#hoenn cs

[crystalelemental]

Alright, back from visiting family, on to more important matters. Like playing video games.

Vs. Drake I really wanted to give this one a shot, in part so Anni Steven can contribute, but also to show off his specific contribution in Weather Wipe. It's not really talked about much, but in some of these more modern stages where the gimmick is auto-weather and high DPS, it's a good solution. Summer Liza is hilarious. I love the damage this kid dishes out. I will admit, there are some gauge issues with Steven even at +6 team speed. But not as many as you'd expect. Sincerely, I think his EX might solve it.

Vs. Glacia I initially tried a few others that were not getting the job done, then shifted to this. Look, base Liza was a super good support when I started the game, and I wanted to bring it back, this time with her brother Tate, who is...kinda ridiculous. More importantly, Darach. Darach's not a bad Tate partner, given the attack debuffing sets up innate Tech nuke, and the lowering of opponent evasion allows Thunder Wave to hit consistently. No weather combined with a free Crit Shield removal allows the team to take off enough offensive parameters that Liza isn't seriously threatened.

Vs. Phoebe At this point, I messed up using H!Caitlin entirely. I had wanted to do a bit more with her but it wasn't working out with Lodge Rosa/Colress, so I gave up and tried Anni Lillie, only to find out that right, using Ghost Zone powers up Phoebe, and Lillie's weak to Dark. So that didn't happen. Instead, we went with Irida strats. I like bringing Lorelei to an off-type match to clear. It feels like justice for her frankly atrocious grid.

Vs. Sidney You know who's not Dark weak? Caitlin. Okay, so maybe C!Bede is a little overkill, but I am in fact willing to kill on this one. Caitlin's final sync was like 20k. Which is pretty respectable for off-type, I think. DPS with the moves up next effect really chunks the stage too. Big fan of this, though sincerely Bede feels very overkill, he's so stupidly good.

Vs. Steven So then I thought hey, you know what'd be fun? Emma. Only to find out that aiming for denials prevents success entirely, because Emma's sync will not handle Steven's remaining HP. So you gotta spam. Okay, spam on him then. Oh that's still actually fairly difficult because their team is boosting defense a lot? Well then. Yeah, this one took a lot more consideration than usual. Anabel needed to do some flinch work for it to come together, but nothing too terrible. Still, it was frustrating enough that I legitimately considered Head Start on Looker or Emma to get a fast-ramp in and solve for this. Looker...gets the job done with Poison Sting, admittedly, but this is going to be a very sub-optimal team soon. Oleana's going to completely change what Emma works with optimally. I think if Looker can offer anything over Oleana, it's an easier justification to just drop CS2 for Head Start 1. Not like he does any damage off-type.

[pomaschampstadium]

EX #147 & #148

[kdrc]

Since I got stronger *cough more like thanks to limited units cough* I can finally do something like this in Hoenn Champion Stadium 10k

Lillie supremacy

[ribbonbonny]

note 2 self to just use hop as steel striker he blasted trough that battle. finally a solution to steel 10k mode thats not ‘throw archie/maxie’ at it lmao

[guardianwallace]

the champion wallace dream for the 2.5 anniversary is not dead let me tell y’all that much

[jadeazora]

Here's Sidney! (Hoenn CS next month?) He's available starting Aug9!

[amateurmagic]

Rambling thoughts incoming:

I actually love that ending though. As a CS fan, I would love literally any extra conversation or tidbit the writers would throw us just to get more content, but I think the fact that they don't give us an apology (or at least an on-screen one) and leave us with that goodbye says so much more. It shows how well May and Drew know each other. Drew, I think, is presented as skilled, rightfully arrogant, and eloquent in all things coordinating and no-things feelings wise. May, to some extent is quite the opposite, where she feels her feelings hard and expresses them to the same degree that she feels them. The fact that the two of them don't even need to talk about their conflict, more so just take some time apart to process it all, says everything about their current relationship. Also, May's mini conversation with Harley at the beginning of the battle rounds where she is notably calm despite her recent conflict with Drew is also telling -- to some significant degree, she knows Drew didn't mean what he said or maybe even she's aware that she pushed him in a moment when he would've been more comfortable with her giving him space. But the festival goes on, they battle and May wins because she was better that day and Drew accepts this with grace. The festival ends and the two part like normal -- asking if they'll see each other at a contest soon.

