#i can survive without anni lillie

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Halloween Roxanne

Masters has been kinda tame this year.  Granted, I am absolutely spoiled by the early months playing this, going from Anni Lillie, H!Caitlin, SC Jamine, SS Lusamine, and Renegade Cynthia, in rapid succession. I think I have it in my head things should go that well all the time, but they don't. And this year has been...extremely bad about hitting the targets I wanted. I mean for god's sake, how was there no Lusamine alt in the Alola VA? I'm been kinda pissy. The biggest wins have been Emma and Anabel to round out Looker fam, Adaman and Irida because I love Hisui, and the Summer Twins, which was really exciting because it was unexpected rather than it being a big favorite. There just hasn't been much at since, like, before the third anniversary.

But this?  This is what I've been waiting for.  Roxanne's my third favorite character, and the last of my Big Three that needed an alt.  And they went with the witch aesthetic, which is the best aesthetic for Halloween.  Even went Runerigus, which is an odd choice that I wouldn't normally love, but is perfectly in line with her conceptually.  This was the big win.  We're so back.

General Overview Looking at Roxanne's base kit before grid showed up gave me heart palpitations.  Sand Tomb is a fairly poor move, offering trap, but having pathetic accuracy.  We couldn't see the amount she boosted stats at the time, but X Atk All separate from trainer move meant slow self-setup.  Her Buddy move is AoE with penalty, and isn't particularly strong on its own either, so her Tech nuke had to pull a lot of weight.  But more concerning, her Buddy move debuffed speed (and defense).  Which put me on high alert, worrying about Cakewalk.  Roxanne felt like she was being set up to be really bad, unable to stand up to the Ground meta despite how limited the competition was.

And friends, I am thrilled to announce: Roxanne don't miss.  Trainer Move gets +3 crit in one, and +2 accuracy to the entire team.  Her trap spreads to all foes on first hit.  Her Buddy move doesn't just debuff Def/Spd, it boosts team Def/Spd, which is an absolute godsend for Ground-type High Score given the slow pace of the type.  While her buddy move lacks for damage, its debuffing potential and its literal zero gauge cost with team speed boosting completely make up for it.  She even has the option for debuffing attack, which is huge for team survival. And of course, her Tech nuke got Sync Power Flux, which is super reliable given her speed boosting, and Slo-ponnent 5, which is divine, since it can be set up in one use of Buddy move. And for no reason other than pure shenanigans, Roxanne inverts all buffs into debuffs on the entire enemy field when she syncs. And as if that all wasn't enough, as if having the most powerful Ground nuke in the game and all this debuffing and team buffing wasn't sufficient...Strike role.

Obviously, Roxanne is not without her flaws.  With buffing or debuffing, she's slow to get to max multipliers for allies. Her inversion of buffs only happens on sync, which takes a while for CS, limiting the potential of Five Stats +3.  She lacks for any serious healing potential, so despite Vigilance on grid and defense buffs, she's not exactly a soloist for Gauntlet.  Activating Slo-ponnent is also incredibly hard in CS if you're aiming for the buff inversion, and a single use of X Spd All from an enemy means there goes that multiplier.  And Ground has some serious powerhouses.  Cynthia's 5/5 grid is nutty, the Giovannis are quite adept at 3v3s, and Maxie's still particularly strong.  So while competition is limited, it is pretty significant, hurting Roxanne's ability to seriously stand out without the Role cake.

EX, Role, and Move Level? You should max invest immediately.  5/5, EX, with role.  Show them Roxanne is actually super popular so they make another.  Do this for me.

But if you want to be serious, Roxanne has a couple approaches.  As a supplemental pair, 1/5 gets the job done.  Trap effect, boosting team damage and speed, debuffing team Defense, she carries a lot on her back, and does so reasonably well.  3/5 is for sync damage, which is good for when she operates more independently.  And this is when role becomes a serious consideration.  EX obviously good for sync, but the Role.  Tech/Strike is incredibly strong, and very worth considering given how her DPS operates.  Effectively, how you plan to use Roxanne changes what you'll want.  For supportive effects as a Tech, 1/5 non-EX non-role is fine, she'll support her type well.  For a sync nuker with supplemental DPS pair, you'll want to maximize sync, but can avoid the role.  Strike role is for Roxanne becoming the center of attention.

Team 1: H!Roxanne, H!Caitlin, Colress/Courtney ROXANNE CAPS CRIT YOU SAY?  You have no idea how happy I am that she and Caitlin are both Halloween alts that synergize.  Get me a good Jasmine pair next year and we're golden.  For now though, Colress can assist the debuffing effort as needed, though frankly, Courtney may be better for the Zone.

Team 2: H!Roxanne, SC Lyra, Cynthia/Maxie/SS Giovanni Roxanne's single biggest claim to fame within her type is the gauge management.  Zero gauge use on buddy move, and boosts team speed each use.  It's amazing.  This is the component that salvages SC Lyra.  Now you can have the gauge to make her effective with these slow ground types.  Cynthia enjoys the boosts to attack that either Roxanne or Lyra can provide, and her 5/5 will be fine on Sandstorm.  Maxie is tremendous, hitting high AoE DPS on the sides while Roxanne nukes center, just mind the Sun duration.  SS Giovanni is especially noteworthy, because the man sucks and needs a billion gauges, and now he finally has a friend.  Or at least, he thinks they're friends.  We're not friends, Giovanni. Get out of the lodge.

Team 3: H!Roxanne, Piers, Steven Since he's rerunning, may as well discuss this.  Roxanne's ability to boost attack is very nice as a complement to supports that mostly handle crit and little else.  She's also able to boost speed, which is a godsend for slower supports, like Piers.  Taken together, while it puts quite a bit on her, she's able to facilitate boosting up a damage dealer like base Steven, who further supports with a high flinch rate attack that stalls turns for this setup. And because they're Rock Pals, it's thematic.

Team 4: H!Roxanne, Bertha, Cynthia Bertha has potential as a sync nuke, but her trap effect is hard to get on something.  Enter Roxanne, who insta-traps everyone, and provides +2 accuracy for the entire team, allowing Bertha to consistently hit.  Or you can use both, skip a proper support, let Bertha tank, and build up a striker like Cynthia.  You have everything you need here.

Team 5: H!Roxanne, Arianna, S!Hilda Arianna is a known Tech nuking monster, whose conditions are relatively challenging to set up alone.  She needs trap, which she only hits half the time single-target, and she needs Relentless, which she's a little slow to get to.  Roxanne supplements everything she needs perfectly.  Last +2 attack to cap, debuffs defenses, applies trap in one shot to all foes.  With Summer Hilda, you can make the team bulky, invert buffs in CS to really mess with things, and even offload some of Roxanne's tasks by letting hits boost attack and debuff defense.

Team 6: H!Roxanne, Gordie, Sonia Gordie is another big winner of Roxanne, thanks to her ability to facilitate both Cakewalk and Inertia sync nukes.  Because he has both, Roxanne is particularly useful for him.  But his self-setup is a little shaky, so bring a good support like Sonia and you'll be fine.

Team 7: H!Roxanne, SS Acerola, Mallow Alright, here's a fun one: Roxanne can debuff attack with grid, and even supplies Def debuffing and Spd buffing. Which is really good for a partner like Mallow, who effectively wants all of that. SS Acerola can supply the needed Terrain and Sun, and the needed offensive buffs. Mallow can get straight to DPS, while Roxanne does her job with debuffs.

Team 8: Argenta, H!Roxanne, SS N This is one I feel real confident in, because I effectively used it with the Argenta breakdown. H!Roxanne, if she takes the attack debuffs, functions like BT Leon, only instead of one extra -1 on a random stat, she gives the team boosts to speed and defense. Beside her, we have SS N, whose Freeze Shock is absurdly strong, and goes absolutely apeshit on that +2 PMUN bullshit Argenta feeds him. N is easily able to one-shot sides, and Roxanne should be more than capable of nuking center as needed. Because of the attack debuffs, she even sets up N's sync, for whatever good that does anyone. Maybe your opponent otherwise has damage reduction or something, I don't know.

