#also me: wow i don't have many good supports for this gauntlet huh

[books-are-my-life-stuff]

That’s it. I can’t go further anymore. I hate Cobalion so much. The 30th win streak was against Cobalion, and it was a team effort too. Since I don’t make a draft of team compositions prior to this gauntlet like I usually do, all of this team are made right before the fights.

Anyway, here are the teams, putting this at readmore because it sure as hell gonna be long.

Team 1: Cobalion

Just Anni N carried stuff as usual, no big deal. I wish Dawn was EX, but I really haven’t seen any point to EX her yet. A shame, because she’s still my most favorite female protagonist.

Team 2: Azelf

Brute-forcing things still work if you’re as powerful as SC Emmet, I suppose. Oh, and if you’re accompanied with an amazing support like Aaron. Very smooth, very self-explanatory.

Team 3: Latios

BP Zinnia remains awesome. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have used Spring Burgh here, but oh well. Once again, very smooth, and I prefer using BP Zinnia as DPS.

Team 4: Cobalion

The tried-and-true Halloween Morty team. Nothing feels more satisfactory than defeating a difficult LA stage with my favorite, non-OP unit. Oh yeah, also Masked Royal got to 3/5 just 2 days ago. If Dawn had been EX, she would have been here instead, and Masked Royal would have been saved up somewhere. Oh well. More reason to EX Dawn, I think? Oh yes, one condition to this team is that, since Cobalion gained resistances from Burn much quicker than Paralysis/Sleep, Halloween Morty had to crit all of his syncs so Cobalion wouldn’t gain too much burn resistances to the point it become immune. Which requires luck, but it’s okay. This team did it first try.

Team 5: Azelf

I remembered, very fondly, when Elio was still 2/5 and struggled so hard to survive against Azelf, and I didn’t even use Lillie because she’s also 2/5, so I went with BP Morty for flinching and to make Lusamine survive at least one sync. Now, Elio and Lillie are 5/5, and I just copy-pasted this team from Crystal. I also slapped Troublemaker 1 at Elio instead of Vigilance, and that’s gonna be his lucky skill from now on. I still don’t like using Lusamine because she’s squishier than Giovanni, but with Elio’s Sing and Lillie’s accuracy buffs alongside her random debuffs, the fight ended without anybody taking a single hit.

Team 6: Latios

I tried. I tried my best to use OG Zinnia, but she still remained...difficult as ever. Well, at least Fresh Start helped to negate the downsides of her trainer move, but Latios spammed AoE moves and debuffed too in second and third health bar, so this fight was actually rather difficult. Sabrina wasn’t the best tank in this scenario, at all. She was taken down from Stored Power too, but thankfully Zinnia could muster enough strength to end the match. Sandstorm was only used at first health bar to take down sides with Zinnia’s sync, and at third health bar.

Team 7: Cobalion

Nobody could survive the repeated Sacred Sword from Cobalion, it hit goddamn hard. Even Skyla went down. Maybe she could have survived if I brought an attack debuffer or something, but that couldn’t fit the team. SS Serena was meant to handle difficult fights like Cobalion or Azelf because I knew Latios was gonna be such a cakewalk with her. Tech Parasect was for applying paralysis and...some defense debuffs, I guess. Well, more excuse to use Thousand Waves, even though I didn’t use my Ground build here.

Team 8: Azelf

So, this is kinda unnecessary, and probably a bit overkill, but this team’s synergy is pretty good. Summer Marnie didn’t need to use her trainer move because Sycamore provided all the buffs she needed for Rising Tide, and this team also covered all of Azelf’s resistances. When Azelf was resistant with physical damage, Summer Marnie could either use Spirit Break to debuff special attack, or use Crunch in attempt to debuff defense, while Sycamore spammed Moonblast. At latter half of the heath bar, Summer Marnie handled everything, and Sycamore used Horn Leech to restore health--if that happened, because usually Summer Marnie’s nuke was enough to deplete a health bar. In retrospect, I probably should have brought Palentine’s Dawn here instead of using Tech Exeggutor because this team didn’t need sleep chain to survive. Oh well. What’s done is done.

Team 9: Latios

I went a bit too much on this. They destroyed Latios, but I probably should have saved up Sidney somewhere. Well, it’s satisfying to see the amazing synergy of dark-type teams, at least.

Team 10: Cobalion

Piercing Blows team, you know the drill. Hilbert somewhat survived the Sacred Sword, only to be taken down by a second Sacred Sword, which is amazing. Then again, Volkner’s paralysis and flinches helped to buy some time for this team to survive.

