#lisia thoughts at 1 am

[bulbagarden]

i wish bulbasaur were real

[crystalelemental]

Unit Viability Speculation - July 2023

DeNA: Establishes right away that Summer is for female protagonists.  First Lyra, then Gloria, then Hilda.

DeNA: Creates Variety Scouts for all the less popular characters, killing any hope of alts for all but the most popular of options.

DeNA: Introduces Master Fair reruns, each signaling the next batch of new characters they’re about to drop.  SS Lusamine predicts Alola VA, SSR Cynthia predicts Hisui, and now Archie predicts Hoenn.

Literally everyone: “Okay so it’s May.  There’s a May alt.  It is definitely May.”

Tate and Liza.

DeNA, I hope whoever pitched this idea is running the company now, because not only is this the best long con I’ve seen, this is also the funniest way to build this up I’ve ever seen.

Summer Tate They gave Jirachi to Tate.  After all this talk of May, Wally, and Lisia, they gave it.  To Tate.  I am in love with this decision.  Sincerely, outside of the nichest of fans of these two, is anyone actually happy here?  Is it just me and @megazardx2?  Well too bad, fuck y’all, my boy is thriving.

Tate not only got Jirachi, but avoided what I thought was the guaranteed pain of Doom Desire as a two-turn move.  No.  It turns out that’s a passive now.  Every other attack he throws out gets another stack of damage.  While we don’t know how much, the way it’s written sounds like NY!Dawn and Oricorio, so I am fully expecting 100%.  When this bonus damage activates, a random stat among the seven gets boosted by 2 stages, and the opponent’s special defense drops by 2.  It’s a slow process, but special defense debuffers have my life, so I’m happy.  Flash Cannon is okay damage, Thunder Wave is optimal Gauntlet shenanigans, and Charm is...present.  Trainer move is a classic +4 Sp Atk/+3 crit, and sync requires lowered attack.  So already his kit is wonky.  Charm is sync setup, but then you’re not debuffing with Doom Desire, which takes time on its own, and you just know there’s paralysis multipliers in the grid so there’s that angle too.

Thankfully, his grid provides a form of Overwhelm 9 that I assume takes Doom Desire into account as well given how it’s listed as a P-Move?  That or it’s only active on P-Move.  Either really good or really bad, but it specifies attack so no -3 Atk Charm.  Brainteaser’s nice, Rising Tide is fantastic, Fortuitous and another +1 on P-Moves is nice, Static Shock 5 is predictable, apparently another +1 to a random stat when he uses a status move, Natural Remedy and Quick Cure, Hit and Heal on trainer move, Ramp Up on Charm.

Tate is...interesting.  I’m not sure what else to say about the lad.  I think the kit is ultimately acceptable, but there are some oddities in his self setup.  Oddities that Lucian completely solves.  Sincerely, Lucian covers his DPS, his sync condition, and even assists Rising Tide.  Will Lucian ever stop winning?  But moreover, Tate is Steel-type, and raises the question...is this better than what’s currently available?  Base Gloria’s expansion is to die for, Palentine’s Marnie and her Zone don’t really work well wit him given his special focus (first among the Steels to be bad with her, by the way), and we also have Rose this month, who...well I’ll get to that one.  Tate just has competition, and I think the tradeoff is going to be one of utility.  Tate will be better in Gauntlet than CS, no question.  But I think Lucian does mean he has a home in CS.

Summer Liza I had to look this up, but apparently Celesteela does have comparable attack and special attack.  I always assumed it was special dominant.  Complaint redacted, this is all upside.  That said, two Celesteela before a single Nihilego.  I’m not mad, I’m furious.

Summer Liza and Celesteela come in as a Flying type Striker.  After P!Elesa, this may raise some concerns.  Be at peace, my child.  Flying Shift Giga Impact be upon you.  This is a double-edged sword.  4-bar spam Normal with 90 accuracy means big DPS numbers, but the tradeoff is she’s slow as hell, and has no other damage aside from sync.  Iron Defense and Protect are defensive tools, very unusual for a Striker.  Her trainer move raises accuracy +1, crit +3, then raises attack by how much defense is raised.  Okay, so she uses Iron Defense, then trainer move, then she can spam.  That’s slow.  Oh, except she gets Free Moves Next and +2 defense for each status move used.  So she sets up defense +4, boosts with trainer move, then throws out a free Giga Impact.  Any +2 to defense off a defensive ally like, oh I dunno, Skyla, suddenly gets her to cap.  That’s respectable.

Grid offers Super Victory (I love this stupid move on high DPS pairs), Tough Cookie (free money), MGR9 (Ghetsis strats), Towering Force and Team Sentry Entry for perfect self-sufficiency, HP Advantage 4 which is odd, Protect Physical Boost Up 3 for +3 physical moves up next AND Status P-Moves Up 2 for another +2 off either status move, which means Protect is a goddamn +5 physical moves up next stack on its own, Tough Sync 3, Piercing Gaze for some reason, and got dang Vigilance.

Liza.  You fucking did it, girl.  You actually did high Flying-type DPS without a dumb gimmick.  I legitimately didn’t think we’d ever see the day.  Sure, the gauges are a problem, but it’s nothing that can’t be solved by speed boosting, and Skyla is literally right there.  On physical stages, that’s a free win.  Masked Royal also fixes all her issues, doubles down on survival against physical stages, and debuffs defense for her.  Guys, Liza’s really good.  We actually got a really good Flying type Stiker who isn’t just good for sync.  And it’s Celesteela.  This is my daughter now.

Rose Steel Striker, okay.  Good luck competing with Gloria for...oh holy shit.

