#unova cs

[crystalelemental]

Decided to do an off-type clear, but with some pairs I don’t always use. Or the new ones who I am obsessed with.

Vs Shauntal Akari is my recent acquisition, and thus far I haven't really experimented with other allies she can work with. Truth be told, I don't love most of Dark type on its own, and whoever she partners with is going to need a lot more offensive support, barring NC Marnie. So I went with this nonsense. I'm not even really sure why? Akari crushed it, this was not necessary at all.

Vs. Grimsley SC Rosa is a character I got really excited for, and then kinda stopped using after a bit. Turns out, I stopped using her 'cause she's bad. At off-type, anyway. Slow setup, poor gauge management despite high base speed, girl just needs a lot of help. Lodge Dawn alleviated a lot of her concerns, but not enough for her to win this easily. I do not really understand what the problem was, but oh well I guess.

Vs Marshal I'm gonna keep it real with you all. I don't think Nemona turned out as good as I'd hoped. I like her in concept, but not as much in practice. The buddy move is strong, and she can throw around a lot of sudden bursts, but I feel like she's just kinda...lacking? Her damage isn't nearly as much as you'd want, and I feel like her grid is just wildly frustrating. I did get her to off-type this, but the win was solely because she got lucky flinches off Staggering at the right time, rather than clearly having the match under control. This feels like a sync pair that, if she's going to really wallop off-type, needs Terrain. Which...is dire as all hell, because personally, I don't think the options for Terrain are all that exciting! I don't like Falkner, I don't like Red, and Hau is merely okay. Electric just has like no exciting pairs to use, and Nemona should be more exciting for me. I think I'm kinda pissed now, because she should have an EX Role. No really, I'm mad about this now. She barely missed it, and it feels like Strike or Tech would've changed her goddamn life.

Vs Caitlin Anni Skyla has been one of the most fun acquisitions lately. That 3/5 is hysterical. Really good sync nuke, really good flinch rate at 50% AoE every single attack, team speed boosting, Flying Zone support. It's kinda staggering how long I heard she wasn't a great Zone unit, and even I agreed, but it's like...damn okay, I don't know what I'm talking about. Anni Skyla rules. SS Ethan has also taken off with her support. Aeroblast handles off-type real easy under Zone, and his potential fast-ramping with her staggering generates a lot. I think the one problem is they both suck at boosting their own stats, so enter SC Jasmine, who covers both perfectly and can supply Team Endure on first sync, and potential Sp Def debuffs for Skyla to ensure maximum sync.

Vs Iris Halloween Roxanne is hilariously strong, I don't feel the need to linger on this. So instead, I'll point out...I actually don't know who her best third is. Like it's Courtney, maximize the firepower, but outside of the one Ground Zone pair that calls it normally, I have trouble deciding who Roxanne would take as support. She operates so well at supporting others that it's super tough to decide what she might need, because she kinda does it all. I went with Whitney just for flinch and possible Def debuffing. And like. It worked out I guess. Roxanne encountered no resistance.

[books-are-my-life-stuff]

Aww, Morty, why did you miss the crit at the right one...

Oh well. His multipliers are hard to set up, and this was only at +4 Attack, but I'm happy. With Morty around, and Giovanni too, I think I'm fine at Ghost-weak stages.

[beepborpdoodledorp]

First time actually doing 15/18 first week. When Kanto and Johto first came along I could do fuck all with CS and when Unova released I just forgot. I'm finally prepared for next week!

Bonus: by round 4 I was basically just tossing whatever types I still could have onto my teams which, as I am magnetically pulled to all things Unova, accidentally resulted in this team

[xinoize]

I keep seeing people say that this CS was difficult, but I felt it had the same difficulty as the other stadiums (Aaron was also the easiest imo). 

I must admit, however, Flint and ESPECIALLY Cynthia made me struggle. I haven’t used Giovanni in a long time and had to use him over Caitlin for once. Cynthia made me unironically off-type.

I think out of all the CS boss battles (Kanto ~ Unova), Cynthia’s the most difficult out of all of them. SC!Guzma, for once, failed on me. Always died on the final hit needed to win the battle.

I’m not looking forward to Cynthia next week, ahaha...

[crystalelemental]

Trust no one, not even yourself.

Vs. Marshal So, initially, I wanted to beat Iris with Iris. And that led to the idea of this nonsense: having each member of the Elite Four beat their own stage. This was immediately insane, as Marshal has the issue of being a Relentless Nuke, whose opponent is immune to defense debuffs. Better luck next time, my guy. I did still bring him, Drain Punch and Staggering are nice tools in the grand scheme, and the Staggering did save us. Aura Cynthia is supreme wall, and Bruno is good outright DPS, so that's the clear we aimed for.

Vs. Shauntal Similar to the initial clear, but this time with Jasmine because she's free. Fun fact: we didn't take sync this time. At a guess, Lillie activated Special Shield. Anyway, the good news is that I had a bit more practice with this now, and could set up Agatha's sync on center. From there, it's much easier to handle the sides, which have no Sleep resistance.

Vs. Grimsley Grimsley sucks so bad, it's insulting. They really couldn't give him Aggravation 2? Like really, that was too much to ask for? Snatch is pathetically slow, he can't block further buffs coming in, this guy is just a nightmare. So we brought the only man unafraid of nightmares. Cyrus' AoE sleep lockdown legitimately just stops the fight cold. You can spam no problem, NC Calem can bring up Zone. Grimsley's sync is even pathetic. Even with the +6 evasion, we're looking at 25k under Zone. You are a Tech, sir.

Vs. Caitlin Look, we all know how good Caitlin is. Victory lap.

Vs. Iris This one was a little tricky, but only because I didn't expect Crit Shield after sync, and permanent field effects kinda bit me here. The good news is, Base Iris did out-damage the passive healing, so we could still win this one. The bad news is her sync didn't even KO sides, this after the EX Support sync. Also opponent Iris never missed, no matter how many times Colress debuffed accuracy. Joke's on them though, once she was down the sides couldn't hit shit with Rock Slide. And the sync did put them in range of a KO, even without crit.

[crystalelemental]

Off typing with some teams. This started out a bit more free form because I had a bit of time this morning, then collapsed because today got really busy and I just wanted to use some favorites.