Final Thoughts Roxanne is one of those sync pairs where I can absolutely see the flaws, but I don't care. Realistically, this Buddy move is just a gauge-friendly version of BT Leon, and I barely use him. I shouldn't be so excited about her kit. But it's Roxanne, and I love her. I will be using her constantly from now on.

[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.

[babyjunkyhamlet]

MY OTPs and how they ended up their respective series!

So, this recent event in VM revival made me remember all of my OTP-s from these two decades of ‘shipping’ and to reevaluate how they have met their demise OR how they accomplished their happy ever after. If anyone wants, I can make an individual recaps of their love stories.

Read at your on discretion, full of spoilers:

Logan and Veronica - (LoVe - Veronica Mars) - He died a pointless death mere hours after their wedding, after 15 years of will they, won't they Chuck and Blair - (Chair - Gossip Girl) - Married with a kid Damon and Elena - (Delena - Vampire Diaries) - Married, but separated in the afterlife, after being separated for several years Pasha and Dasha - (PaDasha - Hotel Eleon) - She is married to someone else, he got dumped by Sofia Janovna and returned to Serbia Sinan and Bahar - (SinBah - Benim Icin Uzulme) - He is wrongfully imprisoned, she left the country Yagiz and Hazan - (YagHaz - FHVK) - Finally married and living in America Sam   and Annie - (Sannie - Life on Mars?) - He came back for her, they married, and then he 'died' Tenth and Rose - (TenRose - Doctor Who) - He regenerated, she stayed in the alternate dimension with TenToo Tenth and Simm!Master - (TenSimm - Doctor Who) - He regenerated eventually into a woman - Thirteen (ugh!), he regenerated into a woman - Missy Jesse and Jane - (Jasee - Breaking Bad) - He woke up next to her dead body Matthew and Mary - (Mattry - Downtown Abbey) - He died in a car accident on his way to see his newborn son Jaime and Cersei - (Lannicest - Game of Thrones) - Died together with their unborn baby, also, they are twins Chandler and Monica - (Mondler - F.R.I.E.N.D.S.) - Married with kids Barney and Robin - (Brobin - HIMYM) - Divorced, she got back with Ted (maybe) Chase and Cameron - (Chameron - House M.D.) - Divorced Wilson and Amber - (Wilber - House M.D.) - She died because of House

So, with that said, sadness is not a stranger to this shipper. Most of these are tragic. However, Logan Echolls was not killed because of his actions or his mishaps, he was killed to propel Veronica into sadness and rage, not unlike when we first met her. He was fridged so that Veronica could be ‘free of LoVe and Neptune’. 

The boy who endured most terrible things at the age of 17-18: - abuse and neglect from his parents, 

- his girlfriend Lilly cheated on him constantly, even with his dad, Weevil and probably others, 

- Lilly gets killed in the most brutal way, 

- Veronica chooses her dad instead of her friends over that matter, which has turned him into an unbearable asshole towards her, 

- His mother commits suicide, and he is in denial for a long time,

- He realizes he has feelings for Veronica, his nemesis, and that she is not immune to him, either,

- He finds out that his own father has killed Lilly, and 

- tried to kill Veronica, who was at the time also a girlfriend of Logan, 

- Veronica has accused him of murdering Lilly, 

- then he got accused, again of a murder, 

- buys the videotapes of his father and Lilly to destroy them and severely damages the case against his father, who is found not guilty and walks free

- then his ex-girlfriend was almost killed by her rapist and a mass murderer, who happens to be his best and only friend’s brother

- on the same night his father is assassinated.

- After brief period of happiness with Veronica, her mistrust and phobias break them and she leaves Neptune shortly afterwards 

- he spirals out of control without Veronica, overdoses and reaches out to rehab 

and 

- SURVIVES everything aforementioned and becomes the actual Hero - fighter pilot, with discipline and structure in his life 

- only to be accused, again, for murder of another girlfriend of his, 

- proved his innocence, with Veronica’s help,

- became intelligence officer, finally gone to therapy and learnt how to control his impulses and to let go of negative emotions

- after some time finally reunited with the love of his life and became a stabilizing influence in her life,

- formed a family he so desperately craved his whole life, with Veronica, Pony and Keith,

- got married to his soulmate, Veronica, after +15 years,

- AND THEN IMMEDIATELY GOT BLOWN UP BY A STRAY BOMB, because, apparently, Veronica sucks at this Nancy Drew stuff now!!!

I can not accept that, show ended with their wedding, and, as a parting thought, I will never love (a tv show or a character) again.

TL>DR: Logan Echolls deserved better. 

[jenmedsbookreviews]

It is official. I am broken. Well … when I say official, I mean that I feel it. Let’s face it – none of us are getting any younger, me included, and it’s fair to say I’ve been working some pretty wacky hours of late. Well … they are finally catching up with me and if the bags under my eyes get much bigger, I’m not going to have to worry about taking my bags for life to Tesco for the weekly shop anymore …

This week was less hectic than previous weeks, but I’m not entirely convinced that’s a good thing. You know how it is. When you’ve been running around like a loon for ages, the minute you finally take a step back and relax, the worse you feel for it. That’s me this week. Only one trip out, although it was a long one. 0300 start to drive the 170+ miles to Southampton for an 0545 start. Then a day out on the van with one of my team who was using our new POD system for the first time. Thankfully the weather was good as I spent the day travelling around various customer in Southampton and seeing places I had read of in books. In fact at one point it felt as though I was on a Helen Grace mystery tour… Lots of views of the Solent and I saw some really big butts in the docks and some slightly smaller butts on a shelf … (that’s boats to people who have never watched Finding Nemo …). Actually, I suppose to the navy they’d be ships – boats go under water …

Actually, the worst part about the day wasn’t the early start or the 12 boxes (8 bottles bottles of water cooler water included) that we had to take to the second floor of an oldish building with no lift and a rather small staircase. Nope. That’s all bread and butter stuff and nothing I can really complain about as my drivers have to do it every day. The worst part … that was the nearly 5 hour drive home. Bloody Friday traffic and being that horrid hybrid weekend at the end/start of a half term week. Yak. No easy way back whichever way I played it. Got about 60% through my next audio book though so it’s not all bad, but I am fluffing knackered now.

The weekend was much better. Headed down to London late morning (I know – I’m nuts) for the TBC 3rd Birthday party. I have no pictures as I am not a selfie gal and I have already done something foolish this weekend which will haunt me (and you) for years :p, but there will be some knocking about of me on social media to prove I did it, and I do have witnesses by way in Susan Hampson, Linda Hill, Fiona Wilson and Rachel Gilbey amongst others 🙂 A big thanks to Tracy and the gang for organising it as it was a fab night and I got to meet some great folk and catch up with a few authors I’ve met before or have been chatting with on Social Media.  I even rounded off the weekend with a trip to what is quite possibly my favourite restaurant now – Ole and Steen – for some Halloween cakes before heading home Sunday morning.

I know. Just … don’t say anything about the picture on the right. It is white chocolate, filled with a kind of chocolate cream.marshmallow and a marzipan base. It is very tasty and it is a ghost!!! Not all mine. I shared with family as a thank you for poochie sitting.

Anyhoo – back to the books. Well – Saturday night came with a whole host of them as each attendee had a tote bag full of goodies and I was also given a couple of new books by the lovely Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books. What did I get? Well, a side from back ache carrying them all home 😉 – from the party: The Watcher by Ross Armstrong; The Mine by Antti Tuomainen (love that book); Will You Remember Me by Amanda Prowse;  Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward and The House by Simon Lelic. From the lovely Karen I received Maria in the Moon by the equally lovely Louise Beech and Deep Blue Trouble by the also very lovely Steph Broadribb. I will admit to getting a bit Gollum over them and perhaps stroking my new books a little too much … Moving on.