Iron Head, High Horsepower, Stone Edge, Hit the Gas 5, Max Moves, and his main passive makes all of his moves and Max Moves AoE.  Fucking suck it, Victor.  It doesn’t even let moves suffer a DPS drop, he just does that.  As an added bonus, how about we pull in some SS Giovanni, and make his Steel moves stronger while also making them never miss?  Bro, Rose, what the fuck, man?  Keep in mind that Iron Head is a goddamned 30% flinch rate, and it’s AoE now.  His only flaw is that, despite his trainer move being Eusine-esque in its immediate capping of offense, it drops speed by 2.  He was already painfully slow, and with Hit the Gas 5, Rose is looking to end a match really fast, or die trying.  Which...hey, massive points for thematically appropriate sets.

For Grid, Rose is a Pokefair, and I need to talk about the 5/5 Grid first.  He gets Free Moves Next on every hit while the field is a Steel Damage Zone at 5/5.  This is, by far, the most lifechanging skill I’ve seen on a 5/5.  Rose wants to buff, pop Max Move, then hopefully not deal with anything past that point.  This lets him continue past that point.  This is the off-type node.  It’s that good.  But, it’s also on a timer.  Once it leaves, it never comes back.  So I don’t think it’s all that worth it.  Defense Crush 9 on AoE is hilarious though.  Impervious is...fine.  The speed drop being blocked is nice but eh.  And extra power on his Max Move is...fine.  I don’t think it’s necessary, and frankly it being at 4/5 kinda invalidates his 5/5 tools by clearing faster.

The rest of his grid is Double Down 2, Interference Immunity, Haymaker and Furious Brawn, Iron Head MGR9, MAX Super Preparation which is obscene for on-type, Double Down 2 and a 50% sync bonus when the Steel damage field is up, Sync Freebie, Max Countdown 1, and some Sandstorm stuff including Surging Sand 3 and Sands of Time 2.

Rose is...really fucking good, man.  As much as I shit on Victor constantly, his AoE Max Move does put in a ton of work, and is a major selling point.  Rose copies that entirely.  While his base attack is lower than Victor’s, and his speed is a major issue, Rose makes up for it with much more efficient self-setup and frankly much better multipliers.  Rose is free, Victor needs support.  And I think Steel is a type in much greater need than Grass, while the backup of Rock and Ground, two types fairly notorious for a weaker presence, makes Rose particularly valuable as an offensive pick.  But he’s very SS Giovanni-esque, in that if supported correctly, he’ll clear just fine.  But if he’s not...he’s going to fail.  Badly.  Like, I don’t even want to think about how bad this guy has it in Gauntlet.

Oleana Hey kids, did you get Emma?  No?  Okay, here’s a do-over.  Oleana and GMax Garbodor come in with Gunk Shot, a tremendously powerful Poison-type move.  Love me some good Poison DPS.  Move Gauge Boost is a choice, Venom Drench is interesting, and her trainer move is +4 Atk/+3 crit/+2 accuracy, and a -1 sync cooldown.  Which is good because you want her Max Move early, as it applies Poison to all foes.  Sorry, Toxic.  Yeah, her passive bumps up her Poison status to Toxic, my bad.  Oh and she hits the foe with Rebuff after the Max Move, by the way.  And that Venom Drench?  Yeah, any stat debuff from a status move on a Poisoned target is tripled.  Two turns to max debuffs, and she’s an offense debuffer; I know several people about to go ballistic over this one.  Statistically, she’s relatively slow and could be better on attack, 350s isn’t great for a starting point in this day and age, but it’s Poison so like take what you can get, girl.

4/5 gives Ruthless Toxin to randomly debuff the foe by 2 (not affected by passive), and Max Move Team Defense Down 2 (again, not affected) 5/5 gives Soften Up, and Venom Drench Twofer for free moves. Regular grid has Toxic Power 2 and 3, Virulent Toxin 2 and 5, Ramming Speed (???), Move Gauge Boost: Pep Rally 2 (aaah), Hit and Heal and Berserker 2 on trainer move, Potent Toxin for more Toxic damage, MAX Shielding for defense, Staggering 1, Posthaste 2, and Power Play.  That last one is real nice.

Oleana is very good.  Is she as good as Emma, though?  In CS, I’m going to say no.  It is very hard to compete with “I can perform a denial on turn 2 with hilarious consistency.”  I don’t suspect Oleana will be able to do that, but who knows, maybe she will with Max Move.  I think Oleana’s definitely top 2 contender for Poison damage, though.  This feels well above H!Iris.  And the debuffing is very nice, very efficient, and works well with some of my favorites.  So I’m...admittedly very tempted here.

Variety Mallow Ugh.  Variety Scouts.  They’re not even Elite Four, so there goes consistency in that regard.  And it’s Mallow.  I’ll be honest, I don’t like Alola’s cast much, and don’t really like Mallow.  To make it worse, they gave her Shiinotic.  I mean...props for picking one of my least favorite Pokemon ever.  At least Lurantis is still free to be on a good sync pair.

Grass support.  Giga Drain, Stun Spore, X Sp Def All, trainer move is 1MP, +4 Sp Atk/+2 Crit/+1 Accuracy for the team.  She debuffs attack when hitting with her Giga Drain, restores more HP when the foe is paralyzed, and has Status Immunity.  Statistically, she is fine, with bulk hovering around the 300 mark.  Grid gives Master Healer, MGR9 on Giga Drain, Shielded 1 on X Sp Def All, Endurance, Revenge Boost, debuffing special attack from a healing move, Pep Rally on trainer move (1MP, that’ll help), Team Sharp Entry, Stalwart, Quick Cure, Synchro Healing, and a 50/50 to heal again when hitting a paralyzed opponent.