Vs. Caitlin This was the initial approach. I wanted Shauntal to do an off-type. Despite having pretty respectable DPS, Shauntal's damage struggled quite a bit. To the point I...may change my tune about the value of her EX, given the approach of this team. It's pure stall cheese. Sleep and flinch both active, boosting special defenses, Potion application. It's enough that we could beat the sides, tank sync, then just keep Caitlin herself in permanent lockdown. Shauntal does get the job done, but the tools needed here were perhaps a bit much.

Vs. Marshal Okay so maybe I forgot Marshal can't have his defenses lowered, and this completely tanked the original Clair/C!Elesa setup. Clair is also just really bad, so there's that. I opted instead to go for Valerie. Needless to say that wasn't going to work, and since SS Kris had to be here because the others were accounted for, I decided to go with Fairy Zone, and Wally kinda just...handled it himself. Oops?

Vs. Grimsley For no reason in particular, I'm in a Roxanne mood this week. Decided that meant it was time to bust out the Rock Pals, featuring Blue and his Rock Pterodactyl. This team really does do well for itself, I'm constantly surprised by how not-stupid the ultimate approach actually is. In this situation, we even forgot to turn off Offenses +5 and Roxanne still handled it. The power gap between old CS and modern, am I right?

Vs. Shauntal You wanna know how you can tell I put like no thought into this? Yeah, let's just set up Lisia, who needs no field effects active, to fight, off-type, against a half sync countdown stage, where the center sets Sun. Miraculously, she hit the flinch on Shauntal to stop Sun, which I will never quite recover from. Unfortunately Heat Wave spam is bullshit, so Lucian did drop. But again, Miraculous Lisia, we got the sides down to half in one shot, so when it came time, Jasmine's Endure effect for the team let her survive a hit, and she just DPS cleared through the sides in one shot each. It was beautiful. Never thought I'd see the day.

Vs. Iris Yeah, you can legitimately feel the difference. I ran this team off-type in more modern fare, but Valerie can legitimately struggle like crazy on those stages. Here there was like no resistance. We would've pre-sync cleared if we had landed the quad queue. Also, just putting it out there, but permanent field effects remains the funniest thing in the world where H!Caitlin is concerned.

[crystalelemental]

The last 10k Master Mode.  I'm getting all emotional. We had to say goodbye so soon...

Vs. Shauntal Naomi, you are the only Ground-type damage dealer worth a damn on an F2P budget, and I'm so glad you exist.  Lodge Morty, I know MU Torchic just popped into existence and can kinda do your job better, but Torchic doesn't have evasion so thank you too.  Acerola, your ability to flinch and supply Sandstorm is wildly underrated.  Good showing from the team all around.  We took like one hit on Morty.  That said, Naomi almost didn't win, so like...that was dire.

Vs. Grimsley Blaine's a lot better than I sometimes give credit for.  Like sure, Silver's sync explodes stages, we all know this.  Grimsley in particular, however, has a butt-billion HP, and doesn't go down in one, so you need to survive.  And Blaine's ability to hit confuse in addition to Trap on Fire Spin actually caused him to stagger enough for us to win no casualties.  So that's fun.

Vs. Caitlin Much smoother this time.  The solution is pretty easy, since BP Karen can 2HKO the right side with Double Edge.  The real fun is that, when Nanu only hit for 16k on center, Karen cleaned up with 10k on Double Edge.  She didn't even KO herself with it.  So that's pretty sick.

Vs. Marshal I hate half sync countdown parameter.  Even Giovanni, one of the hardest EX Strike nukers you can get on the F2P budget, couldn't take this stage down easily.  It's really annoying.  We eventually pulled it off, but man that's annoying.  This was a rare moment where we won because the enemy was slow.  Marshal led with Hammer Arm, then the side used Facade, and he didn't have enough gauge for his next 3-bar move right away so Giovanni got sync and a follow-up Psychic, putting us in a better position.  That said.  He queued trainer move.  So maybe Marshal took pity on me.

Vs. Iris Okay.  After last time, I had a thought.  Maybe the problem is me.  Maybe I just messed up Zinniquaza somehow.  There's no way she's that bad, right?  Friends.  She's that bad.  6k on sync.  6k!  That's it?!  I had weather and max offenses and everything, girl!  I thought that maybe again she just missed the crit, but if that's the case she missed an 80% on all three of them simultaneously.  So my point still stands.  This is exactly what I get, trying to perform a denial.  She couldn't even beat the sides down.  I need a better Dragon.  Now that MU Torchic is up and moving, maybe I'll bring Clair instead.

Anticipation for 12.5k After this F2P run, I think 2.5k per match is a bit scary, depending how much parameters shift.  To point, let's take Grimsley.  Grimsley wasn't too bad, entirely because of Silver's nuke being enough that he could finish the job with Sacred Fire.  If parameters don't make it easier to keep defenses and HP low, Grimsley's suddenly in a position to survive.  And that's a problem.  The same is true with Naomi trying to clear her stage.  Caitlin likely would have enough bulk to survive the combo of Nanu sync and BP Karen Double Edge, and then what?  I feel like there's a serious problem for them all right now.  If I had to pick from currently available parameters, they couldn't do it.  I'm convinced of that.  The only one who maybe could is Giovanni, but that's only true when the half sync countdown parameter isn't in effect.  If it is...well, good luck, pupper.

Really counting on some new parameters to make this not a nightmare!

[crystalelemental]

Another F2P clear, and I think it's time to talk about why some common units are a problem.

Vs. Marshal BP Janine, who I actually love dearly for her buffing kit, is like...wildly inconsistent. Mostly because she cannot take a hit worth beans, and if you don't dodge, she will drop like a sack of shit. Legitimately, this is my only complaint with BP Janine. I think Endurance would've changed her life completely to being one of the best units available F2P. Without it, she's just so easily two-shot that it really hinders her survival. It doesn't help that, if she drops, Koga doesn't have the DPS to handle center before sync, and none of them survive it. It's just a very luck-based clear that, unfortunately, illustrates that while you can miss a perfect accuracy move 17 times at -1 accuracy, your foe will hit you with an 80% accurate move at +3 evasion no problem every time. Because computers have to cheat to win.

