Username: DunsparceMaster23
Partner Pokemon: Dunsparce♀ (Nickname: Finessa)
Reason For Joining: In my experience, normal type Pokemon have never really let me down. They aren't strong against any other types, but only fighting types can touch them, and you can outplay ghosts really well using normal types as the key to your strategy. They're typically speedy power-houses or tanks, which really helps me in battle, because I like to choose offense or defense as my battle strategy, and I'm not good at switching between the two.
Who is your favorite normal type Pokemon?
Dunsparce is my absolute favorite Pokemon, even beyond the normal typing. It was the first Pokemon I properly trained from an egg, and at level 72 I beat Red, using it as the key to the strategy. Yes, I beat Red with a Dunsparce. Secret Power = 60% freeze chance on Mt. Silver. That plus the same chance for flinch, using Headbutt...Unstoppable. :P
Who is your favorite normal type gym leader?
I'd have to say either Whitney or Norman. When I was a little kid, playing Pokemon, I wasn't really encouraged to think past the barrier of, "Press A to continue." I just spammed things I liked, I think a lot of us did, admittedly. When you come across Whitney, her Miltank is a force to be reckoned with, if you didn't know enough about the game or the Pokemon to make a strategy. And the same goes for Norman's Vigoroth/Slaking. They, even as normal type trainers, encouraged a lot of strategy formulation in me, even though I was little. They helped me a lot, by wrenching from me a smarter way of thinking, which stays with me now, no matter who I'm battling. My mind is always filled with numbers, predictions, speculation, and reasoning behind all moves. And beating them as a kid was just such a huge hurdle to jump, it felt amazing to get through it and move on.