A Dialga Called Carie

I’ve actually used the name ‘Carie’ a lot in the past. Anything that does any particular heavy lifting gets the name. I had multiple Flygons in Pixelmon called Carie. Why? Because they were the first flying Pokemon I came across. Those Flygons carried me around until I could secure better Pokemon, both in travel and the occasional boss fight. The first Machamp I had in Pokemon Go was called Carie as well, as it was my only fighting type for a little too long. That Machamp was deleted eventually, due to having awful 0-star stats and eating too many TMs trying to get Dynamic Punch. The joke is that ‘Carie’ kinda looks like a real name and sounds like ‘Carry’. It’s barely even a joke, and these Pokemon all faded into obscurity.

Carie the Dialga however, will last forever.

Who is Carie?

Carie is a Dialga that was caught during GO Fest 2020. Not by me though. I caught it on a freshly made baby account. I’d started a baby account a while back to see how the initial new player experience was. That then turned into a look at how the completely free to play experience was. It then turned into a fully fledged account that became invaluable to our tiny local Pokemon GO community. Because there are simply so few players around here, it’s genuinely difficult getting enough people to do any raids outside of special raid events.

Anyway, this Dialga was caught by a level 15 account. It wasn’t just special because it was a level 15 account, but because I’d failed to catch my own Dialga on my level 40 account. Despite having thrown 11 excellent curve ball throws in a row (a record I will never beat). The Dialga wasn’t very good, but considering the fact that the next best Pokemon that account had were a bunch of Magmars and an Alolan Exeggcutor, it was basically a god.

I mean, even more of a god. Dialga is the Pokemon God of Time, after all.

Carie then proceeded to, well, carry.

From then on, Carie appeared at the top of pretty much every battle-based list I had. I mean, why wouldn’t it? It was over 2000 CP. Everything else I had was hovering around the 1500 CP mark. I couldn’t even power Carie the Dialga up at first. My level was too low. But I had this super tanky steel type available for pretty much every raid around. Steel/Dragon is an insanely strong combination, and Dialga has the stats to back it up.

Dialga also became the perfect solution to Team Rocket fights. To be fair, the Pokemon I had did a good job. Despite its low level, this newbie account was actually soundly defeating grunts, Cliff and Arlo. But Carie the Dialga allowed me to beat Sierra at level 20, something I had struggled to do before due to a lack of counters against her double Lapras team. Dialga, funnily enough, was also what I used to help beat Giovanni and get a Shadow Mewtwo – despite not really being super effective against anything on Giovanni’s team, Dialga was tough enough to kill the ever-tedious Persian and clear out Giovanni’s shields. This allowed my Giratinas (by this time, Giratina had been raids for a bit) to focus on the Kangaskhan and Mewtwo.

Small problem though, this baby account never had any TMs.

Any TMs I did have all went to other Pokemon. After all, as I got more Pokemon, Dialga became the tanky guy at the back, staying alive so I wouldn’t have to come back with a second (or third) squad. His main job now was Team Rocket fights. However, the entire time, Carie the Dialga has had Thunder as his charge attack.

Why? That’s what Carie originally came with. And honestly, it’s not a great move. But I rarely need Steel types and Draco Meteor… also isn’t a great move. In PvE, it takes way too long to charge. In PvP and Grunt battles, it also takes too long to charge. But Draco Meteor also harshly drops your Attack, which only makes it good for finishing enemies off, or firing it off and then switching out.

Even now, Carie the Dialga still carries.

The baby account is no longer really a baby. It’s level 33 and finally has plenty of Pokemon for most battling content. Yet Carie the Dialga still sits there in the back, a pillar of muscle and steel, stopping this little account from having to leave raids. And Carie is still a top tier pick for pretty much all Team Rocket fights.

Well, except maybe Ground and Fighting grunts…