Vs. Shauntal Cyrus and Winona are perfect, they can do no wrong. It's mostly Drake. The defense buffing and Team Sharp Entry are nice for a unit like Cyrus, who gets pretty much everything he wants, and one-shots the sides under Rain. But also Drake's lack of healing makes him so frail. If it weren't for how strong Cyrus was, Drake would not last.

Vs. Caitlin While I have started to respect BP Sophocles, I find his issues to be fairly apparent. Mostly in that, he wants BP Surge for perfect offensive setup, but he needs BP Clemont for survival given recoil and the inevitable AoE spam after center drops. Using just BP Clemont means Sophocles has to spend three turns buffing, and he's not quite good enough to justify that in all scenarios. Using just BP Surge means getting barreled over, because he's wildly frail, and Endurance is nice but not sufficient to keeping him alive. And even with both, gauge issues exist, because you want Screech off of Clemont, can run out of MP moves for Surge who now has to attack, and Sophocles needs three gauges to hit a foe. He's strong enough to get the job done, but I feel like maybe I need to re-examine his partners.

Vs. Grimsley Bugsy can't one-shot Grimsley on second sync. I feel like that tells you all you needed to know. Bugsy deals like 17k with -6 defense, and it's not even enough. That's...wild to me. Like, before the advent of SC Train Bros, I'm struggling to figure out how people handled Snarl + Thunder Wave + tons of HP on a Bug-weak stage. Lusamine and Burgh are actively hindered, and Guzma isn't exactly a prime candidate for EX, not that his damage on sync would've been much better than Bugsy here. I dunno. This one suddenly seems tougher to me than it once did. Anyway, Nanu's out here earning his S-tier, because the solution was to flinch Grimsley before Thunder Wave and stall out a bit so Bugsy could hit him. I hit him twice. Turns out the magic number was thrice. Thank god for quad queueing.

Vs. Alder Okay. It is finally time. Roark! You have proven yourself in the crucible of battle (Moltres fight), but now you will be tested once more. Can you handle the Champion Stadi-oh, 30k on sync. Yeah, he's good guys, checks out. Legitimately, I feel like we kinda overkilled this stage. I brought Kangaskhan for Leer support, but also as a secondary flinch bot, just for funsies. Lodge Blue is decently tanky against physical hits, but this is Volcarona so...oops. Roark 100% has the fire-power to clear this stage. I want to be clear, it is not even close. He obliterates it. If he had EX, this would be disgusting. Without it, it's still a complete dunk on the offensive set. So long as his support can cap crit, and give a little extra attack, he wins. The big question is whether his tank can survive. And the best survival is not taking damage, so two flinch bots under the "boosted secondary effects of attacks" condition means no threat. Hey, don't blame me. The game handed me the parameter, I'm gonna dunk on a fool.

[crystalelemental]

Unova, once again getting bopped by F2P.  But this time, Fairy-weak Marshal isn't here to save them.

Vs. Grimsley Grass-weak means it's Gardenia time.  I always forget this, and it's distressing every time, but Gardenia actually cannot OHKO the sides reliably under standard parameters.  They barely survive.  I am legitimately considering 20/20 for her, just to solve for this problem, because it is so stupid and meant I had to do this match a second time.  Bullshit, I say.

Vs. Marshal So.  After using Kahili many, many times, I realized something of critical importance.  Because her sync is her only damage, and she doesn't have EX, the sides become a problem that need to be flinch locked.  This team was built in response to that.  Blue can buff Kahili's needed stats, Farfetch'd can Leer (Sawk is immune, go figure).  But once you get rolling, two 60% flinch rates can really lock down the entire opposing field, setting Kahili up beautifully.  If you take out center and both are still alive, you're basically untouchable.  You know.  Unless you miss a collective four flinches in a row and it takes out Blue.  But what are the odds of that happening (Good, they happened).

Vs. Caitlin I have been waiting for this.  Shauntal grid.  Lodge Morty is a decent buff bot, but I'll probably shift to MU Torchic upon receiving a grid.  Nothing against Morty in particular, but the buffing is a little slow for Shauntal's liking.  It's not impossible to work with, I may decide against this, but you know.  Shauntal deals like 7k damage per Shadow Ball before factoring in special defense drops, and Agatha's sleep allows us to ensure safer buffing from Morty, thanks to CS having attacks pivot to X items.  It's a really safe system.  They kinda brutalized this stage.  I don't even think we took damage because Morty dodged an attack.  Wait, no, we took some damage.  Because Agatha's trainer move hurts herself.

Vs. Shauntal Gamers...we did it.  We found an optimal use for Liza.  Finally, I can rest.  Liza's dual offense buffing means she tops off both Ghetsis and Candice in one move, then has special defense boosting to keep the team alive.  Candice is capable of exploding stages with ease each sync, thanks to Follow-Through 9 on Hail, while Ghetsis' Glaciate can tear through the sides.  Though in a pinch, a Noble Roar on something isn't the worst thing to keep Liza alive.  This was a fairly clean win.  I'm proud of them.

Vs. Iris Oh, Zinniquaza.  I set you up with a nigh-perfect F2P team, and what do you give me?  6k on sync.  6k.  That's it.  I'm pretty sure Cyrus could do better, girl.  You even missed the crit on two of them.  Winona had to pull double duty with the flinches just to save your ass.  This was not a good showing.  I regret this.  But I guess sometimes it's good to confirm your biases, so good work, Zinniquaza, you've proven once again why I don't like using you.  On the other hand, shoutouts to Cynthia, who I expected to drop like a sack of shit being worse against physical moves, but actually stood the whole match.  Sure, some of that was Winona flinches, but she took a good three hits, that's not bad.

[crystalelemental]

Unova's back, and that means so are F2P clears, because what fun is just stomping them into the dirt with the highest tier options?  I mean, come on, it's an older CS.  Hardly that threatening.  And we have, like, all the grids now.  I'm sure we can handle-

"Fairy-weak Marshal."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Vs. Grimsley I led against Grimsley for Wikstrom's sake.  He's pretty frail, can't take a hit that well, but the condition to boost secondary effects of moves means guaranteed flinch.  So, get dunked, idiot.  Skyla for gauge, Magneton for Screech.