Also, their parting after the GF party is such a progression as well. Drew left the Hoenn GF party early to train as well, and that time, May questioned why. And Drew answered her, eventually saying he hopes to see her "back here" next time. This time in Kanto, she runs after him with his rose to make sure she sees him off. But once she catches up to him, there's no need for questions because she knows why he's leaving. Drew sent her off the last time, but this time, May is asking if she'll see him again.

I also wish we had been shown Drew saying something comforting to May as well. There's a post or theory floating somewhere out there of Drew recognizing May's talent for Coordinating when they first met in Slateport, but also noticed how Ash and co., though endlessly supportive, didn't offer May any real direction, which is why she fumbled and strayed so much in the beginning before really getting serious after the Rubello contest. This person theorized that's part of why Drew acted the way he did toward May early on: because she needed direction, and fluffy support wasn't going to get her to where she wanted to be. After her loss to Solidad, though May received a lot of comfort from her friends, she didn't get any guidance on how to process this loss, even with Scott literally spelling out to her friends in the stands, how and why May lost. It was never brought up to her, which led to her low point post-festival being drawn out all the way until Fennel Valley when Drew showed up again. Though I'm sure Drew was processing his own loss, he's experienced both losing to Solidad as well as being one step away from winning the entire Grand Festival (I also think his final stage battle against Robert was a pretty one-sided shut down as well, but I don't remember for sure). No doubt there was plenty of common ground to be shared there as well.

“We are rivals, May and I”

aka. Tia rewatches Kanto Grand Festival (probs some contestshippy rambling ahead)

May and Drew’s Kanto festival battle (and the entire episode) still manages to make me emotional. I still remember saying after seeing the Hoenn Grand Festival that Drew should have won in Kanto too, but honestly, this is how it was supposed to go. Drew, who was constantly one step ahead of May, pushed her to work harder, and I think May only started seeing herself and Drew somewhat equals after she beat him (properly) for the first time. She’s insecure even when Drew praises her combinations after the battle, claiming that Drew’s were far better, but it was still one step towards the right direction.

The battle itself was honestly one of the best contest battles in the entire series, but if we skip if, I love how May seeks for Drew’s approval (which she gets) before she starts to celebrate with Combusken. Drew is not a sore loser and he seems genuinely happy for May when he gives her a small smile. (I’m also glad he praises Absol in that scene because the poor thing certainly deserved it after what happened). 

While, not gonna lie, I sort of wished Drew would have said something comforting to May after Solidad beat her, the scene in which her friends come to comfort her (particularly Max’s “you’re the best sister I could ever have”,  which gets more value knowing those siblings bicker quite a lot) makes me ;__; too.

Also, I’m guessing May got that rose she carried while saying goodbye to Drew during the party from him? I’d sure love to see that scene. And it’s adorable how May looks so worried when Drew doesn’t answer to her “see you at contests or something?” question right away but gets so happy when he’s finally like “yeah for sure” :’)

[crystalelemental]

Another quick week. I'm tired. But a few notes beneath the cut.

Vs. Phoebe It's been a while since I broke out Anni Lillie. I missed her. Moongeist Beam remains ridiculous on-type. Renegade Cynthia's sync is similarly batty, girl just explodes stages like nothing. That said, NY!Dawn remains a decent frontline tank, but she did not feel like cooperating with me. She never dodged anything. Girl you get +2 evasion every use of your trainer move, I know I capped that out. "Is she even helping this team?" More than you think! Aside from the debuffing, NY!Dawn's main benefit is Speedy Entry x2, which is effectively x4 thanks to her passive. It's a decent speed injection. Not H!Caitlin tier, but good enough to get a job done.

Vs. Glacia Lodge Irida is such a mixed bag. She's so inconsistent with the burn and the flinch, but without defense debuffing I feel like she doesn't do the best job overall. Also this Glacia spams AoE like crazy and even with Morty it's a very rough time. Once we got a good rotation she was able to break the stage, but there's a lot that goes wrong.

Vs. Drake SS Silver is good, but it's kind of awkward late-game, when you're trying to clean up sides and realize oh wait, I didn't actually debuff center's speed. Now my sync is worse off. It's on-type so he still exploded the soul from Drake's body, but you get the irritation. H!Caitlin rules with this guy, though.

Vs. Sidney I tried to use Lodge Dawn to partner with Lusamine. It goes okay. The benefit is mostly Team Sharp Entry saving a turn of setup, and the X Sp Atk All helping boost. That said, Dawn refused MPR on it, and the foe spams Snarl, so it's never good. Good news though, Positive Reinforcement actually got play. With EX Lodge Dawn, we were able to nigh-perfectly KO left for a denial, which got Lusamine from +3 after taking a Snarl to +6 without issue. Dawn didn't survive, but the overall outcome was kinda fun.