Listen, how do you feel about Variety Agatha?  That’s your litmus test for Mallow, because they’re functionally identical.  Both are rapid buff bots with 1MP trainer move, both want status to heal themselves but can’t heal allies almost at all, both have some means of debuffing as desired.  Personally, while I love Sp Atk/Crit buffers, I feel like Mallow kinda sucks.  I say this knowing full well she’s going to be a Gauntlet solo aficionado with these tools.  But I don’t like Mallow, and I hate Shiinotic, and the kit is not doing anything new.  Easiest skip of my life.

Variety Kiawe Kiawe brought his dog.  Apparently, following Crobat, the second Pokemon to three forms is...Arcanine.  DeNA, come on.

Ember, Will-o-Wisp, Fire Spin, trainer move gives +4 Sp Atk/+2 crit and accuracy.  Tech nuke is based on burn, instantly gimping his Gauntlet career.  He is CS focused, and to emphasize this, he gets Extend Range to have moves apply to all foes.  In addition, if the foe is burned, he debuffs special attack by 1, and if trapped, special defense by 1.  ...hey yo Bede, how you doin?

Bede, laughing: “He needs two different statuses for -1?!  PEASANT”

Grid debuffs attack of a burned foe, lowering speed of a trapped foe, Power Play and Interference Sync 5, MGR9 broadly for some reason, Terrify 2, Stationary Target 3, Scorcher 2 and Pokey Trap 5 for passive damage, Team Sync Regen, Propulsion 9 on trainer move.

In summation, Variety Kiawe is a statistically average Fire-type tech with slow-acting debuffs requiring two distinct forms of status condition and status change, impacting his point totals wildly in CS and having poor choices for Gauntlet as well, all while debuffing far slower than Bede.  Did I miss anything?  No?  Garbage.  NEXT!

Lodge Irida Lodge Irida comes in as a...Tech?  She’s a Tech?  I was fully expecting Support.  Well, Fire type, so that doesn’t bode well.

Fire Fang, X Atk, Flare Blitz (oh no, it’s just like the main series), trainer move is Sp Def +1/Crit +2 and gradual healing.  Sync multiplier is burn.  Oh no.  Standfast 9 (whew), Aggravation 2, and Hostile Environment 2.  Girl, you locked your sync on a 30%, why?

Grid has First Aid 4, Aggravation 2, Double Down 3 (OH NO) and Scorching Sync 5 (OH NO), Hostile Environment 2, Superduper Effective 2, Burn Synergy 3, and a Standfast 5.

Okay.  I don’t really know what I expected.  But Lodge Irida’s not exactly good.  High BP moves with recoil can work, we’ve seen what Lodge Gloria does, but Flare Blitz has the misfortune of positive conditions that hinder total DPS in exchange for a slight burn rate.  I’m sorry, even at your best it’s a 50%, that’s not reliable.  The issue with Fire Fang is that Staggering caps to 50%, but it can only activate one condition at a time, so you can’t use it for disruption and setting up her burn.  In Gauntlet, Burn is bad by default, while in CS, unless I’m misremembering, the only spread Burn is from H!Morty.  “And the new Kiawe!”  I am not pulling for that clown.

Yeah, this is gonna be messy.  Irida’s going to live and die by her DPS.  Sync’s condition is too difficult to achieve, and frankly, her multipliers are pretty atrocious too for a Tech, being a measly 80% and partially locked to on-type.  I’m really unimpressed.

Blue (Grid Expansion) I’m gonna be honest, Blue got basically everything he ever wanted.  Ramp Up 2 on trainer move, and a full 150% sync multiplier.  Granted, hit with the same Sync Power Flux bat as Caitlin, but at least it’s not a locked to on-type situation.  His DPS was always respectable, albeit post-sync, so this works.  If there’s any particular flaw, it’s that self-setup still requires three turns.  Ethan had a lot of trouble with this, effectively needing sync to perform a denial and thus not working so well with Support EX.  Blue has similar concerns, but the mega evolution made that mandatory anyway, so it’s not like he misses out on much.  Without a good sense for his new damage output, I’m tentatively going to say this rules.  Karen only got the Sync Power Flux, and she’s frankly insane.  Then again, her DPS was directly tied to a high flinch rate, so I kinda feel like she got it a bit better than Blue just by design.  But this seems wholly respectable.  I don’t have Blue at EX, which is a shame because that’s really what you want here, but I imagine his fans will be pleased.

Dojo Gloria (Grid Expansion) What do you offer a sync pair that’s this powerful?  Apparently miscellaneous tools.  Interference Immunity and Impervious are cute but wholly unnecessary.  Restoring Strike is good for solos, but CS doesn’t really help much.  The big victory is the 5/5 Head Start 1.  Gloria is a fast-ramp all by herself now.  If you care.  I don’t.  3/5 is perfectly sufficient, everything in her expanded grid is like...okay.  There wasn’t much room left to improve though, if we’re being honest.  Would’ve liked to see Ripple Effect 4, but it’s fine.

Clair (EX) Oh my god, thank you.  I love Clair, I’m so glad she got something.  Unfortunately it sucks.  All of Clair’s damage is in DPS.  Her only multipliers are the 100% bonus damage to her Draco Meteor for Rain and Paralysis.  Her sync is borderline negligible.  It doesn’t exactly help that her favorite partner, SS Kris, needs first sync for MP Burst, so she’ll rarely see use from this.  It’s nice, but it’s the kind of occurrence that’s like listen, DeNA, just do a windfall of the story pairs getting EX.  There’s no reason to hold off.  Most of them can’t even do anything with it.