Book post wise, just the one this week but it is a cracker and I am very, very excited to read it. Again from the lovely Karen Sullivan and Orenda Books I received the CWA Short Story Anthology – Mystery Tour featuring some very fabulous authors. Bouncy happy tigger moment for me then. The only thing to cheer me after a very long Friday of travel. You find the last reserve of energy for the good books. Isn’t it stunning?

Book purchase wise I have been very reserved. I only ordered/pre-ordered the following books: The Cover Up by Marnie Riches; Truth or Dare by Richard Parker; Come Out To Play by Dylan Young; The Summer of Impossible Things by Rowan Coleman; Before You Go by Clare Swatman; The Prodigal by Nicky Black and The Good Samaritan by John Marrs. No new Netgalley titles. I know!!! And no new audio books either.

Reading wise … well I really need to buck my ideas up as I’ve been pants again this week. Only three completed plus about 2/3 of an audio book and just about started another book. I am now a book and a half behind plan but determined to catch up. If I am missing from the world of blogging and sharing, you know why.

Books I have read

The Good Samaritan by John Marrs

She’s a friendly voice on the phone. But can you trust her?

The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.

Laura hasn’t had it easy: she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn’t love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it.

But now someone’s on to her—Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together?

The sinister truth is within Ryan’s grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to…

Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder.

Oh, oh, oh. Now I loved Mr Marrs last book The One (met him over the weekend too – lovely chap), but I have to say I think this one is even better. It’s quite a taboo topic and the main character is very, very dark. The creeping, twisting and unravelling story had me completely hooked, even if some of the characters made some mad decisions. Gah. I can’t talk about the book without spoiling things, but I am going to have to try as my review is due on Saturday – eeek. Out on December 1st, you can pre-order your own copy, as I have done, right here.

…

Killing State by Judith O’Reilly

The bullet in his brain isn’t the problem. She is. Michael North is a hero, with a bullet in the brain to prove it. A bullet which has rewired his neural pathways and heightened his sense of intuition. A bullet which is driving him mad.

Working for an extra-governmental agency called The Board, North knows one thing for sure. He is very good at killing very bad guys. But what happens when a hero is ordered to kill a good woman rather than a bad man?

Because it turns out that rising political star, Honor Jones, MP, can’t stop asking the right questions about the wrong people. 

He should follow orders.

Shouldn’t he?

Wowsers. What a book. I don’t know quite what I was expecting when I started to read this but it wasn’t this. Part action thriller, part psychological thriller and part conspiracy theory, this is a most unusual but very entertaining and gripping read. You shouldn’t love a guy who is essentially a gun for hire but there is something about Michael North which engages you and has you rooting for a man you should want to see taken down. I’ll be reviewing this for the blog tour at the weekend but you can order a copy here.

…

White Out by Ragnar Jónasson

Two days before Christmas, a young woman is found dead beneath the cliffs of the deserted village of Kálfshamarvík. Did she jump, or did something more sinister take place beneath the lighthouse and the abandoned old house on the remote rocky outcrop?

With winter closing in and the snow falling relentlessly, Ari Thór Arason discovers that the victim’s mother and young sister also lost their lives in this same spot, twenty-five years earlier. As the dark history and its secrets of the village are unveiled, and the death toll begins to rise, the Siglufjordur detectives must race against the clock to find the killer, before another tragedy takes place.

Dark, chilling and complex, Whiteout is a haunting, atmospheric and stunningly plotted thriller from one of Iceland’s bestselling crime writers.

Man… I wanted to savour this, the last in the Ari Thor series, but I just couldn’t. I had to read and read and read until I was finished. What a haunting story; what a wonderfully atmospheric setting, what a brilliant way to say goodbye to Ari. Oh … but now I have to review it and there are only so many times you can use the word brilliant and perfect and magnificent and … well you get the picture. You’ll see if I managed to find any unique and seldom used adjectives next Monday. In the meantime go order yourselves a copy here.

…

And that was it. As I say I am most of the way through another audio book which I hope to complete and review this week, and I’m part way through another book I started last night, but I have a way to go to catch up with myself right now. Still if I go into radio (or social media) silence, you’ll know it’s in a good cause. And I have a pretty full week on the blog this week just as I did last, which you can see the highlights of below:

Review: Christmas at the Falling Down Guest House by Lilly Bartlett

#BookLove: Karen Cole

#BlogTour: Dead Lands by Lloyd Otis

#BlogTour: Absolution by P.A. Davies

#BlogBlitz: A Cosy Candlelit Christmas by Tilly Tennant

#BlogBlitz: The Lost Child by Patricia Gibney

Review: Now We Are Dead by Stuart MacBride

Review: The Binding Song by Elodie Harper

Broken Bones by Angela Marsons – Prologue Preview

The week ahead is a mixture of blog tours, and a little book love, this time from Annie at The Misstery Book Blog. Blog Tour wise I’m dropping in reviews of Murder Game by Caroline Mitchell, The Good Samaritan by John Marrs, and Killing State by Judith O’Reilly. I also have a special review planned in for later in the week, but trust me – soon said, soonest mended on that front. You may won’t want to miss it…

So that is it folks. I am off to read. Or sleep. Or some weird hybrid combination of both. If you share my posts this week – thanks in advance. If you see me about on Social Media – tell me to sod off and get some reading (or work) done.

Have a fabulously bookish week all

Jen

Rewind, recap: Weekly update w/e 29/10/17 It is official. I am broken. Well ... when I say official, I mean that I feel it.

[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]

Sync Pair Retrospective - Thunderbolt Red

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH

I would love to know what they were thinking.  Look, gacha is not unaccustomed to powercreep.  An unfortunate reality is that people don’t actually like being challenged.  Not really.  They like feeling resistance, but not legitimate challenge.  So any time power scales up on the opponent, there is a reflexive jerk toward needing more power behind your tools.  In competitive modes, your tools are the same as your opponents, so it’s an endless cycle of garbage spewing into its own mouth.  Masters avoids this a bit, so powercreep, while significant, has been a lot tamer.  But there are still situations where you hit maximum.  Anni Lillie’s trainer move is still a maximum.  You can’t get better than perfect offensive buffs in one turn.  Aura Cynthia was the maximum in defensive profile; +6 defenses turn 1 and Double Potion MPR effectively cannot be beaten.  Ash was a maximum, or at least I hope, given the absurd level of overkill on that Buddy move that no one needs.  But SST Red is also an absolute maximum.  Specifically, the maximum number of tools you can shove into a single sync pair.

Terrain with extension.  Max Moves.  No penalty AoE 2-gauge spam that debuffs defenses and ignores passives that deny damage.  He always crits every attack.  He has passive recovery under terrain.  He is a tech, so he skirts the usual issue of no-penalty AoE Strikers where his EX still matters.  His grid offers Piercing Gaze to never miss, and Staggering 4 on Thundershock for his Gauntlet performance.  He gets 230% sync damage.  He’s a fast ramp almost by himself with Max Moves.  He can solo literally every stage.  This is not an exaggeration; he is the only pair that can solo every single Legendary Arena stage.  I don’t consider solos a typically relevant point when it comes to viability, but all of them?  He can solo on-type CS.  I would not be surprised if he could solo off-type CS.  He and Ash are the only two who successfully beat 1000 strength in High Score.  Meta changes and new modes exist for him to laugh at.  Even at 1/5, using him off-type can be significant damage and tremendous benefits, while on-type he outperforms basically every pair you could bring with how high the damage is after one turn of setup.  He is, by design, literally unstoppable.

And it is so fucking boriiiiiing.  UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH

What do you offer to the man who has everything?  What is the purpose of teambuilding at this point?  What is there to even talk about?  He’s still de facto the best sync pair in the game.  3/5 EX SST Red may as well just win the match by default at this point.  Even off-region matches with the 5x modifier don’t really slow him down.