Vs. Steven SC Rosa has kinda taken a back seat to the other Grass-type damage dealers, due to The Troubles. I love this alt, but I can't pretend she doesn't have serious issues. The requirement of debuffing evasion for her sync is a nightmare. Debuffing special attack is just as bad. No other sync pair shares that combination of traits, so she needs to handle that herself. But. Then she also needs to use Trainer Move, or she's suffering accuracy issues when she gets back to attacking. And the special defense debuffs matter greatly as well. It's just very difficult to organize SC Rosa's needs. Fortunately, I think I got one. Roxanne is a solid partner, solving the gauge issues of a four-bar spam easily, while providing nice defensive backbone and topping off special attack. SS Leaf is a really nice pick as well, offering pretty much every possible debuff at 5/5. Noxious Hit handles offenses, Sundering can help hit special defense, and Hem In even helps with evasion for full-power sync. This was a fairly fun and effective team overall, though the 5/5 thing on Leaf may be a barrier for people.

[crystalelemental]

Not even going to pretend I want to try this week with the dreaded High Score event dropping tomorrow. Weep for us.

[crystalelemental]

Ah, Johto. I love Johto, probably my second favorite region after Sinnoh. This group, I've always felt, has some ridiculous options behind it, so let's see if that holds.

Vs. Sidney SS Ethan was made for this fight. Literally. They reference applying Trap, and he's Flying weak, this is SS Ethan's fight. For some reason, I brought Eevee Kris? I think the goal was "spam Aeroblast, so her debuffs will be nice," but that didn't happen. Her trainer move does take off crit boosting pressure from Falkner though. That was nice. Ethan does deal respectable damage, and his sync is solidly alright. It's odd because I have him 20/20 after Gauntlet issues, and keep thinking I should EX him, but after doing this...man, why? He doesn't get anything new.

Vs. Drake SS Silver is a lot finnickier than he seems. He's definitely good, but the Sandstorm blanks his Buddy move unless Jasmine heals him back to full. His damage isn't nearly as good as you'd hope either. I needed Whitney here for some flinch and defense debuffing so Silver could manage. Maybe 4/5 for the defense debuffing is warranted...

Vs. Glacia SS Lyra is stupid. Guaranteed flinch really does accomplish anything, including half time to sync parameters off-type with Silver as your base. Sure, SS Morty is a wall that keeps the team alive, but it's Lyra carrying to get us through two rounds of sync while the opponent hasn't gotten to their yet. It was only three actions and she blocked them that long. Queen Shit.

Vs. Phoebe Karen is a rare special Dark-type for the Phoebe stage, which is great because Sentry Entry x2. SC Jasmine is a nice partner to Karen thanks to the buffs she provides, but bad because slow. Enter Whitney, who has X Speed and good starting speed, as well as flinch rate to slow the opponent's progress. Easy game, easy life.

Vs. Steven Gotta justify Eusine somehow, and that somehow is Double Suicune/Eevee Lyra. Eevee Lyra is stupid good with SS Kris. The speed buffs are ideal. The ability to debuff special defense, even single-target, really ups Eusine's value too. He's just...very good at his job.

Overall Impressions Johto's super strong. I do think Sinnoh has an easier time of things, with a lot more in the back that I didn't use, but Johto was pretty clean too. Even with a single off-type, SS Lyra is so busted that she makes easy work of it, even with half time to sync as a condition. That said, SS Ethan and SS Silver were a little shaky as damage dealers, so I'm not entirely sold on this region being competent offensively. They still have much better support than offense.

[crystalelemental]

Alright, Hoenn's next.

Vs. Drake Ice-weak means you use Summer Steven, or you just off-type. I opted for Summer Steven. Before realizing...nothing sets Hail in this region. So I had to get to his sync. And opted for stall off of Winona. Which...was not a ton of fun, but it did work! We even took a sync! It's not a clean win, but I am satisfied with the fact that Steven's second sync cleared the board. Glacia covers his crit rate, so that's nice.

Vs. Glacia Stealing Zinfogel strats, SS May and Wally actually do perform well together. Fast-ramp is nice, the speed boost gives Wally full sync potential, it's pretty good. Unfortunately, the best option for offense was Liza. Because Hoenn support, you know. Liza is great though. We had to take sync, and her special defense boosts mattered. Wally survived because of them. So Liza is top tier now.