Vs. Shauntal Lodge Morty is stupid good, he's so helpful for Naomi.  This would've gone smoother in condition 1, but alas, I didn't think of that.  Naomi's DPS is just fine, but she does need Sandstorm which means Acerola with flinch is the best option for her.  I think we missed both sync crits and still won.  Naomi Pog.

Vs. Marshal Okay.  Among the "old" CS stages, prior to Sinnoh walking in and throwing down Entry x2 skills and the like.  Fairy-weak Marshall has always been my pick for hardest CS stage in the game.  This guy is unreasonable.  High DPS moves like Mega Kick being thrown around with accuracy buff to almost always connect.  +2 evasion on entry so even on good terms you can still just whiff.  And most damning of all, Fairy-types, on an F2P budget, absolutely suck ass.  Mina?  Super slow to set up with bad gauge and really low attack stat to start with.  Lodge Lillie?  Even slower to set up, needs Wrap which will never connect, sync is routinely disappointing despite Super Preparation 9.  Valerie?  Yeah, no, her DPS is atrocious and her sync only got 50% bonus.  Maybe if she had EX.  Maybe.  But she doesn't, so...  Sycamore?  Sycamore's sync can't deal damage.  There's just not a good Fairy-type damage dealer that doesn't have to content with accuracy checks.

So, Lodge Elesa is here to improve accuracy, and allow Sycamore's new EX, combined with the condition to further boost sync bonuses, to just lay on the DPS with Moonblast/Draining Kiss.  To my shock, it actually worked.  Sycamore's EX is actually a deciding factor in this being possible on an F2P level or not.  So congrats to Chad Sycamore.  I don't use him very often, but it's cool to see him get one last Chad in.

Vs. Caitlin It's always really, really hard for me to beat Caitlin, because I want her to win all the time.  Anyway, Dark-weak Caitlin is a trip, because her final move is Hyper Beam, and the comedy of 2700 damage hitting Hop square in the face just before we finish the match is top notch.  That said, a little trouble, mostly on gauge?  Hop himself is just buff and hope the Potions refresh, while Karen's actually really nice DPS on Double Edge.  Nanu has to take sync, though.  So the goal is, Karen uses Feint Attack to chip the right, while Nanu boosts speed turn 1 for gauge and then Screeches left until sync.  Sync takes out left, then Screech Caitlin while the other two do whatever.  The next rotation, you want Nanu to Screech Caitlin again before Karen Double Edges right.  If you did enough chip damage, it will KO, it deals like 5-6k.  At this point, Nanu gets a final Screech on Caitlin for -6 (-5 if she used trainer move), and can attempt a Bite against Hyper Beam to stall her out.  If the Bite is successful, easy money.  If it fails, Nanu just pivots into sync while Hop explodes.  Even if he misses crit, sometimes Karen is strong enough to take it out.  But I will admit, it's bullshit that when Karen uses Double Edge to KO herself, it doesn't seem to delay Caitlin's action at all.  It's supposed to, isn't it?  A sure KO on yourself is supposed to cause the opponent not to act yet.  I dunno.  It's annoying.

Vs. Iris Fighting-weak Iris is a stage I remember legitimately struggling with once upon a time, because I didn't have Bea and Wally was like my only option but he had horrendous self-setup back in those days.  So imagine my shock when I can just walk in here with an F2P team and clean up pretty well.  Maylene gives a lot of good gauge control, as well as fixing Bruno's accuracy problems so he can invest purely in damage.  Brawly is both helpful defense debuffs, but also Potion support for Maylene to not die.  Bruno's capable of really impressive numbers on DPS and sync.  He easily clears left with sync, then two-shots right with Cross Chop.  But Maylene drops, and Bruno misses crit, and he manages to get Cross Chop in but it's not enough by what looks like a wide margin...and then Brawly Rock Smashes for like 2.3k saving the run.  I'm proud of you, Brawly.

Final Thoughts Unova's definitely less scary than Kalos, but I also kinda like the highlight reel of some of the toughest options in this region.  Fairy-weak Marshall is absurd, and Dark was really tough to shop for prior to Nanu's grid.  Even Fighting-weak Iris I remember giving me serious trouble.  So it's nice to return and be like hey, with all these common grids, this is actually manageable.

No wonder they're introducing "Champion Stadium but stronger" next month...

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Grimsley

Guys!  Grimsley got his grid expansion!  He's not a meme anymore, he can do things!  RIGHT?!

General Overview Hey DeNA?  What the fuck?  I assumed Grimsley was your favorite Unova E4, given the three alts thing, but you kinda did him real dirty.  Like, the dirtiest of anyone in the general pool.  I know I've been proven wrong before due to how I responded to Caitlin's grid initially versus how she turned out, but like...that at least had merit, it just wasn't what I'd hoped to see.  This?  What is this? Aggravation ONE?  Not 2 like every other Dark Pulse spammer, just one.  40% flinch seems reasonable to you?  Blind Spot does make a great sync multiplier, even if it relies on him using his trainer move, which means -6 defense.  There is no solution for that.  Ferocious Moves is like a concession.  +1 to both offenses is not enough to succeed here.  And Snatch BOGO does not seem at all worthwhile.

Grimsley feels uncomfortably bizarre as a sync pair.  I legitimately don't know what they're going for.  Aggravation 2 at least would've made him a fun utility bot, but the flinch is so inconsistent.  I think they over-estimated the value of Snatch.  No one particularly likes Snatch, but DeNA seems to think it's the best skill in the game.  I think this is also a curse of timing.  Champion Stadium now has Five Stats +3 as a condition, and that's something Grimsley can just...eat. Like he just steals it all.  But Blind Spot means he's hyper-reliant on his own trainer move, since evasion can only come from one other source, and it's not a good one.  To make matters worse, the issue of X Items persists.  Grimsley need to be able to Snatch and then not have the sync target buff anymore.  That isn't necessarily reasonable, given trainer moves just before syncs are buffs, and he...can't really salvage that.   There's just not much play in CS, despite supposedly countering it.  His Gauntlet performance is decent, given how well he can check Latias and Terrakion's gimmicks, and any flinch rate will help against Entei.  But like.  This is not a great showing.  And it's going to hurt.