Masters is a game designed around triple battles.  It is a game designed around the structure of a damage dealer, a support, and either a technical ability to further pump damage, or a secondary damage source.  Through consideration of strengths and weaknesses, you are meant to design a team composition that allows you to secure victory by supporting the damage of a striker, and ensuring the survival of a support.  The game is at its best when concocting teams with relevant synergy.

So what is the point of playing the game when you have a maxed out SST Red?  Why bother?  Is it any wonder that in the months following anniversary, a bunch of players kept calling for “harder content” because the game was “too easy?”  Of course it was!  You paid for the win button, bro!  It’s easy because you paid for it to be easy, and now you’re complaining it’s too easy because there’s no longer resistance!  This is the breaking of balance!  You don’t want challenge, but without resistance you start to feel like there’s no point.  Red makes it feel like there’s no point.  He’s been doing it for a year!

I have nothing to say to or about Red.  There’s nothing to be said.  If you pulled him, hopefully you kept him 1/5 for utility.  Failing that, hopefully you’re at least the type that enjoys being wildly overpowered.  Because nothing in this game’s history has been as annoying as seeing everyone cap this guy out and immediately get annoyed that things weren’t “challenging.”  What the hell did you expect to happen, man?  You did that shit to yourself.

[crystalelemental]

Alright, now I felt like doing something fun. Off-type on Sinnoh, let's go.

Vs. Flint Because I love her, I decided to start with Emma, who didn't see play in the regular clear. Because I hate myself, I opted for the Looker Fam set, instead of the far more reliably V!Agatha/H!Iris combo that lets her explode everything. Foolish, really. It's extra awful because Emboar has Hammer Arm, and is not afraid to use it to insta-kill Anabel. Looker's needed for the Poison situation, which is okay, but given the permanent field effects, if Flint throws up Condition Shield, it gets ugly in the endgame where Emma can't use Buddy move anymore and doesn't quite take them all out with sync. It's very bad. So you have to kinda set up with Looker's Poison Jab in advance. Anabel also has to get a flinch in, or you can't get to second sync in time. It's all around a fairly messy win for a team I thought would do it just fine. But also it's 100% my own fault because I didn't think to exchange the +50% offenses for "no weather/terrain/zone" despite not having one anyway. OOPSIE DOODLES

Vs. Aaron Fire-weak Aaron is kind of a pain, due to the whole Endurance thing. But! AoE moves can handle that relatively okay, when backed by a strong enough sync to take out center, thanks to sync bypassing Endurance, a trait that is only good when I do it. I opted for Irida and Lorelei, because dammit Lorelei deserves a win. Irida herself does great. She's 3/5 now, which means Mind Games and Arctic Entry. I opted for SC Lillie to fully power up Lorelei, and for a bit more disruptive flinch action. She paralyzed Aaron immediately, and ruined Lorelei's chances at a flinch. *sigh* We also had to contend with First Aid on Aaron, which kicked Heracross back up over half HP. Irida's sync, without Brainpower, still managed to KO off-type. I'm kinda impressed.

Vs. Lucian The most frustrating thing I did by a mile. This was really stupid. Anni May is good, but the stage is physical, which is a problem. Lucian also has Satisfied Snarl, which is devastating with Earthquake. But the worst is the flinch. They got so lucky, so repeatedly with flinch, it's actually infuriating. The first run I almost won, Caitlin just missed the crit on Metagross, and it survived and immediately flinched Caitlin and May both. So then we had like five rounds where they just kept flinching Brendan immediately with Zen Headbutt, and a few runs of Caitlin just missing sync on Lucian for good measure. These assholes hit more 20%s than I can hit 80s. We eventually won, but I'm not proud of it.

Vs. Bertha I decided to use Champion Iris, since I'm in the mood for her and realized, this team can take off Interference Immunity and take Strike Damage x3. Anyway, thanks to flinch Iris can stall for another sync and hit Bertha for like 50k in one shot, then just eviscerate sides when they're not on para-lockdown from Elesa. I cannot wait for C!Iris' grid expansion. Aggravation is gonna be so disgusting.

Vs. Cynthia Finally, I opted for the off-type Adaman. This uh. This was funny, and very telling. Acerola dropped on turn 1. I checked, found that Cynthia didn't know any Flying moves, and assumed safety. Fire Blast cooked Bulu in one shot. So then Adaman had to survive, took a crit Fire Punch under Sun to the face and didn't flinch, and proceeded to tear apart sides with B Razor Leaf (Cynthia used X Speed All, sealing her fate), and dealing like 38k on first sync to Cynthia right away. I want to say SC Sonia contributed, but she really didn't do anything but burn sync cooldown at that point. It could've been anyone. Adaman had it on lock. Which...I think that's why I prefer Irida so much. Adaman's strong, but he's that kind of stupid powerful where he drastically eclipses what partners could do, so his supportive tools like the rebuff and Sun don't really amount to much. Like, if I tried to run a Lorelei-tier shit Grass striker with him, the stage would be over before they finished setting up. Lorelei got to contribute with Irida. That's way more fun to me.

[crystalelemental]

Apparently, a new goal has arisen this week, where I want to clear CS with every character I have 5+ alts of. Which is not as many as you think. I have three others after this. The goal was really just "let's see who has the easiest time of it," but this is also a bit of an excuse to test other pairs. So I guess next up is Lillie.

Vs. Hala Lodge Lillie was recently given her EX, in hopes that she'd actually shine a bit better now, and be able to explode center. I brought along Palentine's Dawn to help, since she can debuff Attack for the multiplier, and Special Defense for better damage. Jasmine came alone because I had expected that lowering attack and having Protect up as a condition would save her. If Hala uses Close Combat, it's over. Anyway. Lillie herself did great. 33k on first sync, 77k on second. Much, much better.

Vs. Acerola I decided next to test out SS Hau's initially stated purpose of supporting my other Electric types. Spoilers, he does a damn fine job of it. Electroweb isn't the best DPS without Fairy Zone active, but that isn't the biggest deal with an EX Striker like Elesa, who is able to hit for like 18k now with minimal issue. Lillie's base form was chosen just because she can help set up Elesa's offensive needs quickly, and Elesa is capable of capping her own crit just fine now.

Vs. Kahili You know what this is. This time, though, I opted to have Lillie focus on blasting center instead of a second denial. It turns out this is actually safer, because she can take out center pre-sync on DPS alone. Which is pretty great.

Vs. Olivia Yeah so it turns out Olivia buffs her defense by one stage every time she's hit, and Masked Royal was an objectively bad idea. Thankfully, Steven can filnch. Also I forgot that NY!Lillie was weak to Rock. Fortunately, evasion. Also fun fact, I initially tried SC Lillie here to support Thorton, thinking this would be a fun test. Friends, his second sync nuke hit for 6k. SECOND sync nuke, on-type, 6k. Thorton is awful at this.

Vs. Kukui So initially, I decided hey, I'm gonna try with Flint. It's stupid, yes, but I want to see what his damage looks like. It's not great. So then I went to Ethan, thinking this should be manageable. It was not manageable. So then I cracked and went straight to Anni N, who has Piercing Gaze and a buttload of DPS. That finally did it. I feel like this fight was really weird. Does Kukui just have really high special defense? I feel like he must just have really high special defense, but Anni Lillie handled him, so like...it can't be that bad, right? Anyway, SC Lillie kept missing Kukui because +1 evasion so that was super great.