[path-of-arceus]

Chapter 1

Gentle footsteps can be heard in a peaceful, city. Wallace makes a peaceful walk by the side of the island, it has been 3 weeks since he has gotten a challenger. What can he say, Tate and Liza has trained their pokemon hard to the point that none of the current challenger were able to get pass them. Suddenly, a sharp flap ofetalic wings can be heard from a distance.

"Hello there, Steven, my good friend." Reply Wallace with an air of politeness in his voice. "What brings you to this city?"

Steven gets off his Skarmory and seal it in it's pokeball. He walks forward towards Wallace, he gently puts a hand on Wallace's shoulders. Wallace nods at him and smiles.

"Very well, thank you my friend." Respond Wallace. "If i'm being honest with you, i felt, lonelier than you thought, the only time i felt entertained is watching Lisia's performance."

Steven nods his head, understanding of his loneliness. Wallace takes Steven for a little stroll on the the small platform they are on. The air and the weather reminds Steven of a Sun stone or maybe a beautiful sparkle of diamond, he smiles. Seeing him smile made Wallace's day a little.

"So, how is your day so far?" Asked Wallace.

Steven turns around to face him, he smiles and tilts his head.

"I see, i am glad to hear that, my friend, i'm so happy you're here."

Suddenly a loud roar can be heard from the sky. Citizens of Sootopolis all gather up to see what the sound is all about.

"Oh Arceus, what in the world was that?"

From the distance, they saw a child falls from the portal that formed up above the cloud. He falls into the fresh water below with a violent crashing sound. The little body rises up, seems to be struggling to stay afloat. Wallace, without even thinking, immedietly jumps into the water and swims over to the struggling child, holding the small body on his arms. Shenlan looked up to whoever is saving him.

"It's okay, you're safe now..." Said Wallace.

Wallace brings the child back onto land, gently placing him onto soft grass. Shenlan curls up his body, he is shaking, he felt the cold and fear overwhelmed his little body.

"Steven, come with me at my home, we will get him settled down" said Wallace

"Mhhm." The only thing Steven said as he rushed by his side.

Wallace puts his hand on the child, gently patting his back before picking him up and carrying him back to his house. Shenlan closes his eyes gently, his fear and pain overwhelmed him. He is scared, but he doesn't know if he should trust whoever is saving him from the deep water.

Wallace opens up the door to his house, where Steven has prepared a quick bed for him infront of the fireplace. Shenlan curls up, he felt his strength depleting. His fears caught up to him, he started to cry, uncontrollably.

Steven gently places a hand on the boy's back. Shenlan a sense of comfort. He started to feel his body beginning to warm up. He slowly opens his eyes, as he tries to get up and sit.

Steven smiles, as he moves his hand to the child's head, gently rubbing it. Shenlan looked up at him, their gazes met each other, Steven smiles. He puts his hand to the childs hand. Shenlan looked up, his eyes filled with wonder, but it's obvious he cried.

"It's alright... little one." Said Steven, as he wipes the tear from his eyes.

Wallace turns his head around to face Steven, it's the first time he had heard him speak in what must felt like ages. He tried his best not to show it, but he cries a bit in the inside.

Shenlan feels the ball of fear and anxiety inside him melts away. He felt... Calm, even when he only just met these people.

"T-thank you..." Shenlan said, softly.

His throat is so sore, he can barely talk. He is too scared to talk.

"Now now, are you feeling better?" Wallace asked

Shenlan nods. He leans closer to Steven.

"Also kid, what's your name... And where did you come from?"

Shenlan takes a deep breath before answering.

"M-my name i-is Shenlan, and i..."

Shenlan stops, he is not ready to reveal the reason why he is here, or where did he come from.

"... I am from... U-uhhh, somewhere, that place is scary... N-now... H-however..."

"Oh... What's happen..."

"Sorry, i... I-i can't t-tell you about it... N-now..."

Steven nods his head, he pulls the child closer to him. Wrapping his arms along his shoulders. He notices the boy started getting sleepy. He stood up and lift the small child into a bed, Wallace's bed. The only bed in his house.

"W-will you be ok... W-with me... Sleeping h-here?" Asked Shenlan, nervous rises up his throat.

"Don't worry, kid, it's fine, feel free to get some sleep." Said Wallace. "Now now, rest your head and sleep."

Wallace puts the blanked on Shenlan, the boy hesitates. But after thinking about it, he knows that he needs to learn to trust these men. His fatigue starts to take over him as he falls asleep.

As the sunlight shines on his eyes, Shenlan opens his eyes. It was a very good sleep, a pretty long one at that.

"Good morning, kid!" Greets Wallace. "You must be very tired yesterday."

"... Yes... I did." Shenlan smiled nervously. "Thank you, sir"

Wallace sits down next to him.

"I am glad to hear that, although, no need to be so formal with me." He said. "Just call me by my name!"

Shenlan smiles as he nods his head, Wallace realizes something.

"Oh wait, i haven't introduced myself yet haha."

A knock can be heard from the door.

"Come in!"

The door opened gently, Steven walks inside the house. He stared at the boy and waved his hand.

"You came at a perfect time!" Wallace stood up, he walks over to Steven. "My name is Wallace, and this is my best friend, Steven."

Steven bows his head, in reflect, Shenlan lowers his head in response.

"Now then, we need to figure out what we should do with you..."

[books-are-my-life-stuff]

21 wins, just two hours before reset. I had a rough day at work so getting some more win streaks is just how I cope with it. It's already a little higher than last time and I'm tired so I don't want to attempt further. To sum up, this run is basically: Morty supremacy.

Win streak 1-12 can be found here.

