’s good, but for reasons I’ll mention later (see coverage and dual typing), this isn’t always the case.

It also provides important resistances to ground, electric and water through the grass typing. (which I will disapprove of later!)

Habit

I feel like ‘I got my fire, grass core’ has been a part of so many draft analysis videos since the start of the format, that people don’t consider why they’re drafting it any more. It’s been something Youtubers can say they’ve got to justify their draft and tick something off the list. People have got into the habit of recognising this core as something they need, and so no longer think about why.

Why I Don’t Like It

Coverage

Water resists fire, yes. Fire resists grass, yes. Grass resists water, yes. But, here’s a thought. Pokemon can carry moves other than their STAB. I realise this can be the same for any defensive core, however, if we’re going to build a core based on resistances, maybe we should consider a type with less weaknesses than grass or a type with more defensive Pokemon than fire.

Everyone Else

Because fire, water, grass cores have become so common in draft league formats, almost every team is going to have one. So while yes, your grass type will resist an opponent’s STAB water moves, your opponent is likely to have a fire type to deal with that. And it’s the same throughout the core. Perhaps you’re better with a different offensive or defensive core that deals with the common cores and other popular types. I’ll definitely be looking into alternative cores and how effective they could be in future.

Grass Types

Overall, grass types aren’t great. Defensively, they can cover the staple water types on most drafts, however, a lot of water Pokemon can carry ice beam/ice punch to cover the grass type if needed and you know what resists both water and ice? The water type you already have!

Offensively, the grass type can deal with the bulky water types for the fire part of your offensive core, but so can electric! With electric types, come volt switch momentum (tick) and potentially a fast electric type (tick) that you can tick off your list.

Grass is resisted by seven types, that’s tied with bug for the worst offensive type in the game. Defensively, it’s just above average and resists four types, and while admittedly, these types are good ones to resist (ground, electric, water and grass), it’s worth thinking about what you want to get from each pick, before selecting a Pokemon or type to base a core around.

I suppose the one positive is, you can tick off your ground resist, but again I would argue there are better ways to do this.

Dual Typing & Abilities

I might be stretching the disadvantages her but hear me out. Fire resists grass, yes. Water resists fire, yes. Grass resists water, yes, however, this only works if you are working with the three pure types, without mixing them with anything else.

Admittedly, there aren’t too many ways this comes into play, and that secondary typing can provide more beneficial resistances elsewhere, however for example, if Empoleon is the W in your FWG core, you no longer resit fire. While Empoleon is a great defensive Pokemon, and it is still defensively well suited with a grass type because of its ground weakness, perhaps it’s better when built around a core to suit its specific weaknesses.

In summary

Each Pokemon is different. They have different stats, abilities secondary typings and moves. The nature of draft league Pokemon means you know what your opponent is going to bring, so however much you plan your core, it can always be broken by an unexpected set up, a resist berry or hazard stacking, momentum or a strong z-move. So, when you’re putting together a core in your next draft, think about what you need, what you don’t, whether you’re just ticking a box and which fun Pokemon you could be missing out on, just because you have so many boxes to fill.

It’s taken a while to write this and now I’m at the end, I’m starting to like the idea of an FWG core a bit more and value the grass type a little more too, but I do think there are much better defensive and offensive cores out there, which I’d like to explore.

I want to write something about the dragon, fairy, steel core as I think it’s better, but there is one type in there that I think could be replaced. What are the cores you like to use? Let me know what you think!