Vs. Phoebe SC Zinnia is so fucking stupid I love her. What is that damage, girl? 40k against a Sentry Entry x2 opponent? I love her, she's outrageous.

Vs. Sidney Anni Steven/Summer Liza strats. Drake is an okay tank for the two, capping Liza's defense in one action and giving a pop recover of all gauge. Steven's able to do his thing in between Liza's shenanigans. It's a solid combination.

Vs. Steven Archie is actually super strong for CS. Nothing has changed. Roxanne/May/Archie just obliterates stuff. No resistance.

Overall Impressions Hoenn is incredibly good for offense. SS Steven, Maxie, and Summer Tate didn't even get to see play, despite how ridiculous they are. That said, oh my god with the supports. They're improved, but I think I just wish there were more. Like a physical one? I think we should consider a physical offense boosting support that is not Phoebe. Or just give her a grid. Either or, please. She desperately needs it.

[crystalelemental]

Nothing special, standard clear because I'm kinda focused on other things. A few notes though:

Battle Tower Leon? Pretty good. I brought him along for the debuffing for Iris, and his Buddy move hit so hard that he destroyed sides, then Dragon Darts/Dragon Rush annihilated center before Iris could sync. This is in part because I went with Sonia's sync, so it is double damage, but for a 1/5 guy with no grid, that's pretty strong. I'm tempted to leave him here. 3/5 doesn't feel as needed, nor does EX. He's a solid enough debuffer with just this. Buuuut Gauntlet may get me to crack on that. I really want him to handle Uxie for me.

That Psychic clear? Yeah, I want to note that I forgot to uncheck Special Damage Reduction. We were fighting with 20% of our power. We pre-sync cleared. NC Bede is ridiculous.

[crystalelemental]

I decided to do another clear. This time, aiming for something more specific: secondary on-type damage only.

Vs. Phoebe For Dark, I went with Lysandre's Dark Pulse. I don't have Marnie at 3/5 to do full Power Trip sets, and Sentry Entry x2 makes that ill-advised anyway. Lucian is a strong pick, debuffing attack and special defense while keeping Lys' gauges high. And as always when Lucian is around, SC Jasmine is a great partner for capping off offensive needs and general tanking. Late-game, Jasmine's Safety Net means that if Lys misses a flinch, we're not immediately hosed by enemy AoE. That said, he couldn't finish the job before foe's sync. So we had to eat one. This is what got us to Lucian in the first place.

Vs. Sidney I was a bit surprised how many options there were for Fairy. In that there were any. Somehow I forgot about Anni Lillie, who I love. SS Hau is a fantastic partner to her, hitting the Alola requirements, but also providing speed boosts through Buddy Electroweb, stacks of moves up next for each field effect set, and the Fairy Zone for Moonblast. Frankly, on his own, he likely would've been enough. But I added Mina for funsies, since her Buddy move can let us finish with full HP on the team. Dunked, loser.

Vs. Drake Rock doesn't have much for secondary damage. I did Tate in the first run, so I figured now was a good time to test out Rose. Turns out, even 1/5, Rose is able to blast through CS on his secondary DPS type. So long as his GMax Move crits center. Rose's single-target damage is understandably less impressive, so the missed crit costs too much for him to recoup. At 1/5, he barely finishes the job. Colress is great for Screech and general tanking, while Oleana has a metric ton of benefits. Lead with Max Move to quad queue with Venom Drench, and her -1 cooldown offsets Rose's Max Move instead, breaking even in the first round. Rose can easily perform a denial. Added fun, the Toxic chip damage took out the left after the Max Move hit. So that's fun. The gauge issues weren't nearly as severe. Granted, we had the condition that speeds up gauge, but I like to think Oleana's Gauge Boost and Pep Rally 2 helped a lot.

Vs. Glacia One nice thing about using secondary DPS is that it doesn't feel like a complete beatdown when you use a pair like W!Jasmine. I love Jasmine, I love this alt, but I struggle to slot her in most teams just because I tend to off-type. Using just DPS on-type and having no sync damage matter does make her significantly more valuable. She's a great partner to Dojo Gloria, covering the crit rate beautifully, and adding defense buffs that will offset Close Combat penalty, making AoE stages like Glacia less threatening. Kukui was just here for Leer. I didn't have a great idea for anyone else I wanted to run.