Final Thoughts Being such a support-heavy character, Lillie's pretty easy to just emphasize on-type with. She has a very fast offense buffing option that works with anyone who supplies their own crit, a fast-acting crit buffer with some evasion play, and one of the very valuable special attack/crit buffers. Anni Lillie is also fine off-type with Caitlin and Cynthia backing her up. And Lodge Lillie is pretty good as a damage dealer, when EX. The main issue is that all of her supports feel kinda...lacking? Like, base Lillie is dying for an expansion that gives her something to survive off of, and NY!Lillie just has so little going for her outside of that crit rate. She's fun in Gauntlet, but not CS. Even SC Lillie, who is generally considered really good, is riddled with problems in my book. She has the same physical frailty issue as Jasmine, but a harder time with special defense given the layout of her skills. Her sync also doesn't actually do anything, while Jasmine's gives everyone goddamned Endurance, so as an EX support, Jasmine's way stronger to me. The flinch is an argument to be made, but considering her initial buffing, her Potion healing needs, and the fact that it can miss means relying on it to save yourself from eating a sync isn't consistent. I dunno, there's just...a lot that feels more limited for Lillie.

[crystalelemental]

Anniversary N - One Year Later

The second anniversary unit, Anniversary N, was the only one of the three considered good on release.  He actually had damage on his side, with some pretty novel abilities.  But even he was fairly disparaged due to Fire-types being so common as to be universal.  The meta has adapted, and duplication is no longer a huge concern, so how well does Anni N hold up?

Really well.  Unsurprisingly.

At the most basic, what makes Anni N good is a combination of AoE without penalty, Mind Games 9 to always debuff special defense, and Noble Roar to minimize foe’s offenses.  These are fantastic traits that come naturally with Anni N.  3/5 allows him to sync nuke like crazy, but requires attack and special attack of the foe to be reduced.  And herein lies the issues with Anni N.

Setup is a problem.  6 turns for Noble Roar to bottom out foe’s offenses, four turns to cap his own offenses, still haven’t dealt damage.  This is way, way too long.  As a result, teambuilding restrictions exist for him, either needing support to buff, or support to debuff.  If buffing, accuracy problems exist.  If debuffing, you have very limited options available.  The good news is Ghetsis with Double Drop is really good for single-target debuffing.  The bad news is they’re really gauge hungry, and Ghetsis does effectively nothing after those opening three turns.  Champion Iris is another option to debuff an offense, but it’s lopsided and slower, so not ideal.  There’s Classic Elesa, who’s not a bad pick, but needs to be able to paralyze to work.  And there’s Janine, who needs the foe to be Poisoned, or it doesn’t work.  The only other one is Anni Skyla, who...no.  Just...don’t do it.  And for all of these, the main problem was that taking a debuffer meant not having a Sun setter for Fire-type damage.  Having to make that pick is really tough, and just like Iris, the answer tends to be “take the double multiplier.”  Given these limitations, you can probably see why Anni N isn’t  a universal worldbeater.

But we’ve yet to talk about the biggest saving grace of Anni N: Piercing Blows.  This skill is bananas.  Bypasses all damage reduction effects.  This means, just like Anni Lillie, he does not care at all about the gimmicks of Gauntlet.  And as a tech nuker whose sync gets the same benefit, he will hurt you so much worse than Lillie can.  While slow, Anni N has much, much better utility in Gauntlet, to the point he’s arguably the single best unit for the mode.  He needs for almost nothing.  Oh no, he debuffed kinda slow, how terrible.  Still deals a billion damage and takes almost nothing thanks to his debuffs being on offense.  And once he gets attacking, the numbers steamroll thanks to Mind Games.

Anni N, despite leading the pack, was the biggest winner in the Gauntlet meta transition.  But oddly, I feel like CS has always been a bit of a problem for him.  The lack of penalty for AoE damage is obviously great, but this is where the slow setup hurts him.  It’s a lot harder to take the turns for debuffing or even four-turn self-buffing, and so his teambuilding options are really restrictive.  And even then, my 1/5 Anni N has just never kept pace for CS stages.  The worst offender being Fire-weak Koga in Johto.  The ability to buff both defenses and evasion on every hit he takes quickly gets out of N’s control.

While there wasn’t a similar scale of progression like with Anni Lillie, Anni N has gained some nice new tools in the last year.  First among them being Classic Elesa.  Having an alternate Unovan that can debuff offensive stats, while also debuffing everything else, was really nice.  Paralysis is a fairly easy requirement, but in several Gauntlet matches, you want them separate because of how many gimmicks paralysis checks.  So it wasn’t a clean win.

The other is SS Morty.  Having a supporter that can set sun, buff defenses for survival, and buff crit rate to alleviate some of N’s own setup, is really nice.  In tandem with Ghetsis or C!Elesa, there’s finally a team that provides Anni N both the sun and debuffs he needs to just start blasting.  I mean, after he’s got his trainer move used twice so he can hit things and deal damage.

That’s really the big rub.  Anni N is still great, but nothing’s really revolutionized him in the year since launch.  Maybe because he was already so strong and needed for so little, but DeNA hasn’t really made the concerned effort with improving his overall performance.  But provided he comes back?  He’s still incredibly worth it.  A nigh-free Gauntlet win is always appreciated.  Granted, that does need 3/5, but if you can afford that, very little trucks the entire Gauntlet meta like Anni N.

[books-are-my-life-stuff]

Because I’m impatient and I want to use Emmet as soon as I can, I try to build a team that fulfills Emmet’s demand, without Ingo.

These are merely personal alternative team references for me, in Gauntlet or Champion Stadium stages where Ingo has been used or is saved up for later stages because he’s such an absurdly strong support. In that scenario, Emmet can run by himself, but he needs teammates that can provide as much support as Ingo does.

I will also make this post as an archive of many, many, MANY Ingo showcases that I found across the internet, and why his presence alone benefits so many strikers, and I want to do that as well. And the reason why he’s still very worth pulling in the upcoming banner for me.

So, the thing about Ingo (and why people consider him as one of the best support units in the game, at least from my observations) is that not only he’s hard to take down, sandstorm or no, he also has Potions, can debuff accuracy to add more chances to his survival, and his trainer move can buff attacks and crits AND negate any gauge needs by applying Free Move Next. And that was why I saw people run a lot of hyper-offensive teams because of this, not just in Champion Stadium but also in Legendary Arena. Regardless whether the units are sand abusers or not, they all benefit from Ingo’s trainer moves, and most hard-hitting units have 4-bar moves, which Ingo can let them spam as they please.

Not only that, he also buffs speed in every action taken in sandstorm, meaning that should his trainer move runs out, he still can constantly buff everyone’s speed, to mitigate gauge issues. Ingo is not just useful for sand abusers, he’s useful for everyone.

Reference videos: Ingo & Diantha & Alder vs. Entei (team 1), Ingo & Anni Lillie & Anni Steven vs. Entei (team 2) ; Ingo & Viola & BP Erika Stall Team Champion Stadium 1500P vs. Bug-weak Blue ; Ingo & SS Serena & Anni Raihan 2000P Champion Stadium vs. Fire-weak Grimsley ; Ingo & OG Cynthia & Emmet Champion Stadium 1500BP Psychic-weak Bruno ; Ingo & SC Diantha & Cobalion vs. Latias ; Ingo & Emmet & Olivia 1500P Champion Stadium vs. Psychic-weak Bruno ; Ingo & Anni N & Tech Ninetales vs. Cresselia 

And those are just a few of them. There are still a lot of Ingo showcases that I found, but linking all of them is too much.

That’s why I think he’s really, really worth to have. And that level of support is hard to come by.

And that’s a big issue that I came to when I tried building this team. It’s hard to fully replicate Ingo’s utilities. I need a sandstorm setter, but I also need a tank that’s bulky, can buff crit, and can mitigate gauge issues, either by constantly raising speed, having gauge acceleration, or spamming low-bar moves with MGR. 

Emmet needs gauge management due to Hit the Gas 5. I gridded him with MGR on both of his attacks, but he still needs a bit of help in gauge stuff. Emmet can self-buff crit and cap his attack but ideally you’d want to give crit support to him so he could launch an attack as soon as possible. Emmet also needs to be kept healthy, or else he’ll lose quite a lot of his damage modifiers.