Team 1: Grimsley, H!Caitlin, SS Cyrus/Serena Okay, here's my attempt at consolation.  H!Caitlin, once again the god-queen of the current meta, works well with Grimsley, who buffs his own crit the first two turns, setting up sync.  She can even patch up his defense with enough MPR procs.  More importantly, SS Cyrus or Serena are a linchpin.  You NEED to block actions.  The goal is to sleep AoE right away, putting the opponent on the back foot and retreating to X items.   Successful application means center switches to X item, right uses X item, center is slept again as left then activates.  This can be done approximately around the time Grimsley finishes his trainer move buffing. With that complete, Grimsley can start the Snatch process as Caitlin takes first sync.  Keep up your disruptive pressure with Serena and Cyrus (who by the way get much more accurate with sleep thanks to Caitlin's accuracy buffs, one again proving herself superior), and Grimsley can eventually take the win.  Does that sound like a lot of effort?  Don't worry, it is.

Team 2: Grimsley, NY!Lillie, SS Cyrus/Serena This is the only other reasonable team composition I can concoct for CS.   NY!Lillie is the only support that can provide capped evasion and crit for Grimsley.  Literally the only one.  Which means this is all we got. Lillie can buff crit, then evasion, while Grimsley throws out Dark Pulses as one of the sides. During this time, it's the exact same disruption game as above, until the X items are used.  Grimsley can then achieve a reasonable amount of sync.

Team 3: Grimsley, ... I'm admittedly stumped here.  I was going to talk about Gauntlet utility, but I'm finding myself kinda...out of ideas, in a way.  Terrakion's sync is physical, and at -6 defense Grimsley would die, so he can only be a support with Snatch and Dark Pulse aggravation.  Latias has that Sure Crit, Sure Hit Earthquake which would similarly body him.  I don't think it's actually possible to salvage the shredded defenses he leaves himself with.  And having experienced him, without speed buffs he does run into problems spamming Dark Pulse.  I just...I don't know.  I don't know how I'd craft a specific team around him.  Because yeah, Snatch steals the buffs from two critically important targets, but Grimsley isn't someone anchoring a team.  He's someone you slap into an otherwise functional two-person combo that can't get the job done through the gimmick.

Final Thoughts Grimsley might just be the worst sync pair in the 5* pool now.  I'm trying to think about what he actually accomplishes now, and I just...I don't think I can.  I want to say he has something.  But Dark is absurdly competitive.  There are incredibly strong sync pairs in Dark, the most damning for him being SC Zinnia, who does the same Snatch thing, but on AoE while also applying a rebuff and having absurd DPS and exceptional sync power.   Grimsley doesn't do any of that.  Hell, Zinnia even gets a 70% flinch rate, while Grimsley's locked at 40%.  I just...don't know what he's supposed to do.

But hey, if he’s no longer the favorite, I have a recommendation about who could take his place.  Just a thought.

[crystalelemental]

Sync Pair Retrospective - Hoenn Villain Arc

The Hoenn Villain Arc dropped just before third anniversary, meaning everyone went into this knowing it was bait.  But also, last year, Lear dropped at this point, and he wound up being argued as better than the actual anniversary units, because people can't just have fun.  So a lot of questions circulated about whether this was bait or not, and if it was, was it effective bait?

Sygna Suit May May was accidentally leaked weeks before datamine, and threw people into a frenzy, because May would be on her fourth alt while Brendan still had nothing.  Reddit is intolerable sometimes.  Anyway, she came in as yet another goddamned Tech, whose focus was on damage.  Hilariously, she was focused on the same damage as Dojo Gloria: physical power with defense and speed debuffing.  The differences between them were minor, but potentially significant.

Gloria had a Max Move, while May did not.

Gloria could debuff defense 3 stages in one move.  May could do 2, but only after mega evolving.

Gloria had tremendous secondary and tertiary damage types.  May had Low Kick.

May could fast-ramp by herself, while Gloria needed someone with Head Start on the team.

May can buff team speed by existing, while Gloria had Recharging Strike.

May could buff team crit, Gloria could not.

By and large, Gloria was the better option.  May was heavily reliant on mega evolution to perform a core function of her role, and her tech nuke required debuffs that she couldn't set up reliably by herself until after that sync.  To make matters worse, her optimal partner, SS Morty, can't cap her offensive stats for her, being just short without 3/5 and Team Gimme Five.  As such, Gauntlet was more her wheelhouse, where she'd perform quite well with minimal defensive support.

The other issue was, again, type.  Fire was highly common, and not hard to shop for.   In fact, a few months later we'd receive the Unova VA, where Hilda walked in with Victini, who had comparable DPS, and an astonishing striker sync with Rising Tide, all backed by gradual healing and Downside Up with defensive buffs.  And Recharging Strike for good measure.  Because of this, for CS, May winds up being just a tool to fast-ramp for Hilda, rather than her own beneficiary. Even Sygna Suit Lysandre, a Water-type, came in with Fire-type DPS so high he could outdamage May at her best.

May was the worst of the Villain Arc units by a pretty fair margin, which is staggering considering her strengths.  Type overlap has never been a serious consideration, and May was more than a little competent.  She’s exceptional, when built around, still holding the title of strongest Fire-type sync nuke in the game, and being top 5 DPS in the type.  Which, I think, speaks better to how utterly ridiculous the rest of the PokeFairs were this event.

Sygna Suit Brendan Like there was any doubt.  Brendan walked in with Latios, who was a support compared to Latias' Tech, because sure, why not?  Supports are always super valuable, but Brendan went out of his way to become one of the best supports available.

Luster Purge with Unexpected Benefit x2 was the main selling point.  Every hit, he would inflict -2 special defense on the foe he targeted.  Defensive debuffs may not be as significant as an immediate Zone, or stacked rebuffs, but they can pump out extreme damage.  Brendan was a super-fast special defense debuffer on a single target.  Already, we are starting very strong.  To back this up, Dragonbreath with potential Hostile Environment provides the best possible Gauntlet status in paralysis.  Potion with potential double MPR, and Tough Luck 4, meant the team could become staggeringly defensive.  His trainer move was 1MP, but granted +4 special attack and special defense, and +1 crit.  Through Team Sharp Entry, which activates again on mega evolution, Brendan could cap crit with a sizable buff to special attack, and more defensive backbone.  His defensive stats were incredible, and on mega, had over 400 special defense, which is ridiculous.