Team 11: Azelf

Did you know that SS Misty dealt 99k damage at Azelf’s third bar? I know Azelf’s defenses there were reduced to ashes, but I knew Azelf had some resistances in sync moves too. Still, it was impressive nonetheless to see SS Misty’s nuke despite the resistance. I brought Serena there because...Azelf’s nuke is physical, which targeted SS Kris’ weaker physical defense, and I’m kinda afraid that SS Kris would be endangered. Maybe I should have saved up Serena for later. Anyway, SS Misty needed +6 Sp. Atk and +3 crit, but SS Kris could provide that, and Rain too. This was a lot of fun. It’s honestly weird why I had some difficulties in using Lear but not with SS Misty.

Team 12: Latios

THAT WAS SO GODDAMN CLOSE!! Had Rachel not used her trainer move on Cyrus, he would have lost. Phoebe couldn’t survive very long, and neither could Rachel. That last half of third HP bar was handled by Cyrus himself, hanging on 1 HP. It was disastrous. Maybe if Phoebe were EX, she could have performed much better. Rachel...I’m not sure. I wish she and Sawyer got EX so they could tank much better...

Team 13: Cobalion

Much like Anni N’s Blue Flare’s damage looking like it dropped without multiple targets, so did SST Red’s B Volt Tackle. This match took a little too long for my liking, but at least nobody was ever in danger. BP Morty took some Sacred Sword, but he had enough potions to sustain himself. And...not gonna lie, 2 Electric Terrain wasn’t enough for SST Red to finish the match, so he had to ask Classic Elesa’s help. I like their synergy anyway. SST Red definitely could have benefited much better if he’s accompanied with EX Support like Halloween Caitlin, but it’s fine. The match took forever but it’s done with nobody in danger.

Team 14: Azelf

Time to test the newly EX Barry--with Vigilance as lucky skill! That...was because Barry was the one I used to tank Sinnoh’s Daily Region Rotation before I had OG Dawn (I just got one copy of her during Sinnoh’s Villain Arc), but when Entei’s gauntlet came up, the Vigilance on him ended up helping a lot, so I just keep it until now. Barry’s bulk as a striker is also pretty good, much like EX Siebold, and their playstyle was quite similar, though Barry is better at off-typing than Siebold. Anyway, talking about the actual fight, Barry was actually at a timer here. Tech Gyarados had to consistently land flinches to stagger Azelf, and Barry had to nuke Azelf before SC Jasmine get destroyed by its sync. I know I might be exaggerating, but Azelf’s nuke kinda hurt, so I was very much worried, much like what I felt towards SS Kris. Thankfully, Tech Gyarados could land a lot of flinches to buy some time for Barry to unleash his nuke. His nuke was pretty good even without Cakewalk. He could nuke Azelf’s health bar in one sync, that’s pretty something. Also, Barry’s EX color looks pretty cool and I love it. Definitely worth the investment.

Team 15: Latios

Roxanne is now retired from the Giovanni steamroll team, and Mesprit became the tank. Matching theme skills, more defensive utilities, and the fact that Mesprit almost didn’t need gauge at all to use moves, is pretty good. Reflect and Light Screen helped to mitigate the damage in third health bar too. I like dual screens. Anyway, pretty easy fight, Mesprit is amazing. Probably the best Master BP units so far.

Team 16: Cobalion

I’m so sorry Brendan that you had to handle the menace that is Cobalion, who targeted your weaker physical defense. Roxanne’s defensive buffs didn’t help him against Sacred Sword, so SS Brendan had to spam potions to keep himself alive. Thankfully, Palentine Serena was there to use paralysis, and landed really good nuke. Palentine Serena finally became better after her EX. Granted, she still needed a lot of support--namely special attack, crit, and speed, hence the team composition--but once it’s handled, she’s pretty good. I’m thinking if I should 3/5 her sometime or if 2/5 is just enough...

Team 17: Azelf

I know Classic Giovanni had less HP than Falkner and Hilbert, but similar defensive stats with Falkner, but sleepchain can negate any need of proper tank...if only I didn’t forget to give Lodge N Troublemaker 1. Oh well. Classic Giovanni went down at third health bar, but at that time, Lucian was ready to launch a nuke. The idea here was Giovanni covering all the offensive buffs that Lucian needed, while Lucian spammed Growl and top off his Sp. Atk. Lodge N did some sleepchain stuffs. After that, stall the turns until Lucian’s nuke is ready, because his nuke is powerful enough to take down Azelf’s one health bar, and with max damage at third health bar too. Just Lucian asserting his nuke dominance as always.