Acerola is obviously the pick for easily accessible Sandstorm setter. If I have Anni Raihan then I’ll use him here, but I don’t have him, so yeah. She also can flinch with Aggravation, and has MPR for Sandstorm, which might proc if I’m lucky. Sometimes it procs, sometimes it doesn’t.

For the tanks, there are many options. 6*EX is preferable because Emmet would rather go as DPS than sync nuker, especially in 1/5. 

My team’s SS Blue is EX, has gauge acceleration, has Pep Rally on his trainer move, and very bulky. However, he lacks a way of recovery, which might be dangerous in prolonged fight if the enemy starts spamming AoE attacks, because Emmet might lose a good chunk of his health. The fight needs to be over as soon as possible in this case. Also, SS Blue’s trainer move can only buff one crit per use, and Stone Edge still could miss a crit with only +1 crit.

My team’s Kiawe is also a good option. Has potions, has Quick Tempo, and can constantly raise speed and can even debuff defenses. I think he would be great if 6*EX. He suffers from the same problem of only able to raise +1 crit in one trainer move, however, but he’s pretty ideal, just less bulky.

Falkner can give +2 crit, which is great! He also can buff Speed a little bit, but since he’s still 2/5, I haven’t gotten Quick Tempo, but I’m sure he’d be great as Emmet’s partner too. If I want to buff more Speed, I need to be smart in using Fly to avoid enemy’s attacks, something that I still need to learn how... Falkner's only means of recovery is Synchro Healing which can be a problem in long fight. Ridicure counts too, but I think that only recovers Falkner’s health?

Skyla is great too, she has gauge management, can increase Speed and has Potion with Master Healer. She’s also pretty bulky. But she leaves Emmet buffing by himself, so Emmet has to spend extra turn to buff his crit. 

I didn’t put Hilbert or Sonia here because Hilbert is too frail for my standard, and my team’s Sonia is still 1/5. She’s gonna be great in 3/5 for sure.

Of course, ideally I would want to team Ingo up with Emmet (and those two alone could duo Champion Stadium Master Mode), but I just want to be prepared in scenarios where Ingo needs to support other teams, and if supported with right teammates, Emmet still can be pretty devastating! But it’s hard to deny that Ingo is such a great support, and it’s difficult to fully imitate what he did.

[books-are-my-life-stuff]

So, uh, that Legendary Gauntlet, huh?

I mean, after I basically used a cheat button against Cobalion, I deserved to have a bad time against the other two.

Here are the teams I used for Cobalion, Entei, and Azelf respectively. Everything's under the cut as always.

Cobalion: So, yeah. This is basically a cheat button. An auto-win stuff, if you will. Halloween Caitlin is there to make use of Unova Flag Bearer (in hindsight, I should have saved Halloween Caitlin for later, but alas), Blaine is there to set up sun, while Anni N is doing Anni N stuff: frying that Cobalion to dust. Halloween Caitlin sync first for the barriers, then Anni N sync-ed second and third. Anni N dealt 48k damage for the second sync and 78k damage in third sync.

Now that I also have SS Red and Serena, I think I’m doing pretty great in fire-type DPS. Might as well try second round with SS Red when he’s ready to rumble.

Entei: This team is recommended by @crystalelemental​ on his Legendary Gauntlet post here. Unfortunately I just got May kinda recently, so she’s still 1/5. Nevertheless, I ran with this team anyway, and wow, that was a damn close fight.

Sabrina took hits decently well, but even then she’s too squishy for my liking. Even after applying Reflect and Mega-ed, she still took a lot of damage. As a result, Sabrina got very overwhelmed here. All that she’s been doing is to keep everyone alive with her heals and reapply reflect, and hope MPR proc on both Reflect and her heal. Thankfully, it did. Because otherwise, no one survived. That’s how close the battle was. Cyrus is doing his job as usual to Hydro Pump and negate his health loss due to his buffs with rain, and May is keeping rain intact and use Muddy Water. 

By the time Entei used Heat Wave and burn (third HP bar), Cyrus is at 1/3 health while May and Sabrina is at half health. Sabrina went to reapply Reflect and I had to quickly decide who I should heal in this dire moments, because none of them could take another hit. I decided to heal Cyrus. Thankfully, Cyrus’ Hydro Pump dealt 25k damage and enough to take Entei down, before anyone succumbed to the burn. Sabrina only had very little health left, and so did May. Only Cyrus was at high health because he’s just healed by Sabrina. That was so close and so scary, but the team did it.

Azelf: Ugh, this fight. I spent a long time figuring on how to fight Azelf without Lusamine dying. Both Lillie and Elio are still at 2/5, so they’re still not at their best potential. I should have saved Halloween Caitlin for this, but alas, here I am. I tried configuring teams by myself, but to no avail. Lusamine still went down in one hit and that’s a problem.

So, I decided to bring out the big guns in defenses. The mission is to defeat the enemy and to keep Lusamine alive. It’s a huge task, but this team managed to do it. The downside is that other than buffs and statuses, this team cannot debuff opponent’s defenses, and I can only rely on Lusamine’s On a Roll of her Bug Buzz. Still, I went on anyway. What matters is that Lusamine survived.

MPR proc-ed a lot at Morty’s trainer move and Potion (thank goodness), and along with Geomancy, Lusamine survived a sync move from Azelf. Azelf did have Iron Tail, which was scary as it dealt 300 damage and later 450 damage to Sycamore, but Impervious really helped him from being potentially got debuffed defensively and got one-shot, because as Azelf reached half health in third bar, MPR stopped proc-ing on both Potions and Morty’s trainer move. Sycamore could heal himself no problem, but the potential one-shot from Iron Tail was pretty scary. The flinches and confusion brought by Morty did help, but not a lot, he’s mostly on buffing and healing duty to keep Lusamine alive.

Lusamine surviving a legendary gauntlet feels very satisfying, and feels so much like a victory. On a Roll unfortunately didn’t proc a lot, so this fight took quite a while. Morty and Lusamine were at 1/3 health when Azelf went down. Funnily enough, even though Lusamine’s sync did 22k damage, Azelf still hadn’t gone down. Sycamore did the final hit, KO-ing Azelf with Horn Leech and brought back to full HP after received a devastating Iron Tail.

What a scary fight that was. I legit had no idea if I could take down Azelf with other bug types that I have like Burgh or Guzma, and especially without the defensive buffs that both Sycamore and Morty provided. So, I’m not confident of the next round, and whether or not if I could do it.

[crystalelemental]

Ingo has arrived, and with him, a new Zone to utilize.  According to most people, this is the guy everyone's going for, just based on the Zone.  So the big question is, how worth it is he?

General Overview Bug Zone, like all Zones, is a fantastic trait to have.  It's a 50% multiplicative bonus, meaning nothing can buff your Bug moves like a Zone.  Ingo's also a pretty good partner for most Bug-type users, having matching theme skills for Burgh and Alder, Defense Crush 9 (which can be doubled up on at 3/5) for Guzma, Emmet, and Lusamine's Lunge set, and a general emphasis on support through unique buffs, including speed, accuracy, and evasion.  All of these are pretty cool bonuses!

My main hangup with most Zone users is...Gauntlet.  You can't reuse options, so you get one.  And like most of these Zone setters, Ingo is a fantastic sync nuker.  Apparently, in some metrics, with the ideal setup...he has a stronger sync nuke than Lear, who was top dog since he dropped.  Ingo can deal better damage than Lear.  Even off-type, that means Ingo's going to be ridiculous.  So is it a great option to use another major Bug-type alongside him?  And often I feel like the answer is no.  I rarely use Renegade Cynthia with another Ghost in Gauntlet, it's only ever in CS.  This isn't to say it isn't worth it, but it is to say there's a weird tradeoff where it seems like yeah, this should be huge for, say, Guzma.  But Guzma also only does damage on sync, and do you really want both super strong Bug-type sync nukers on the same team against Azelf, who is specifically weak to sync nukers?