Team 13

I haven't used Cheryl for...so long, really. I gave her 5* based from @crystalelemental 's recommendation, but even then I still haven't found good opportunity to use her, because her physical defense is so low, and many stages are unpredictable, so I'm still hesitant to use her...

...until now. Crystal said that Cheryl could withstand Uxie's Iron Tail, so I was thinking, maybe she could survive Entei too? Entei's sync is physical, yes, but his moves were mostly special.

Cheryl did survive! Until third bar when he started spamming strong physical move, and she went down from a Stone Edge, but even then, she did a great job surviving that far. Elio did an amazing job at proc-ing Team Fast Track, Trip Up, and Mind Games. Thanks to that, Barry could reach maximum Inertia and Cakewalk multiplier, and destroyed Entei with 34k sync damage, without rain and only +4 Sp. Atk! This team worked much better than I expected.

Team 14

...I can't think of team comp. Thankfully Subway Bros are as strong as ever. Finally got the chance to use Dawn after...the end of Sinnoh Villain Arc, really, when I last used her. Gauge is a bit difficult at first, but can be negated after SC Ingo proc some Team Viral Haste. SC Emmet is just SC Emmet, he's awesome.

Team 15

I am going to make Halloween Morty work even if it kills me, god damn it. Lisia was there to get rid of permanent status shield, but even then Halloween Morty shouldn't use Will-o-Wisp too much so Uxie didn't build resistance at third health bar. Thankfully Shadow Sneak has 3 PP and with careful usage, he could work around his limitation. Viola tanked pretty well, even the Iron Tail and the occasional physical hits. Even with only +4 Atk and only Scorching Sync 5 and another innate Scorching Sync, Halloween Morty had no trouble nuking Uxie once he got to do it. It was great.

Team 16

Hell yeah, redundancy! This team is probably the most redundant ever? Like, SS Kris has 3 Rain Dance usage by default, yet I used May alongside her because I wanted and insisted to test her sync nuke build. The result is pretty good, and Muddy Water made a quick work of Entei. Rachel was there to buff speed and debuff special attack, and also to clear status from May. This team finished in just two sync, from SS Kris and May, and right before third sync. It was really fast.

Team 17

Tried with Tech Ninetales, and Sunny Day MPR refused to proc, then I gave up and just brought Lyra for eternal sun. SS Erika needs permanent sun, and I don't want to reset just for Sunny Day MPR. This means SS Erika has to run full DPS build while Lyra takes all the sync. Luckily Lyra has Rising Tide, so her sync nuke is still pretty good. I thought Morty could survive the Wood Hammer even with maxed defenses, but turns out he didn't. Thankfully Lyra could be an emergency tank as long as she didn't take the Wood Hammer, thanks to Morty's defensive buffs.

I feel like this could have been more effective with EX Lyra but, I dunno, I don't feel like EX-ing her. She has worse defensive stats than Falkner and Hilbert, and even them struggled to survive. So, I think even with EX she wouldn't mean to be a frontline tank.

Team 18

You know I have no intention in making further win streak if I just threw my best units in one team. Evelyn taking full advantage of Kalos Flag Bearer and that certainly helped her to take hits better. Skyla was mostly there to control gauge, because Evelyn's burning move is 3 gauges while SS Serena's restrain is 4 gauges. Pretty much just SS Serena steamrolling things as usual as long as gimmicks and gauges are covered.

Team 19

Another team that ended the fight in near full HP! Zinnia'a flinching power is outstanding. Bugsy and Aaron completed her buffs while controlling gauge and keep everyone alive. -6 Defense Dragon Rush hit really hard. Aaron wasn't at full HP because he got burned from Sacred Fire, but the fight was already over by that time.

Team 20

Zinfogel wasn't kidding when he said this team is near immortal. The theme skills cohesion, the potions, Leaf's sync buffs, Red's defense debuffs and paralysis, and finally, Spring May's 12k damage High Jump Kick. They really could check almost all Legendary Arenas. I used this team against Tornadus too, and while it took a while, this team did it. Gauntlet is probably the only reason I'm using Spring May, but I'm also hoping I can use her in CSMM someday.

Team 21

And to end this with a bang, OG Morty. Surprisingly he proc his MPR on trainer move 4 times, which lets him reach max evasion all by himself. Tech Kangaskhan provided defense debuffs and counter to all Uxie's gimmicks, while Halloween Caitlin kept everyone alive.

OG Morty, with max Blind Spot multiplier, +6 attack, and -6 defense, nuked Uxie's second health bar in just one sync. I feel...so satisfied. OG Morty has really difficult set up (and so is Halloween Morty), but being able to pull off his max potential just makes me so happy as a fan.

Of course, the third bar took a while because Phantom Force MPR didn't proc at all, but once he sync, he ended the fight. With that, I used all Morty alt that I had throughout this gauntlet run. My job is done.

[kalosstarters]

Alright, I just watched the newest jn ep and here’s a couple of comments under the cut (Not as negative as I thought they would be! Honestly I’m kind of relieved rn. Do keep in mind tho that I am not an am/ourshipper):

I’m gonna start this commentary by lifting the cat on the table. When I heard that Serena would appear and there would be some interaction with Ash, I got: nervous. I don’t like this ship for reasons that would take too long to explain in this post so the thought of the writers f. ex. bringing up what happened in the final episode of xy&z didn’t make me happy. Well, luckily, my worries didn’t come true. The Ash & Serena interaction scene was very short, less than a minute long I think and it was fairly generic to my non shipping eyes? Like, there’s no doubt that Serena still thinks highly of Ash but there were no references to their last meeting, instead it was like ‘yes, we used to travel together, btw I’m in this contest rn, alright, let’s keep doing our best’, end of story. Which is just the way I hoped it would go. 