Team 18: Latios

It is finally time to use Hala! No gauge issues because Kiawe alleviated that with Dashing Team and Evelyn also helped with Regeneration. God, seeing Hala nuking the entire third health bar with his sync felt really good, and even off-type his DPS was still amazing. Sorry, Winter Leon. I know Hala arrived much later than you, but until you reach 3/5, I’ll have to use Hala more often now. I remembered last gauntlet Kiawe had a little bit of trouble in surviving Latios because he wasn’t EX, but now he didn’t even need Potions at all. That EX really meant a lot for him.

Team 19: Cobalion

This, and the Tornadus gauntlet, is the reason why I MUST 2/5 Classic Red, because good god, never rely on 30% chance, ever. This took way too damn long, and that’s because Classic Red didn’t proc the paralysis even after accumulating 10 damn sync buffs. Leaf did a great job for taking a lot of Sacred Sword and landing flinches, but she eventually went down because the Sacred Sword dealt like 1.075 damage. By that time, Cobalion was at 20% health, and I just decided to brute-force it instead of waiting for paralysis that’d never happen. Gladion did an amazing job here, though. Kudos for Gladion for managing to bruteforce Cobalion’s last remaining health without paralysis.

Team 20: Azelf

This took two tries, because I attempted to do Azelf’s fight without sleepchain, but I’m running out of support who can handle Azelf’s debuff pressure. So I used Agatha to sleepchain and thankfully SS Steven could handle the rest. It’s just...my god, the gauge of this team is horrendous. I had to use Agatha’s trainer move, and that still wasn’t enough. Bianca ended up not doing much at most of the fight--she could even barely queue Psychic Terrain. I realized that Attack Form Deoxys was not fast enough to carry a gauge. He still needed more speed support. Well, somehow this team prevailed anyway, but it really could have been better.

Team 21: Latios

Yeah, this was unbelievably easy. Bea was too damn powerful. I don’t have anything to say much here, Bea is so good. Maybe I should EX Sonia...if I EX her maybe her other two copies would be willing to appear anytime soon...

Team 22: Cobalion

Cobalion versus Cobalion!...though opponent Cobalion proved that it was the better Cobalion, since my Cobalion went down because of Sacred Sword. Gauge was also a bit difficult once Cobalion’s move gauge acceleration ran out, and Cobalion’s debuffs didn’t really benefit SS Red in any way (except for Flare Blitz I guess), but the defensive buffs helped to mitigate SS Red’s self debuffs. When my Cobalion went down, Lt. Surge thankfully could survive long enough for SS Red to finish the fight, thanks to First Aid and repeated Synchro Healing. I wish SS Red was 3/5 so his nuke could hit harder with Haymaker, especially with this team composition...

Team 23: Azelf

I thought this team would run to gauge issues, but thankfully Cheryl’s X Sp. Atk MPR proc enough for a few Pep Rally to keep the gauge going. Palentine Dawn’s debuffs and Cheryl’s heals really helped Cheryl to survive the occasional physical attack that Azelf used (like Zen Headbutt). Lear was also in timer here--he had to nuke fast before Azelf sync and destroyed Cheryl. Luckily, fast sync is Lear’s specialty. Azelf queued an Iron Tail right before Lear’s nuke took it down...which was rather close. I dunno if Cheryl could have handled that, but it seemed risky.

Team 24: Latios

I know, I know OG Morty could solo Latios, but Phantom Force MPR always betrayed me, and my timing is horrible. I don’t want to rip my hair out trying to figure the correct timing and to reset for Phantom Force MPR, so I just picked an easy option. I forgot to grid Lodge Blue here, he could have performed better if I gridded him but, oh well. OG Morty magically proc-ed a lot of his trainer move, so he capped his Blind Spot multiplier all by himself, and handled Latios comfortably, while also sometimes dodged some attacks. OG Morty is still difficult to use, but he’s still fun to use.

Team 25: Cobalion

This is a modified team from Zinfogel’s gauntlet tutorial. I remembered clearly what Zinfogel said: “Because Cobalion gained burn immunity pretty quick, you need an auxiliary status” and he used BP Clemont gridded with Hostile Environment 1 Spark, so a pretty good chance of paralyzing. BP Clemont’s Screech also helped Silver’s damage. Hop unfortunately couldn’t take too much Sacred Sword either--he went down, but thankfully the fight was close to done. I forego Silver’s nuke and decided to go full DPS here, and it’s honestly the safest way to play Silver without SS Morty against Cobalion.