Vs. Steven Similarly, SC Steven. Fun sync pair, very rarely used. Secondary DPS makes him a lot more engaging to run. SS Serena hasn't seen much use, so I decided to break her out with Lodge Dawn. Dawn offers both defenses and speed in one button, which is perfect complementary buffing for Serena. Team Sharp Entry also lets her start blasting early. Believe it or not, I actually didn't use Serena's sync. She's able to truck without the bonus stats. The denial required her to attack in time, and I didn't want to risk a quad queue. She would've won anyway, but sometimes it's about sending a message to the tune of 10k damage on each opponent because SC Steven is stacking damage. Speaking of, a fun fact about SC Steven is that he applies Restrain, which is what gives Serena that whole 50% bonus multiplier. He's quite exceptional for her Thousand Waves set, given rebuff, restrain, defense debuffs, and the usual boosts to physical damage.

Final Thoughts Secondary DPS is a fun way to play. It prioritizes the support EX sync, and I find a lot more value in the SEUN supports here than in the rapid clears. I know, others disagree, they want the quick finish, but that gets boring after a while, right? This just feels a bit more fun.

[crystalelemental]

Quicker CS clear, all on-type, but I did want to do some shenanigans. Specifically, carrying babies.

Vs Phoebe Dark is so strong I couldn't really decide on a low tier option to use. So I just brought Nanu because I so rarely use him for damage. SC Zinnia is busted enough to handle the majority of this fight herself, but he's helping.

Vs Sidney Oh, Valerie. Ever the disappointment. Superduper Effective 5 among all her other multipliers does mean her spread damage has legitimate potency under Zone. It's just that it's spread damage and not doing a ton and the foe reached sync and she died instantly. Good work, everyone, claps all around.

Vs Glacia I haven't used Aura Cynthia in a bit. Decided to bring her in for a quick throwdown with Bruno and Marshal, who are a combo I enjoy using with her. Bruno's self-setup is fine, he'll deal plenty of damage off Cross Chop, while Marshall exists for the Staggering and defense drops.

Vs Drake If you haven't seen Zinfogel's showcasing of Tate's Rock-type damage, this might seem strange to you. The kid can hit like a truck, even with Rock Tomb. +90% damage when the foe is trapped, confused, or flinching is serious, but adding Superduper Effective 5 to it as well? Now we're talking. Variety Agatha is a serviceable alternative to NC Calem. You really only need the effect on center, since Diantha will be obliterating sides with hysterical ease.

Vs Steven Initially, this was Hapu. I tried, man. I legitimately tried to get her to work, but I actually think it's impossible. Even NC Bede failed to make her relevant. Clay, however, gets a job done. Double Bulldoze does wind up tearing down sides pretty effectively, and Clay's final sync is respectable, if definitely worse than Courtney's. The thing that makes Clay really fun is Toxic Chance 2. When it lands off Bulldoze, you can get some nice chip damage in on the sides early in the fight, which means earlier compressed damage from Bulldoze. Once center is on its own, speed can actually matter, too.

[crystalelemental]

The final one I'm able to do: Kalos is here. Thank god for Emma, man.

Vs. Drake Drake is the only one we had to do off-type. Thankfully, we have Emma. Unfortunately, there are no other Kalos options to help apply Poison, and her rate is limited, AND needing Poison conflicts with the easy stall application of base Serena's sleep, so we had to go Lodge Serena's sad 30% flinch. Emma had a brutal time of this. Like, we got it eventually, but it's really, really dire. You have to get lucky on flinches, lucky on him not spamming Earthquake, lucky on Poison Fang activations. It's a whole mess.

Vs. Phoebe Now for the exact opposite. Double Frog is dumb. NC Serena is absurdly powerful, and apparently I opted to throw in SS Diantha as an added cudgel. I wonder if Diantha would've had an easier time than Emma...

Vs. Glacia Half time to sync! Neo Champions couldn't do it because Sentry Entry, so this is a job for SC Diantha, who remains absurd. SC Shauna was chosen because she wants for little, and maybe we can stat steal some special attack. SS Korrina is here to divert a few points from offenses, putting them in Five Stats +3 and then just stealing them away. Diantha hits hard enough that there aren't really issues to worry about.

Vs. Sidney Sycamore with EX is great. Now Lysandre's sync after his just obliterates the stage. Lysandre's trainer move, in tandem with Serena's sleep, is a great means of facilitating a fast-ramp on both first and second sync. This allows for incredibly safe play on this team, which is good because Standard Damage Reduction really fucked Sycamore up, man. Horn Leech is only good on-type now.