I would like to nitpick to the writer(s) of this episode about how much Serena quoted Ash in this episode tho. Yeah, I’m sure that was smth the shippers found sweet, but to me they overdid it a bit. A few quotes in suitable situations are ok, but I would even go as far as to claim that nearly half of what Serena said was smth Ash used to say. I get they wanted to show the audience what she had learned from him, but, again: quite a lot of her lines were quotes. 

Overall Serena and Koharu’s (btw while I use the English names most of the time, Koharu just comes more naturally to me) interaction was pretty good tho; it made sense for Serena to bring up her earlier insecurities bc Koharu is in a pretty similar situation rn. Tbh, I wouldn’t have minded seeing more Lisia with them because she seems like a fun and energetic character, but there’s of course only so much time in 1 episode. 

(I would also like to comment on Koharu becoming a coordinator (or a performer, who knows, they seem to have completely blended those two) but I think a lot of ppl have already talked about it so, yeah, I’m just gonna leave this here)

Then to the things that I did actually like:

-The whole Ash & Wallace interaction. While we didn’t see much of the battle, I definitely found it funny that Ash didn’t remember Wallace’s name and Wallace was offended that he DID remember Steven :’D (and did that ‘starry eyes face’ he does whenever talked about champions&other strong trainers) And Go getting frustrated when the two others just did not stop battling even tho Koharu was performing (but lol, when he saw the Altaria he remembered his own goal and proved again how similar he is to Ash)

-Soo much Kalos music even though the characters were in Hoenn :’D

-I’m also glad Wallace mentioned Dawn and May! ♥ Best girls (if only we could get a proper May cameo but I know they would have to hire a new va in order to do that...)

-Also loved how enthusiastic Koharu’s dad got when he saw her on TV. Sometimes it’s easy to forget he’s more than just a professor, he is actually a dad to 2 kids too. 

Well, I think that was all! Overall I’m glad I watched this episode (despite having doubts) because it definitely eased my worries and was better than I expected.

[pkmnomegaverse]

What would the Omegaverse AU be like if the female protagonists were the main protagonists? Would the families change?

This is actually difficult to answer since at this point, I’d want to maintain as many families as possible, so for the most part, I would try to keep ships/families the same.  And when they do change, I would still have the same fankids.  Their appearance would just change slightly (channel Fire Emblem in terms of how fankids would work). But had this blog been female protagonist-centric all along, the ships I would have went with would have been different.  So depending on how I look at it, the answer varies.

Leaf - I just can’t see her as the protag of Gen 1.  Ever.  Red is so clearly the canon protagonist that even in an AU where the female protagonists were “canon,” Red is just the only dude protagonist.  If I absolutely had to make Leaf the protag though, I would still find some way to pair up Green/Red, since I like that ship too much.  It would just be very convoluted (especially if Red ended up in Leaf’s role as a member of Team Rocket).  The only difference here is if Leaf was the protag, I would pair her up with somebody.  Maybe Sabrina?  Idk, but she wouldn’t end up single this time around. Kids remain the same, although if Leaf does end up with a girl, Quill is now either trans or her child from a previous relationship.

Lyra - I am very confident that I would have gone with Silver/Lyra had this blog started with the female protags as canon.  No nonsense with Lance, and while Clair/Lyra is a ship I’ve grown fond of, I would be fine dropping the angle entirely if I had to change things now.  Ina is still Lyra’s child, she just ends up with red hair.  Ethan would be with Lance and they’d end up mostly drama free.  I’d say there’s about a 50/50 chance Silver wouldn’t take over Team Rocket in this scenario, since without Lance’s “death,” he doesn’t have that catalyst to agree with Archer’s proposal.

May - Ships would have likely remained unchanged, since I’m not actually that into May/Wally and have always liked May/Drew.  At most, I might have gone with May/Lisia.  Or May/Steven. Maybe.  But at this point, I’m way too attached to the current ships so May/Drew/Harley and Brendan/Wally remain.  All that changes is that Brendan becomes the regional professor while May becomes the Champion of Hoenn (Drew and Harley can take care of the kids while she’s the breadwinner of the family).

Dawn - I’m way too attached to the current families to want to change them so Dawn/Riley and Barry/Lucas remain.  I’m not sure what past me would have done though had I started with Dawn as the protag.  Since I don’t think I would have gone with Dawn/Riley.  I probably would have gone with Dawn/Cynthia or Dawn/Barry.  Had I gone with the second, I likely would have defaulted to Lucas/Riley, since my reasoning for it would be the same as my reasoning for Dawn/Riley.  In this scenario, to keep the dynamic with the fankids, Juri is Dawn/Barry’s daughter while Kyra and Colm are Lucas/Riley’s children.  Dawn and Lucas also flip professions.

Hilda - This one is tricky since I like Hilbert/N too much.  Hilda/N is fine, but Isshushipping is my #1 Pokemon ship.  I suppose I would have gone with Hilda/N though, simply because Hilbert never would have caught N’s eye.  It might be an interesting AU to explore, N ending up with someone other than the BW!Protag, but I wouldn’t have thought to do that early on.  Hilbert would be with Hiker Anthony for a time, long enough he would have Clover with him.  I do think there would be a part of me that would endgame him with Cheren long term though.  Bianca can be with Iris I guess.  Children wise, Hilda/N has Jordan and Braith, Hilbert/probably Cheren ends up with Clover, Oralie, and Arian, and Bianca/probably Iris would end up with a new kid, assuming she isn’t still Oralie’s mom (which she likely is).