Team 26: Azelf

I remembered that Classic Blue has both physical and special moves, so time to use it with full advantage! Granted, his damage wasn’t much, but it’s still sufficient to handle Azelf. SS Morty and Sawyer helped to top off Classic Blue’s buffs so he didn’t need to use his trainer move too much. Also, Sawyer’s flinches really helped as well so SS Morty didn’t get debuffed too much. I gridded him with Sunny Disposition, but MPR on Sunny Day didn’t happen too much. SS Morty surviving sun-boosted Flamethrower from Azelf was pretty amazing. I mean, I know he’s immortal, and if he could take a sun-boosted +2 Sp. Atk Fire Blast from Flint without EX, he definitely could handle Azelf’s sun-boosted Flamethrower. I love SS Morty so much. Also I probably should 5* Sawyer soon, he’s very reliable and he’d appreciate the extra bulk.

Team 27: Latios

I unironically had to use SS Grimsley’s trainer move here because this support team is very defensive, but I gridded him with First Aid so it’s all good, and Misty’s Friendly Care was enough to patch up the damage. Misty also covered Brock with some special defense buffs to help him tank better, while SS Grimsley just went to do his thing. It’s actually pretty smooth, I’m rather surprised that this team didn’t run into any gauge issues either. Every time I expected a team to run into gauge issues, it doesn’t happen. But when I thought a team would be fine, it ran into gauge issues. What even.

Team 28: Latios

SC Lillie was the last support that could be a frontline tank for gauntlets (not including SS Elesa because she couldn’t sustain herself well enough for a long fight), so time to use her. I slapped BP Janine so I could save up SC Lillie’s trainer move for regeneration. Wally is gridded with full Focus Blast DPS here, which dealt pretty good damage. I’m glad I can use my boy in a gauntlet.

Team 29: Azelf

...Except I just remembered, SC Lillie wasn’t the last support that could sustain for Gauntlet. There’s OG Ingo. But the current gauntlet stages weren’t good for OG Emmet, so I decided to use OG Ingo as a generalist support instead for Mallow, who just got to 2/5 and finally had access to Pecking Order. OG Ingo set up Sandstorm to buff the team’s speed, since this team would be relying on Ramos’ sleepchain who wasn’t the fastest sleepchainer. The turn order was following Zinfogel’s gauntlet tutorial, where he used Kahili as a tank. The queue order should be: Sleep Powder > Mud Slap > Teeter Dance/Trop Kick > wait for Mud Slap’s damage to disappear then use Sleep Powder > repeat. If I accidentally queued Sleep Powder a little too soon, immediately quad-queue Sleep Powder. Though, if the quad-queue didn’t work, OG Ingo could take some hits and had potions. This team took three attempts, because Azelf kept burning OG Ingo, which hurt his survivability a lot. OG Ingo shouldn’t be burned or else the sleepchain method didn’t work because OG Ingo had to stop moving to survive. This was a good opportunity to train myself to properly sleepchain.

Team 30: Cobalion

For this clear, I had to use two teams. Here’s the first team for the 30th win streak:

God, I still had no idea how to use Piers. His Obstruct is good in LA where enemies’ moves are predictable, and I used his Obstruct to block Stone Edge and Poison Jab. The debuffs he inflicted upon blocking were also helpful for Solgaleo to deal good damage, but even with double Obstruct MPR, it still wasn’t enough. I was hoping he’d have infinite Obstruct supply so he could lasts until third bar and blocked Sacred Sword, but guess that didn’t happen. Once Obstruct is out, Piers had to endure-tanking with his trainer move, for as long as MPR allowed him to, which was at the end of second health bar. Lana couldn’t take too much Stone Edge, so she didn’t main tank, but even she couldn’t take too much Sacred Sword. Solgaleo managed to bring Cobalion down to 23% health before going down. It was really close, so I didn’t reset and just take the loss for the second team.

This is...a desperation team. The idea is to make Acerola stagger Cobalion long enough for Blue to finish his buffs and sync nuke the shit out of Cobalion before Cobalion used his sync (it was at one turn before sync when Solgaleo went down). Erika was there to apply paralysis and land lucky special defense debuffs. Acerola managed to land two lucky flinches to let Blue sync, but unfortunately Blue’s sync damage didn’t crit, so Cobalion still had like 4% health left. Acerola’s flinch didn’t land, and she went down because of Facade, but Blue accumulated enough gauge to finally unleash a Hyper Beam and finished the fight. God, that was awful. Had Blue not accumulated enough gauge at that time to use Hyper Beam, Cobalion would have queued his sync and wiped the party. I hate Cobalion so much, but I’m glad that this team miraculously made it somehow.