Brendan was in the same category as SC Jasmine, SC Lillie, and SS Kris, emphasizing special attack and crit, with a defensive profile favoring special defense.  His specific tools generally made him a better choice than Jasmine or Lillie, depending on what traits you needed, while Kris held her own with Rain and stacks of moves up next, which could outperform his debuffing by a wide margin.  A big consideration when looking between them was whether or not your allies desperately needed to sync.  Brendan could not give up the sync. Not if you needed that last point of crit.  Lillie and Jasmine could give it up if that needed to, but not Brendan.  And this created the main limitation of his kit.

That said, nothing has risen to his level.  The only competition is Palentine's Mallow, who does the same debuffing thing, but with Dire Hit All+, and All Ramped Up 1 on her 3/5 grid, making her a lot slower to build up.  And worse on gauge.  And of course, there are specific partnerships as well.  SS Brendan and Anni May were a pretty solid partnership, bringing out May's full potential. Caitlin's grid expansion meant one use of her trainer move with his could cap all her needed stats.  He’s frankly insane with SS Serena and Lucas, who are an absurd powerhouse combo.  He just offered a lot.

I think what kills me about Brendan is the versatility.  Sure, Team Sharp Entry when needed, he can cap a lot for you.  Sure, Hostile Environment, let's mess up Tornadus and Cobalion.  Even options like Adrenaline, or Fast Track for gauges, wind up keeping him relevant.  There’s just about nothing he can’t facilitate to at least some degree.  He ranks high for most players for good reason.

Sygna Suit Steven Okay, you want to talk effective bait?  Let's talk about a sync pair who does literally every role.  Deoxys here comes with four trainer moves, that are your selection screen for which mode to shift to.  Normal Mode will provide Psychic Terrain, +2 to its core stats, and otherwise focuses on Aggravation 2 Zen Headbutt for disruption.  Attack form got immediate capped stats on trainer move a la Anni Lillie, and has a blindingly powerful sync nuke that gets to hit like a Striker EX for free, while still getting the benefits of a Tech EX.  He has no natural multipliers on grid because of this.  Defense provides a support that boosts +4 to both offenses for the team, then stat shares both defenses per Iron Defense, backed by a good amount of gauge control on 3/5 grid.  And of course, Speed form comes in with +6 speed, +3 evasion, and fast-ramping out the wazoo.  Sygna Suit Steven could actually do it all.

Attack is the fan favorite.  People love damage numbers, and Steven provides big funny damage numbers all day.  Even in DPS, he acquired the ability to just...get +1 stack of moves up next, as well as Downside Up to ignore the detriments of Psycho Boost.  Oh yeah, they all have Downside Up.  You know, that thing that resulted in Shiny Rayquaza's stats sucking?  Yeah, a year later, they decided it wasn't a problem.  Go figure.  Anyway.  Protect helps to avoid a lot of damage from opposing sync as well, which I have used to funny effect.  To date, nothing has challenged Attack for its dominance in Psychic type damage numbers.   Deoxys is unrivaled in what it is capable of.

Speed is my other favorite, because Gauntlet evade tanking is hysterical.  It can boost its own evasion and has Recover to heal up, as well as the ever-present Zen Headbutt.  Speed is so blindingly fast, that it's like the only thing salvaging Sygna Suit Giovanni's slow ass in Gauntlet.   Add in that it gets -2 sync cooldown on appearance, and another -2 on first use of Double Team, and you have a guaranteed fast-ramp.  With the right layout, you can easily achieve another toward second sync, all you need is Head Start somewhere.  Speed feels like wonderful glue for teams that need fast-acting power.  When it comes to fast-ramping partners, few do it as well as SS Steven.  Even in CS, it's possible to evade tank your way to success with dual strike, so long as they're self-sufficient.  He'll carry that gauge.  And while Attack may be powercrept some day, Speed’s utility will never die.

At this point, I'd note that these are both 1/5 abilities.  Steven needed for nothing on these two, and so he's remained 1/5 for me.  The next two are not so lucky.

Normal operates as an awkward entity.  Psychic Terrain once on entry is only good for CS stages with permanent field effects, otherwise it just doesn't last long enough.  The 60% flinch rate is nice, but it's nothing you can't find elsewhere, and the only grid-based benefit Normal acquires is Disarm, which debuffs foe's offenses per hit while they're trapped, confused, or flinching.  It's the extra bit to complement his flinch that sells it, but it's...kind of not that significant.  Normal just doesn't need to be used, almost ever.  Kinda like main game!

Defense is a bit better, but has its own issues.  At 1/5, gauges are an atrocious problem.  3/5 can fix a good deal, but it's not supporting other slow partners at all.  It also can't buff crit, nor cap offensive stats, meaning partners are reliant on handling a lot for themselves anyway.  To make matters worse, a major reason to use Defense would be in Gauntlet for another "support," but Speed's evade tanking and fast-ramping tends to actually work out more reliably.  And like.  If you need a support that handles both offenses, Variety Agatha and Champion Bede exist now, and are infinitely better than whatever Deoxys Defense can provide.  And if you needed a defensive wall, well...just wait a few weeks.

On the whole, Sygna Suit Steven is a fascinating sync pair.  He has great potential, but Attack and Speed are like the only ones worth talking about. Normal and Defense don't accomplish much, and are easily outclassed.  But also, all of this works at 1/5.  That's the weirdest part; in a game that's since emphasized 5/5 grids and Variety scouts, SS Steven works great at 1/5, with his two main forms accomplishing everything they need to.  It's...really funny.

[crystalelemental]

People are predicting Unova Neo Champions for December, to which I say, they’re gonna be sorely disappointed. If Unova Neo Champion Stadium happens, I guarantee it’s gonna be Cheren and shiny Zekrom and Bianca and shiny Reshiram. Remember what N said in Chargestone Cave? “Cheren is pursuing the ideal of strength. Poor Bianca is facing the sad truth that not everyone can become stronger.” I don’t see how you pass up shiny Tao dragons for the two of them. Maybe Hugh and shiny Kyurem, because his goal was ultimately empty before he learned the truth and ideals of Old Plasma, much like Kyurem waits for truth or ideals to fill it in.