Rosa - Like the above, this one is tricky.  I probably would have gone with Rosa/Hugh, since similar to SoulSilverShipping, it’s one of the ships I like either protag with the rival character almost equally.  The issue is that I literally don’t ship Nate with anyone else.  So I end up stuck on what to do with him.  Under no circumstances would I have shipped him with Yancy or Curtis.  Perhaps he would have just ended up a single mom until I figured out what to do with him.  So this is another I wouldn’t chance simply because I don’t know who to pair Nate with.  But assuming I did switch ships, Rosa/Hugh end up with Briar and Nate ends up with Brenin and Pax.  Since I think it would be cute for Nate to be a single parent and still have the same storyline with Brenin.

Serena - I’m not sure what past me would have done since I didn’t (and kind of still don’t) ship the protags of XY with anyone.  I probably would have still gone with Trevor/Serena.  I would have at least considered Shauna/Serena, but at this point, for the sake of Armel/Lotte, Trevor/Serena stays.  Calem is where things get tricky.  I like Casimir’s origin way too much to cut it.  So the whole Lysandre/Calem thing still happens so he can exist.  And then Calem likely still gets together with Tierno to have Corin.  He only ends up with the two children though, since I never actually have liked his three younger children anyway.  I’m unsure whether he would stay with Tierno long term, or if he ends up a single parent at some point.  Depends how much my heart ends up being set on Victor/Calem.

Selene - Selene/Gladion would have ended up endgame while Elio/Guzma happens as the other ship.  There would have been no Faller subplot with “Moon” so I would switch the ships around mainly for simplicity.  Plumeria likely would have remained single. Fankid wise, Selene/Gladion end up with Luna while Elio/Guzma would have Camillus and Kai, who are actual twins in this scenario.

[bulbagarden]

so like. what if serebii had their own tumblr girl. you think i would get along w her

[bulbagarden]

you think neil gaiman is a pokémon fan

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Halloween Phoebe

Phoebe finally gets her alt, and it's Cofagrigus, which was my most hoped for partner for Shauntal. I'm not exactly thrilled.

General Overview I'm going to start negative on this one. Phoebe's problem is that she doesn't do anything new. Her trainer move is just Evelyn's, which is notorious for not being that good. Potion is fine, but she's in the SC Lillie tier of grid where it's hard to get the double MPR around other traits she wants. Phantom Force slows down your progress toward sync for little reason. Her ability to buff both offenses per attack is good for Gauntlet, but it's completely inconsequential in CS. And her passive to ignore the offensive buffs of opponents that hit her is...kinda bad? Like it's an option for Gauntlet solos for things like Cobalion, but in general practice, debuffs are far better, given this passive doesn't impact sync, and doesn't save your allies. Moreover, despite being more aligned to Gauntlet, she lacks the ability to apply status, debuff, or apply and kind of field effect, rendering her unable to check a single gimmick in the mode.

This isn't to say that Phoebe is without value. Strong defensive supports are always good, and she has evasion stacking potential with Fail Forward, which works with Phantom Force, and Ridicure 4, which is a decently consistent. Staggering 3 is a bit more reliable than the usual Staggering 2, though it’s not as good as the 50-60%s many other supports get these days. Built-in Vigilance with Status Immunity on grid means she can run Interference Immunity as a lucky skill, effectively being immune to all major forms of disruption, which is handy.

Phoebe falls somewhere around good, but not quite great. Others have pointed it out, but if her stats were lower, you could be forgiven for considering this a BP pair. Phoebe simply fails to stand out as a support, largely due to her lack of any utility. It’s an interesting case. Defensively, she has perfect immunity to disruptions, but because she offers no offensive utility, it’s hard to stand out. Just another clear case that video games always prefer the approach of beating each other with sticks to careful defensive play, I guess.

EX, Role, and Move Level? As a support, Phoebe naturally wants 3/5, but 2/5 gets her a Potion MPR and the basis of her evade tanking set, which I personally am interested in.  EX is a good idea, as Phoebe's here to sustain, and the added stats are a huge part of that.  Her role is Tech.  She does not boost crit rate.  I cannot in good conscience recommend Phoebe for the EX Role.  It is a very, very bad fit, and we're really setting the tone that Supports are mostly gonna get blasted by damage-centric roles, rather than the Sprint thing they want.

Team 1: H!Phoebe, NC Serena, Kukui/Lucian NC Serena was the first thought as far as "needs a bit in both offenses depending on role," so that's the focus.  Serena also works well because she can debuff accuracy per Brutal Swing, tying well into Phoebe's evasion strats.  All you need from there is debuffing of the selected offense type, or someone to set up the field effect.

Team 2: H!Phoebe, SS Korrina/NY Lisia, R!Cynthia/SS Wally Phoebe aligns well with the many, many pairs that get +4 in their needed offensive stat, and Korrina in particular loves all buffs due to her Rising Tide multiplier.  Team Sharp Entry can also support someone with a Dire Hit+ style +2 crit effect, like NY Lisia.  The more speed and lower gauge cost the better though, so Lisia is at least somewhat risky.

Final Thoughts Maybe it's just disinterest, but I struggle to conceptualize a situation in which Phoebe is all that optimal.  I honestly wish she had a bit more than she does, because it's a nice outfit for her, and Cofagrigus is cool.  But, what can you do?

[crystalelemental]

Master Mode is unlocked, time to talk about approximate strength tiers.  I am prepared.

Vs. Drasna NY!Lisia go boom.  I love this alt.  It's so stupid.  She absolutely fries this stage once she can start attacking.  The final Giga Impact hit for 23k.  That's unreasonable. I did this one with my wife's account too, and admittedly, I didn't have too difficult a time with it when using Palentine's Serena and Dawn either. I think Drasna's not too bad, so long as you actualy have Fairy types.