But that's a personal hangup.  By actual limitations, Ingo has several.   One is, much like Anni Skyla, he cannot deal damage turn by turn.  He sync nukes, or he supports.  If you're going for sync nuke, he needs both attack and crit buffing, which is rough because those are a limited commodity in Gauntlet too.  If you're going for support...his support's weird.  Sure, evasion and accuracy are kinda nice, but they're far less significant than the main five, and he only gets +1.  The speed buff also only occurs when he uses Bug Zone, which means he doesn't really help that much with speed control.  His attack moves also leave a lot to be desired.  Quick Attack isn't bad damage, but it's MP limited and he only has a 30% chance to refresh, so it's not reliable.  While Infestation is nice for trap damage, it's otherwise not great damage.   So his support really is just...Bug Zone.  Only some bugs gain anything from defense drops, with Lusamine having to rely on her weaker attacking move (though the attack/defense drop combo is admittedly nice), and none of them gain direct benefit from the speed, evasion, or accuracy.

Except Emmet.  Emmet is the perfect partner for Ingo, because of Rising Tide, and having his own buffs covered.  Which is great for CS, where Emmet can blow up a stage with no issue.  But in Gauntlet, you never want to combine them.  They're so strong individually, just give Emmet a different set of buffs, and Ingo the needed attack/crit.  They're a perfect partnership, but they're also overkill as hell in Gauntlet.   Without Emmet, Ingo's one of the weaker Zone supports we have.  It's not a disaster, but I can't lie and pretend it's Palentine's Marnie levels of perfect either.

Team 1: Teatime Ingo, Teatime Emmet, Roxanne "Why the hell would you recommend Roxanne?"  Special attack, speed, and special defense buffs, all in one.  That's all of the three stats Emmet can't self buff, and sets up a huge Rising Tide sync nuke, alongside Ingo's Bug Zone.  Roxanne can even buff physical defense while Emmet focuses on attack.  Not that a stage should survive past opening sync if Emmet's EX, but if he's not, good news: Megahorn is ridiculous.

Team 2: Teatime Ingo, Hilbert/Sonia/Hop, NY!Lillie/Nanu This is pretty easy.  Ingo can sync nuke like crazy, and sets up everything he needs independently.  Hop is the F2P solution, but the usual options like Sonia or Hilbert are good too, with Hilbert in particular kicking off more theme skills.  From there, the decision is based on what Ingo can actually do.  If he's 3/5, he can double Defense Crush a foe to -6 defense in three Quick Attack uses.  In that scenario, partner him with NY!Lillie, who can cap his evasion for the sync nuke, and is a Bug for another matched theme skill.  If he's not taking the defense crush, Nanu rapidly debuffs defense, and covers that angle instead. Hop/Nanu is also notably F2P, which is always nice.

Team 3: Teatime Ingo, Hilbert, Alder This is similar to Emmet's team, but Ingo takes sync.  The tradeoff here is that Alder can self-setup special attack in one action, and has Hyper Beam, which is ridiculous damage boosted further by Bug Zone.  Hilbert remains the ideal partner for Ingo.

Team 4: Teatime Ingo, Lusamine, Sonia/Hop This time, Sonia is the better option, because this team is...admittedly weird.  Lusamine is a solid partner for unusual reasons.  She needs special attack more than physical most of the time, but Ingo can take sync while Lusamine uses Lunge.  This creates a situation where you debuff both attack and defense, which is a great combo to debuff on an opponent.  Sonia is optimal here, thanks to +2 defense per trainer move, making the team as tanky as possible between buff and debuff.

Final Thoughts Teatime Ingo seems really good.  I think he's one of the weaker pure Zone support units, having very little at 1/5, but 3/5 is insane.  Absurdly powerful sync nuke, and three turns to bottom out foe's physical defense.  He gets so much nice stuff at 3/5, and that's definitely what to aim for with him.  Sadly.  One day we won't feel compelled to get 3/5 for these Tech units, but until then, our candy weeps.

[crystalelemental]

Okay, is anyone else bothered by the free Solgaleo being with MU?  Like, we get all these cool legends handed out, for free, and one of them is Solgaleo, a bit legend from Alola.  And yet...no Alolan unit has it.   Why?  Why the useless MU? Was there a reason that Alola had to be the only region without a free legend? MU doesn't count for the theme skill, so like...what the fuck?  I'm not exactly mad about it not being Lillie since we got Anni Lillie instead, but Gladion?  A Selene or Elio, or their USUM counterparts?  Hau, since he's in the event? Professor Burnet?  Anyone from Alola at all?

General Overview I've kinda come around on Solgaleo a bit.  This is mostly because, prior to this week, I found Solgaleo somewhat underwhelming.  Wow, a self buff that gets both offenses and enough accuracy to never miss, that's so good!  Shame it's 3-gauge use.  Sunsteel Strike seems solid, but it's weirdly low BP.  Base 100 is...Psychic-tier, which isn't inherently terrible, but it's definitely not winning any awards based on power.   And for all its offense buffs, it can't buff crit, which is a problem.

What's won me over is Legendary Gauntlet.  See, Sunsteel Strike may not be crazy high damage by itself, but what it does do is bypass damage reduction.  In the current run of Azelf/Cobalion/Entei, two of them use a form of damage reduction.  Azelf is bypasses by having both forms of offenses, while Cobalion can be hit with Sunsteel Strike without the need for status, which is huge in this mode where you can't reuse units.  Accuracy buffs may also prove helpful against Cresselia, but I'd have to really see how that one plays out.  Probably still need Snatch/Haze.

I won't pretend like Solgaleo doesn't have serious problems, but it's a really nice one to pick up for this event, and I think it'll have a lot of utility in future Gauntlets as well.

Team 1: Solgaleo, Hop/Kiawe, Bugsy&Scyther/Skyla Hop activates matching Steel-type theme skill, while Bugsy and Scyther can debuff foe's offense.  Best of all, Bugsy also helps supplement Hop's inevitable failure to get MPR  on his trainer move, so that's helpful.   Potion on Hop to heal keeps the team alive while you work on slowly tearing down the foe.  However, Kiawe and Skyla are a potential alternative.  Kiawe offers defense drops as well as the crit buffs Solgaleo needs, while Skyla can buff defense and speed.  It's using two Potion-users though, so...I don't know if I'm a fan of this.

Team 2: Solgaleo, Palentine's Dawn, Kimono Jasmine/Falkner/Sabrina A more Focus-Blast oriented approach.  Palentine's Dawn can debuff special defense of the foe, while one of the usual suspects can buff crit and special attack.  However, because Solgaleo can buff its own special attack, you may only need crit rate buff.  But.  And this is a huge but.  Palentine's Dawn is slow and takes 2 gauge to do her debuff, while Solgaleo is slow and takes 3 no matter what it does.  Crit buffers exist, but are often slow, bulky supporters as well. Just...be mindful of gauges.  Sabrina may be optimal here.

Team 3: Solgaleo, Maylene, Skyla Maylene can buff crit and is F2P, so for now she's like your only option since you can't run Solgaleo and Torchic together.  Thankfully, Solgaleo has Sharp Entry, and can cap crit even without MPR.  Maylene can help buff up Solgaleo for Sunsteel Strike, while Skyla is defense and speed buffs and Potion support keeping the team alive.  If Maylene survives long enough, you even have Rock Smash to help push up the damage.