That...actually fits. Super well. Hmm.

See, it's only disappointing if people are stuck on the protagonists being the important factor for Neo Champions, which they're not. The only consistent trait is the rival. I'd personally be angrier if they just did a Rosa/Nate thing. I'd much rather Cheren/Bianca/Hugh.

My problem is twofold. One: December is historically not a triple Master Fair month. There's no rule against, but they've historically done two (technically, Renegade Cynthia happened in December, even if she came with January datamine). So I'd be a little surprised at a triple feature. Two: I'd much, much rather it be random Pokemon. Cheren and Unfezant, Bianca and Mienshao, Hugh with a Ground Flygon. This will never happen because Master Fairs tend to be legends or really popular picks, and like...Unfezant? Let's be real. But I'd much, much rather that than more legend spam.

My personal hope is Johto. Johto's always behind, and I'm personally really hoping for Kris and Silver. Silver as the rival is a guarantee, and we need to get that egg figured out. Kris because I think she has a conceptually fun dynamic with him, and while I don't have strict ships for either character, I think they'd be a fun one to tease. Granted, I have the same issue of which Pokemon I want, because I'd want Kris and Noctowl to be a thing. But Silver with the shiny Tyranitar feels very possible.

Though that's just Neo Champions. The other possibility is it's not champs at all. Someone on Reddit pointed out there's a pattern of NCs, other, NCs, other going on right now, so it could be something unrelated. Which...coincides nicely with the last CS stages involving Ghost and Dragon weaknesses and how hard they've been hinting Volo. If it's double Master Fair, and Volo's a big focus, that could mean Cogita Master Fair too. And if they do...please let it be Enamorus Therian. Incarnate form is kinda dumb, but I do admittedly have an affinity for the stupid turtle thing.

[crystalelemental]

Okay, so far, Kanto and Unova both cannot possibly beat this week’s CS by themselves.  Anni N comes somewhat close but just barely fails to take out Sidney, and it all goes to shit from there, while the problem with C!Iris is that she can’t self-setup and her only reasonable partner is Hilbert, who has to go to Marshal or we risk too many off-types they can’t manage.  Kanto is worse.  Kanto has like no good offensive options in literally any of these types.  Kanto lives and dies by Dual Rat.

The only one I haven’t done is Kalos.  I expect it’s possible, given their VA sync pairs are kinda nuts, but we’ll have to see what it looks like when I get to it, because I’m pretty sure they also have like no on-type damage dealers for any of this.

[crystalelemental]

After giving base Iris the EX, I feel the need to justify my poor decision making.  Spoilers, this was not a great decision.

General Overview Iris, as a story sync pair who got her grid super early, sucks royally.  Very little exists on that grid that is of any value.  Literally the only thing she has access to is Confusion Boon 5, a skill that gives 50% bonus damage to her moves only, and in exchange, she has to be confused all the time.  So you give up Lucky Skill for Lessen Confusion 9.  And then still deal with the off chance of hurting yourself in confusion.  All to effectively break even compared to a normal multiplier and Crit Strike cookie.  It's real bad out here.

I tried to run her in CS off-type, and it does not work.  Even with some of the best tools in the game, you don't even come close.  Off-type is far beyond her abilities in CS.  But hey, Gauntlet is a bit less demanding, so maybe she'll be okay here?

Vs. Tapu Bulu Iris employs Marshal's Rock Smash and flinch rate to stall out Bulu and deal very respectable damage through DPS.  Her sync does well enough, but it's not anything too impressive.  Maylene is a solid partner to Iris as well, giving her Atk, crit, and a bit of speed through Pep Rally to maintain gauges.  Not well enough with Marshal here, but what can you do?

Vs. Tornadus This is where I started to just give up.  Halloween Caitlin is a wonderful partner to Iris, thanks to the bulk, ability to buff attack and speed, and Synchro Healing.  As mentioned, Iris has no sync multipliers, and her base damage on it is not spectacular.  She's much more of a DPS unit.  As such, a sync pair like H!Caitlin is a great partner, because Synchro Healing and defensive buffs keep Iris alive.  Also Iris can self-buff crit to cap, which is all Caitlin asks of a friend.

Vs. Cobalion I think the partner was Electrode.  I was feeling ambitious.  It paid off, sure, but you can tell how close that came.  I will note, Iris does get Durable 4 on her trainer move, so if you roll that Endurance, that could be a thing?

Vs. Terrakion Okay, finally some legitimately good news.  Terrakion requires field effects, and as a shitty striker, Iris is a great pick to receive the Zone.  The good in this is that Iris actually outdamages Lucas.  No, really.  That 7,690 damage?  That was around 1k more than Lucas was dealing with Roar of Time under comparable conditions.  Which is excellent.  Granted, he uses sync once and his damage contributions outclass hers, but it's the little things in life, okay?

Vs. Uxie I skipped Azelf because fuck that noise.  Iris can't hurt it until it's past the halfway point, but she basically doesn't contribute at that point.  Uxie, however, gets bopped a bit.  Again, this is H!Caitlin defensively carrying, but Iris does have the DPS to finish the job.

Vs. Latios BP Zinnia and Iris are a generally fun combo, kicking off the Dragon theme skills and needing roughly the same offensive buffs.  I went with Support Pinsir to cap attack for the team, letting BP Zinnia hit hard and fast.  This is one of two instances where Iris got to use her sync nuke, because it does a great job chunking sides and setting up for denials.

Vs. Latias This was the other.  Again, Caitlin carry, with Grimsley here to Snatch away buffs.  The Unova gang's all here.  Iris' DPS does well enough to avoid Mud Slap, which is the ideal outcome.  And despite lower DPS, they never have much trouble with Bar 2, because you negate any possible evasion buffs going forward.  And hey, when Grimsley gets his grid expansion, maybe his flinch rate will be consistent!  Haha!  HA!  HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Vs. Regirock Iris is great on this fight, actually.  Defensive debuffs acquired through crit is fantastic.  I opted for Lisia as the partner for Dragon skills, and to give both flinch and the Defog to remove Shield if it goes up.  Kiawe is a great defensive option with Double Potion MPR, and notably caps crit for Lisia, while maintaining team gauge.