Vs. Wikstrom Okay fine, I'll bring Aura Cynthia, don't have to ask me twice.  SC Diantha will be glad to deal 27k on Secret Sword per action, thank you.  "Why is Tauros here?"  I brought it for her sync nuke and for speed control but I suddenly find this really overkill. My wife had basically the same team, nothing fun to talk about.

Vs. Malva I had to try out SS Lysandre.  If you saw the post from earlier today, you already know, but I botched it and used his Fire damage grid, meaning he was operating at minimum firepower.  He still won pretty easy.  And of course, I tried out Dual Frog with him to see how high we could bring up damage numbers.  He surpassed the previous damage cap.  Radical. My wife has Dojo Gloria and C!Serena. So uh. She had an even easier time, if I'm beign real.

Vs. Siebold Unlike Lucian, who is wise to my bullshit specifically, Siebold attempts to be wise to my wife's bullshit and blocks Train Bros.  Unfortunately for him, Lusamine.  Get blasted.  He does have Lessen Trap 9 though, which I find to be bullshit.  I know your F2P solution is meant to be EX Viola but come on, no one is going to do that if he's super resistant to trap.  She needs so much setup support. Also from my wife's account, I can confirm, this does not in any way slow down SC Emmet.

Vs. Diantha I mean.  It's Mega Mawile.  The whole "But status" doesn't really matter when she's dealing near 50 on second sync anyway. HOWEVER! My wife's account only has P!Marnie at 2/5. Her only 3/5 EX Steel-type...is Raihan. Who struggled like crazy. Do you know what I had to do to make this work? I'm not proud of it. SST Red. Don't you fucking judge me. I tried with Lucian but lack of damage output really hindered him. God, I am just livid to know SST Red at 1/5 is actually a fantastic support and secondary DPS bot. I hate this guy so much.

Final Thoughts Master Mode didn't really get a chance to shine.  I kinda curbstomped them all pretty ruthlessly.  Which is fine.  I don't want to do F2P.  These stages have skills that are a clear block.  If it's not an outright "This is impossible," it's at least close enough that I don't want to deal. Though my wife's account definitely revealed that Diantha is not messing around. That is a rough fight if you don't have some good Steel-type options.

If I decide to do more with this CS, it'll probably be regional clears.  That, at least, sounds relatively fun.  But I am not doing all F2P.  No way. 

[crystalelemental]

I just got Brendan to 3/5 4 days ago unexpectedly, and I haven't taken enough look at his grid, but I did see Inertia in it, which has great potential. Do you have anything to say about Brendan's playstyle, and how to use him?

I actually wanted to attempt a Grass-type damage run of Champion Stadium, so I have looked at his kit and planned out some stuff, even if it never came to pass because Selene couldn't get it together. Honestly, he's...pretty really good.

General Overview Like, I'm kinda surprised a unit this old pioneered the idea of maximizing offenses in one move. Seriously, his trainer move gets him +6 in both attack and special attack, for the low low price of three move gauge. On a unit that fast. That's free. That's barely more cost than [REDACTED]. And he's got Dire Hit+ too, so he's perfectly self-sufficient. I'm kinda stunned. Leaf Storm is good base damage, and in typical striker form, good sync damage. As you noted, he does get Inertia, as well as Ramming Speed for move damage.

And this leads to the biggest drawback of his kit: his only means of raising speed is Amped Up 1, which isn't terrible, but is slow and costly. So he's reliant on speed buffing support, which isn't impossible to find, but is notably rare. He also has some Sun options, but you do need to make the decision between Sun-based bonuses for move damage and gauge control, or perfect accuracy on Leaf Storm. I tend to like consistency, and finding a support to buff speed and accuracy both is a rare deal.

But yeah, his kit's good. I overlooked him really badly for a long time because I couldn't justify the Dauntless. Now that Gauntlet let me farm cookies, and I can finally work with him, Sceptile's super good.

Team 1: Brendan, Lyra, SS Erika The biggest hyper-offensive Grass team you can create. Lyra can buff both offensive stats and speed, which is ideal for both. SS Erika also sets sun for max damage on the whole team. It's probably overkill, and a bad idea for Gauntlet to double up on strong Grass-type damage dealers, but if you ever want to dunk on Champion Stadium...

Team 2: Brendan, Rachel, Parasect Eggmon This probably looks goofy, but there's a plan here. Rachel can buff speed with X Speed All, and has a strong heal in addition to dropping special attack of foes. Parasect has Screech for debuffs, and Stun Spore for status. Gauntlet team. Brendan's sync is physical, so he benefits a lot from the Screech support, and the combination of status and debuff is solid for answering a lot of gimmicks. That said, all of this is off-type, and Rachel only gets one heal, so I should probably test this before making suggestions.

Team 3: Brendan, Dawn, Lisia This one, however, I am confident in. Anti-Regirock. Lisia has Defog to clear its obnoxious Crit Shield, while Dawn is great defensive support, reducing its attack every time she's hit. Brendan loses out on Inertia and Ramming Speed without investing in Amped Up, but you can actually afford to forego the accuracy increase and instead just take bonus sync damage. Lisia's defog lowers evasion, he'll hit anyway.

Final Thoughts Brendan's really direct, but really good. Sceptile exists to deal Grass-type damage, and that is what it will do. What's really neat is that few general pool options get self-sufficient setup quite this good. The multipliers demanding speed are a bit of a pain, given how rare speed buffing is, but it's honestly just nice to have a unit with a main attack that's special and a sync that's physical who isn't freaking out about needing Falkner. I like him.