Vs. Steven SS Lysandre, explode this clown. I went with Evelyn just because I wanted to, but I regret it given the gauge issues. Same deal with Helena. There isn't a better option really, but I was thinking of special defense debuffs, before realizing how badly that was going to go for me. Thankfully, Lysandre's huge, that damage is obscene.

Overall Impressions Kalos has really good pairs at its disposal, after the Neo Champions and VA. I think their main problem is just...having very few pairs to work with. I think Kalos is still dead last in total number of pairs available. Kalos doesn't need for much, just attention. A few extra pairs in the pot and they'd be a serious contender. Related: Drasna and Malva when? Valerie alt when? You keep giving them the Master BP pairs and free pairs but we get so little for Kalos that's actually like...premium and good.

[crystalelemental]

Continuing from yesterday's regional attempts, we're on to Galar. Fun fact, I wanted to do Kanto, but having looked at Kanto...guys, I don't know if I'm able to do Kanto. I know the rats exist, but outside of those, Kanto might be the worst region right now. I cannot believe what I'm about to say, but...more Kanto stuff may be justifiable. So long as it's not Red. Ideally not Blue either. I know he's popular and should hit 6 alts, but he's one of the Big Two for genwunners and I want them to be unhappy.

Vs. Sidney Sidney is Flying weak, and at first I was like damn, there's no one with good Flying damage. Before remembering Leon. Who, until Summer Liza, was the best Flying-type DPS. So yeah, good game, Sidney. I looked at his tips, because I couldn't figure out why he felt so difficult, and it turns out it's because he has damage reduction if he's not trapped or something? Neat. Anyway, here's Anni Raihan. H!Allister probably seems like an unusual choice, but my reasoning was that Allister immediately caps crit, and can boost special attack each time he attacks, complementing Leon effectively. It worked out overall.

Vs. Glacia Neo Champion Hop is only 1/5 on my account. I know, but listen, I didn't have enough to 3/5 all of them, and Hop/Zapdos was the least favorite. That said, his DPS is still stupid good. Easily pulls off denials, okay-ish sync, but he did need to dodge a side Blizzard to avoid death.

Vs. Phoebe Neo Champion Marnie. I could've brought nothing and won. Instead, I brought Melony, who can sleep chain center and provide an EX buff that just lets Marnie explode the sides. Lodge Gloria is here to support Marnie. Not in battle, just like emotional support.

Vs. Drake I legitimately tried with Winter Nessa, but being only 2/5 and generally poor on sync meant she could not get it done. Instead, we off-type with 4/5 Gloria, who is able to set up early sync on the foe to just explode their souls from their bodies. This was a lot harder than it seemed, mostly because of Earthquake spam post-sync being really threatening to Gloria.

Vs. Steven UUUUGH. Okay, I know she's not EX, but Nessa kinda sucks, huh? I initially tried with Gordie, expecting speed drops to help, but it's really not doing much. So I went with SC Sonia. "But the gauges..." Yeah it was really bad. Thankfully, Twofer exists, and NC Bede is able to generate plenty of free actions, so it wasn't too awful? Really the main problem was getting Nessa to quad queue to finish off Steven, since she would guaranteed die to any sync, which is staggering because isn't Dreadnaw supposed to be decently bulky on the physical end? But I guess not, since it died. Every time.

Overall Impressions Galar isn't too bad, but is very hard carried by its Master Fairs and Sonia. Without these traits, it would be a very rough time. Yes, even in the P!Marnie/Gloria one, where Hop wouldn't generate enough defense to really keep them alive. Galar has exceptionally strong pairs, and then pairs that feel like ass.

The bigger issue with Galar, as far as I can see it, is lack of cohesion. A lot of regions feel like their tools go together well, and are achieving some sort of synergy? Galar doesn't. Like, offensively, a lot of them are powerhouses with poor gauge management. By support, they all do crit, but either Atk/crit, or just crit with some bulk and a gimmick of varying utility. Very little directly supports other tools. NC Marnie doesn't really have anyone but NC Hop to debuff special defense in the region. Leon really doesn't have a good sp atk/crit buffing ally to assist his self-setup. Dojo Gloria is like the only glue holding Nessa together.

I think the major problem here really is that so much of the region is limited. There just aren't a ton of options to work with in Galar, and a lot of it feels disconnected. Even their Lodge units don't really offer a ton of variety. I dunno, man. Galar just feels weird. It's not as painful as Alola was, but it's awkward.