Even when that random trainer on the cape threw out a Vaporeon, I immediately got flashbacks of the Kimono Girls Aurora Beaming poor Empress and looked at Nimbly in the lead and was like ahahaha nope nice try but not falling for THAT shit again, and SURE ENOUGH.
(It was a nice try, though. Well played. Just. You know. We learned from last time.)
Erika's Bellossom sounds like an absolute monster of a troll build when you describe it like that, but it turns out that when you bring a Scizor with a Technician-boosted Bug Bite, it just eats her entire team's lunch, literally (mmm, free Sitrus Berry to heal off the Sunnybeam combo that Omnihunter completely no-sold anyway.) I know that OHKO sweeping entire gym leader teams with our quite franky OP mons is nothing new (hi Badgertwo, Rock Biter, Priscilla) but something about the Bug Bite berry theft elevates the experience into feeling like downright "give me your lunch money, nerd" levels of bullying. (But at least Erika is into that, I guess?)
I will agree and give full credit to Misty's team, though. She had about as good switch-forcing balance as it's possible to have while still being a thematic single-type trainer, without just cheating and adding some completely unrelated mons to your team (hi Karen.) I knew that Quagsire just completely walls anyone who thinks "lol I'll just go in with an Electric type and sweep everything" because Crasher Wake pulled that exact trick in our Diamond run; he just hadn't counted on my strategy actually being "lol I'll just go in with a Grass type and sweep everything" because Torterra is the best starter. Misty actually does have an answer to that angle, though; she doesn't even need a surprise "wait why does this pure Water type know Ice moves" Aurora Beam Vaporeon; she just goes all in with a goddamn Lapras. And the Starmie... yeah, that could have just about anything.
As for Cassandra vs. Starmie... hmm. If you mean "trust an Absol to deal with a fast as fuck Confusion[move]-spamming Starmie that knows Recover," Dark is completely immune to Psychic-type moves (and Confusion[move] is not that much of a threat at this stage of the game anyway since it's just Psychic[move] we have at home.) If you meant "trust an Absol to deal with a fast as fuck confusion[status effect]-spamming Starmie that knows Recover" like with Confuse Ray or something, then yeah, that could have been an issue.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2022-06-21 08:15 pm (UTC)(It was a nice try, though. Well played. Just. You know. We learned from last time.)
Erika's Bellossom sounds like an absolute monster of a troll build when you describe it like that, but it turns out that when you bring a Scizor with a Technician-boosted Bug Bite, it just eats her entire team's lunch, literally (mmm, free Sitrus Berry to heal off the Sunnybeam combo that Omnihunter completely no-sold anyway.) I know that OHKO sweeping entire gym leader teams with our quite franky OP mons is nothing new (hi Badgertwo, Rock Biter, Priscilla) but something about the Bug Bite berry theft elevates the experience into feeling like downright "give me your lunch money, nerd" levels of bullying. (But at least Erika is into that, I guess?)
I will agree and give full credit to Misty's team, though. She had about as good switch-forcing balance as it's possible to have while still being a thematic single-type trainer, without just cheating and adding some completely unrelated mons to your team (hi Karen.) I knew that Quagsire just completely walls anyone who thinks "lol I'll just go in with an Electric type and sweep everything" because Crasher Wake pulled that exact trick in our Diamond run; he just hadn't counted on my strategy actually being "lol I'll just go in with a Grass type and sweep everything" because Torterra is the best starter. Misty actually does have an answer to that angle, though; she doesn't even need a surprise "wait why does this pure Water type know Ice moves" Aurora Beam Vaporeon; she just goes all in with a goddamn Lapras. And the Starmie... yeah, that could have just about anything.
As for Cassandra vs. Starmie... hmm. If you mean "trust an Absol to deal with a fast as fuck Confusion[move]-spamming Starmie that knows Recover," Dark is completely immune to Psychic-type moves (and Confusion[move] is not that much of a threat at this stage of the game anyway since it's just Psychic[move] we have at home.) If you meant "trust an Absol to deal with a fast as fuck confusion[status effect]-spamming Starmie that knows Recover" like with Confuse Ray or something, then yeah, that could have been an issue.