Vs. Entei Lodge Blue is a support that buffs both needed stats for Iris, and has a 60% flinch rate.  Add in Lickitung for Screech, and Iris does pretty respectable damage.  This is a good example of how low-investment Iris can really go, once she gets the traits she needs.  Her main problem is finding allies who actually help.  It's such thing that she's honestly kinda hard to manage around.

[crystalelemental]

Continuing my apparently fixation on Elite Four members, particularly for Unova, it's time to talk about one of my favorite new commons, Shauntal.  She got an insanely powerful grid for a DPS striker, and I've been curious...how well does she do outside of CS?  Because CS on-type, Shadow Ball is hitting for like 10k.  But off-type?  In a long-running match?  That seems antithetical to her approach, and probably a bit harder.  So I had to try.

General Overview Shauntal definitely excels in CS compared to Gauntlet.  That isn't to say she can't operate well in Gauntlet, but it is to say that she need to be used with more...caution.  The main issue is that Shauntal's a bad sync nuker.  DPS is all well and good, but the structure of Gauntlet stages often asks the heavy question: can you take out Bar 2 before hitting the midpoint phase?  If no, you are in Big Trouble.  Because of this, Shauntal runs smack into every Gauntlet issue.  She has no ability to check gimmicks.  She has no ability to sync nuke.  She has no ability to survive, given lack of Endurance and no substantial tools other than evasion, which is often shut down.  Shauntal runs into all of the trouble.

And yet she kinda does it.  Shauntal's main purpose is to be supplemental; she offers additional DPS to clearing stages quickly between the sync nukes.  Perhaps the most notable occurrence of this is Moltres, whose phase transitions are, to put it lightly, a nightmare.  Shauntal is able to hit for enough damage to clear the remainder of Bar 2, and lets a weather setting damage dealer like May safely use Rain Dance without worrying about just clearing a phase.  Even on a fight like Regirock, which is wildly not her domain, the raw DPS actually does benefit the team, allowing her to quickly chip away at remainders.

That said, Shauntal is often not the focus of teams.  She's often incapable of dishing out the raw numbers needed to clear fast enough for her low-bulk playstyle.  But you know, that's fitting.  Shauntal is an author, someone who observes the world and writes down the exploits of others.  She's here to help out, to see things through, but not be in the central focus.  And I guess in gameplay terms, that carries over.

Vs. Tapu Bulu Pure F2P Ghost is a viable strategy against anything that can be slept.  Lodge Morty offers Shauntal the buffs she needs to focus her grid on damage, while Agatha's Hypnosis stops them in their tracks.  Disruption is a good tactic with Shauntal, who can clear relatively quick.  I kinda regret not doing this with a flinch bot as proof of concept, but it's fine.

Vs. Torandus I initially tried with the same comp, but it didn't work out, too Dark weak and no Sleep ability.  Helena's no better.  So, I brought in Sabrina and Tech Electabuzz.  Electabuzz applies paralysis as needed, and Sabrina supplies all the buffs Shauntal could ask for.  As you can tell, it's a bit close for comfort, Sabrina needs some MPR on her trainer move, but it's possible.

Vs. Terrakion UUUGH.  Okay, SC Lillie is necessary for disruption, since Shauntal cannot handle either gimmick.  But.  I think it's fun noting her DPS is good enough that she can take down Terrakion with just some flinch support and an Eggmon setting Sun twice.

Vs. Cobalion Helena offers paralysis, and supplemental special defense drops to get Shauntal moving faster.  SC Lillie was chosen because Sabrina couldn't get the job done again, we needed disruption.

Vs. Azelf Sleep cheese.  Shauntal does do fantastic damage, and as a special attacker, is in a good position.  She can hit Azelf for full damage at the outset, and sync at the midpoint to avoid damage reduction.

Vs. Uxie This one was rough, but Lodge Lillie is growing on me.  Synchro Healing is a really good trait for keeping non-healing supports like Torchic in the game.  Torchic is a wonderful buff partner to Shauntal, who now has like a 60% burn rate.  In tandem with Lillie's Trap, you're able to handle gimmicks just fine, while Shauntal debuffs and beats down.  Synchro Healing even offsets damage from AoE and her burn, so Shauntal's never in danger.

Vs. Latios How...was this so close?  Guys?  I dunno man, I think Lillie's sync sucks.  It's a major problem, she barely deals damage.  Shauntal is great, though.  Fantastic DPS as a supplemental trait means she can just truck the sides with like no issues.  Denials are really easy with her.

Vs. Latias Similar structure, but we're using Melony for the accuracy buffs alongside sp atk/crit.  Sing also means disruption, though I'd like to believe that Lillie's Synchro Healing would've been fine.  The team is slow as dirt, though.  Gauges are a problem.

Vs. Regirock This is one of those relevation moments.  Obviously, Hilbert's buffing and Molayne's damage is what carries this.  Molayne is used over Wikstrom because Wikstrom needed X Spd All MPR to proc and I got tired of resetting.  Shauntal supplies really good damage, as you can see here.  Even while focusing on what tends to be the worse offensive option, she contributes a lot to the team's DPS, which is wildly essential in the Regirock fight.  She can clear Bar 1 to let Molayne sync bar 2, help clear Bar 2 before anything happens, and chips away at the final phase.

Vs. Entei Wake just did not want to flinch, but we still managed.  Shauntal's DPS is just that good.  Wake did have to take sync though, because I figured it would do better.  I may have been wrong.  He once hit for like 2k damage.  It was a non-crit, but still.

Vs. Moltres This was the big one.  May has tremendous power behind her sync, and is generally great for this fight so long as she procs MPR.  Shauntal's DPS is so good that Bar 2 can go down pretty reliably with just attacks.  May's Muddy Water shreds like 75%, and Shauntal's Shadow Ball can, in fact, finish the job, which means May is set to use Rain Dance with no issues about quad queueing.  As you can probably tell, this is also a good showing of Shauntal's random evasion buffs.  Dodging the initial Heat Wave likely saved this run, because I'm pretty sure that damage amount is just short of a OHKO on Moltres' last HP bar.  Meaning Shauntal getting one extra attack in saved it.