浅 Hook: the decision this lesson sharpens
Every game of Champions opens on the same screen: Team Preview. Both teams of six are laid out, you get roughly 90 seconds, and you have to choose which four of the opponent's six will actually come out, then decide your own leads — two in doubles, one in singles.
This step is won or lost before a single move is thrown. Bad leads and you spend turn one getting hit and forced to switch. Good leads and you put the opponent on the back foot from the start. This lesson sharpens that one decision — read the threats, set the lead — then sends you to play your first full game with it in mind.
The only goal this game is to finish it, not win it. But "finish" doesn't mean mash buttons — it means walk the whole game with one lead decision you actually thought through.
浅 Core: the minimum read that works immediately
At Team Preview, ask three things in order:
- What hurts most? Find the one Pokémon that threatens half your team on contact — usually high attack, fast, or carrying a type that runs you over.
- What of mine answers it? From your own four, confirm at least one can switch in without dying and still hit back.
- Which lead seizes the turn? Your lead isn't your strongest mon — it's the one least afraid of turn one. It either pressures their lead or forces them to play around it.
Hold onto this: a lead is for setting up the game, not for throwing away.
中 Worked example (with numbers) → your turn
Walk one. Say it's singles, and across the opponent's six the threat you immediately lock onto is Garchomp: Ground/Dragon, base 102 Speed, monster attack, very likely to open with Earthquake and punch through half your team.
In your four you have Rotom-Wash (Water/Electric). The key point: its Levitate ability makes it completely immune to Ground moves — Earthquake is flat 0 damage. Note carefully: this immunity comes from the ability, not the typing. Water/Electric as a type combination actually takes ×2 from Ground moves (Ground hits Electric super-effectively at ×2, while Ground vs Water is neutral at ×1 — combined ×2). And your reply, Hydro Pump (Water, boosted by STAB ×1.5): be aware that Water vs Garchomp's dual Ground/Dragon typing works out to neutral — Water hits Ground at ×2 but hits Dragon at ×0.5, netting ×1 — so this isn't a type-advantage hit. Even so, Hydro Pump's high base power makes it a strong move that can deal serious damage over two hits.
Damage is a probability, not a guarantee. The same move rolls between 85% and 100% across 16 equally likely steps. So the correct read isn't "I win for sure" — it's "how many of my 16 rolls KO, versus how many of theirs KO me back."
Lead conclusion: lead Rotom-Wash, use Levitate to swallow their opening threat, and force Garchomp to either hard-switch or click a non-Ground move. Either way, the initiative is yours.
Your turn (faded): swap the scenario. Now the threat is Gholdengo (Steel/Ghost, high Sp. Atk, nasty spread Make It Rain). In your four you have Garchomp (Ground moves hit Steel super-effectively at ×2) and Great Tusk (Ground/Fighting, fat physical bulk). Who do you lead, and why? Run the three questions above and say your answer out loud — that's the exact action you carry into the game.
中 When to apply: the if-X-then-Y read
- If the opponent has a mon whose type rolls over most of your team, then lead the one that's immune (including ability-based immunities) or resistant to it and can hit back.
- If there's no clean type advantage to exploit, then race Speed — lead whatever of yours outspeeds their probable lead and take the first move.
- If the leads can't dent each other (both resist, neither hits hard), then lead something that safely sets up or pivots out at no loss, and spend the turns buying information.
- If you genuinely can't read them (normal as a beginner), then lead your least matchup-dependent mon — decent mixed bulk, the most exits available.
中/深 Exceptions: where the simple rule breaks
The simple rule is "lead the immune/resistant answer." A few cases bite back:
- They bring a switch-in for your switch-in. A good opponent expects you to absorb with an immunity, so they open by bringing the mon that beats your absorber. An immunity blocks one move, not a prediction.
- Status routes around type. Yes, Rotom-Wash has Levitate to dodge Ground — but a Will-O-Wisp burn chipping its bulk still ruins it. In Champions, burn, Paralysis (note: full-stop chance was cut 25% → 12.5%, but Speed is still halved), and the rest can still rewrite the game.
- Spread moves in doubles. The same read needs re-math in doubles — a spread move hitting two targets does only ×0.75 to each, and Earthquake blasts your own partner too. Singles immunity intuition doesn't transfer cleanly.
- A read without Mega Evolution is incomplete. The battle gimmick in Champions is Mega Evolution via the Omni Ring holding a Mega Stone (one per team). If one of their mons can Mega, its base stats, Speed, even typing can change after it evolves — read the threat as its post-Mega form, not the base-dex sprite.
中/深 Mistake autopsy: the one beginners make
Mistake: at preview, picking on "which of mine is strongest" and slamming your highest-damage mon out as the lead.
Why it's wrong: your strongest mon is usually exactly the one the opponent most wants to remove. So your ace gets pivoted on by their counter, eats damage or a status for nothing, and you're behind by turn one with all your information handed away.
The fix: a lead is a role, not the top of your power ranking. The question isn't "who's strongest," it's "in this opening exchange, who forces the opponent into a reaction that helps me." Keep the real ace in the back; let them reveal their answer, read the board, then bring it in — that's when its damage actually lands safely and in full.
中 Predict, then reveal: a mid-lesson check
Q: Singles. You led Rotom-Wash and its Levitate ate the Ground threat. The opponent's Garchomp does not hard-click Earthquake — it switches out and brings in Tapu Koko (Electric/Fairy, base 130 Speed). Now it's your Rotom-Wash (Water/Electric) staring down their Tapu Koko. Do you stay in?
Think for 10 seconds, then read on.
A: Almost certainly switch. Electric moves against Rotom-Wash's Water/Electric typing land as neutral damage — Electric hits Water at ×2 but hits Electric at ×0.5, netting ×1. And Rotom-Wash's own Water moves are equally neutral into Tapu Koko's Electric/Fairy typing (×1 against both). Neither side has a type edge, but Tapu Koko's base 130 Speed leaves Rotom-Wash moving second, and Tapu Koko's Fairy moves add pressure from a different angle entirely. Bringing in Tapu Koko is the opponent betting you won't want to give up your immunity pivot — exactly the "an immunity blocks one move, not a prediction" point above. Read to this depth and you've won the step after preview, too.
深 Now do this: play one full game in Coach
Open a Casual Battles in the Coach tool and run this deliberate-practice loop — don't just freestyle it:
- Before preview: facing their six, answer the three Core questions out loud (or type them) — what hurts most, what of mine answers it, which lead seizes the turn. Write your lead reasoning in one line.
- Turn one: execute your lead plan and watch how far reality drifts from what you expected.
- After the game: pick the one moment you were least sure about, go back into Coach, and compute that turn's damage/Speed cleanly — how many of your 16 rolls KO'd, how many of theirs KO'd you?
You don't have to review every turn. One game, one lead you thought through, one moment you actually computed — finish that, and you're no longer a zero-experience player.