Team 4: Solgaleo, Leaf, NY!Lillie or crit buffer This is a team I've been using to farm Azelf wins.  It's very consistent, and I think a good general structure for any Legendary Gauntlet pick, for a few reasons.  First is the obvious, Solgaleo bypasses damage reduction, so whatever game they're playing doesn't matter.  Second, your crit buffer can be anyone, which allows for a lot of flexibility; NY!Lillie is just optimal here because self-recovery and evasion buffs. But the biggest benefit is Leaf herself.  Guaranteed buffs on sync, double Potion MPR, can fully refresh move gauge, flinch on Tackle is fantastic against single-target fights, and best of all, Impervious.   Azelf's been a major pest, and the reason Leaf dunks on it so hard is because of Impervious.  It can't reduce her defenses like it does with so many others.  As a result, any other Legendary Arena match where the foe can routinely decrease defenses (Which are all three of the current ones) are handled by Leaf.  Slap her and Solgaleo on a team and you have a recipe for success.

Final Thoughts Solgaleo is so weird.  I legitimately considered it the second worst legendary units alongside Zinniquaza until literally this week, when it turned out Sunsteel Strike is outrageously good against damage-reduction foes.  I probably own Anni N and apology too; bypassing damage reduction stuff is huge, and with a good defensive backbone, these units can really shine in the Gauntlet.  And right now, at least for me, Solgaleo is absolutely shining.  Shame about the lame MU.  Seriously, it could’ve been anyone else.

[books-are-my-life-stuff]

This week’s Champion Stadium is done! It was a pretty interesting one too.

This is the first Champion Stadium run that I did not use Hop at all, even though he’s my most favorite. There are some fights that probably could have gone better if I used him, though.

Agatha: In hindsight, I should have used Hop as the main tank here so he could have buffed attack and crit. While I always associate him as the physical tank, but since Rachel could debuff Special Attack, he would have been fine. That said, Leon would appreciate someone who could regularly replenish his move gauge should he need one anyway, so Rosa it is, even though she’s weak to flying.

But yeah, weird team compilation aside, I’m just so so excited to use Christmas Leon in Champion Stadium ever since I got him, and I’m really glad that this opportunity comes, to show how kickass he is! He froze Agatha’s entire team and swept it with ease. Reminder that my Christmas Leon is only 1/5, yet he did incredibly well already. His debut Champion Stadium performance was so great, I’m really really happy to have the Unbeatable Galar Champion in my team.

Bruno: Decided to use the usual Steamroll team to fight against Bruno, even though I fully know Roxanne is weak to fighting. It went pretty much the same as usual: Roxanne went down, Giovanni quickly finished the fight before he went down too. Liza got crit-ed so she went down, but Bruno only had very little health left. I feel like there’s still something else that needs to be improved here, but I dunno what it is. Maybe investing more on Liza?

Lance: Don’t mind Plumeria, she’s just there to inflict poison and to reach the requirement to unlock Master Mode, since Ice, Poison, and Ground are the only types that I haven’t finished. I was considering to use Valerie since she’s an attacker, but other than her sync move, her other attacks aren’t really doing much. Sycamore could naturally outdamage her buffed attacks even without Geomancy, so I decided to use him as the main damager there. Of course, it went very slow since Sycamore didn’t have an attacking sync move, but it worked anyway, helped a bit by Plumeria’s poison statuses. Swimsuit Misty is there as healer. 

I was going to use Lillie as the main tank since she has Group Dragon Guard, but even with that, I don’t think she can take a lot of damage. Also, Sycamore should have been the main tank there, but Swimsuit Misty survived just fine. MPR proc-ed a lot on her Potions, so that helped everyone to survive as well (except Sycamore because he’s already so tanky that he didn’t need much help to survive). 

Lorelei: Been a while since the last time I used Wally, so I chose him as the main DPS. Knight Diantha as the main tank there while Leaf is the healer. I also wanted to make use of Wally’s EX to wipe the sides. Knight Diantha is just so good, she can tank while dealing lots of damage alongside Wally. Unfortunately I never intended to gear Knight Diantha as tank, so she got crit-ed by Lorelei. Thankfully, while Knight Diantha was close to going down (though she’s going to be healed by Leaf anyway), Wally could quickly finish the fight. 

Blue: Now, here’s an interesting one. Blue used Alakazam, so it’s gonna be mostly special attacker. I could have gone with the Hop and Anni N combo, but the parameter is increased effect of status conditions (and I chose Special Attack reduction parameter as second parameter). So, while I have decided this is gonna be mostly Lusamine’s fight, I changed the team around a little bit. As a result, Halloween Caitlin as the main tank, with BP Erika to inflict statuses. Not the most ideal because no healer (except from Halloween Caitlin’s sync move), but it works somehow.

Even though MPR didn’t proc on X. Sp. Def, Lusamine survived Blue’s sync move with 1/3 health, thanks to Halloween Caitlin’s barriers from her sync and her buffs that she could provide. BP Erika also helped to weaken the sides with status condition and let Lusamine finish them to get the Positive Reinforcement buffs.

Halloween Caitlin went down, but Blue only had very little health left. BP Erika could take a hit and let Lusamine finished the fight. Lusamine surviving is a miracle itself, but it’s even more of a miracle that she could survive in a team with minimum healing. Great job for surviving, Lusamine.

I only need to use Ground-type left to unlock Master Mode, and I only have Hapu. Hopefully next time there’s gonna be an opportunity to use Hapu in a team without her needing to do much, just like how I used Plumeria in this week’s Champion Stadium. 

Most importantly, hopefully I can clear the next Champion Stadium! As always, thanks for reading my weekly rambling!

[crystalelemental]

I may be reaching my limit.

Starting with Entei, we have the more interesting sets that worked out.

SS Lusamine, NY!Lillie, Bianca As you can tell, pretty close.  SS Lusamine’s so good for Champion Stadium, but frankly I’m considering her one of the less powerful Master Fair units for this mode.  Similar issue to Anni N: spread damage does nothing here half the time.  Also her self-debuff on speed was devastating, we were so goddamn slow.

Princess Hilda, Kukui, Lana This team?  This was the single easiest fight the entire Gauntlet.  I’m not even joking.  Princess Hilda is fantastic damage, Kukui kept Entei from buffing defense and applied decent supplementary damage in the last phase, and Lana?  Lana’s outrageous.  Her healing potential was more than trap damage, and Team Fire Guard meant we barely took damage.  I think if she had Interference Immunity as a lucky skill, she’d be unkillable in this fight.  This was such a fun team to use, I loved it.

Anni Steven, SS Blue, Lisia Then there’s this asshole.  Anni Steven, I bring you in here because Entei can debuff stats, but you take too much damage.  So I bring in SS Blue to mitigate damage, but it turns out he can’t entirely save you either, so I have to bring in Lisia to flinch.  And through all of that, you still kinda struggled to pull through for me.  This poor man needs Flying Zone yesterday, my god.

Diantha, NY!Sabrina, Palentine Dawn Okay this was the last match I did for Win 22.  I used up all my best remaining tools, and...we barely won.  Like, technically, Diantha also died to burn here, but we still got the win.  Thanks to NY!Sabrina giving us the Endure effect.  I thought I was being clever, bringing Palentine’s Dawn to this fight and aiming for its weaker special defense.  Turns out it only wanted that to be thought.  Also gauge control was a huge issue, but it always is with Diantha.

And now for the exact opposite: my new most hated enemy.

Masked Royal, Hop, Drake I love Masked Royal, this one was actually super fun.  I actually tried Sidney a few times against Azelf but he didn’t stand a chance, compared to Masked Royal winning second attempt.  You’ll never guess why it wasn’t first try.  Given who’s here and my track record, you’ll never guess who failed.  It’s Hop.  He missed MPR and it got us killed when Masked Royal missed a crit.  GREAT JOB, BOZO

Renegade Cynthia, Fantina, Cheryl Absolute obliteration.  That 22k is Shadow Force, by the way.  Her sync just erased the second HP bar.  I brought Fantina and Cheryl because I figured Fantina wasn’t doing anything on her own, and Cheryl wasn’t likely to get much alternate use without grid, but I regret using Cheryl here after all.  Healing and special attack buffs are in short supply...

Champion Iris, Classic Elesa, Maylene I wanted to save this for Cobalion but literally ran out of effective teams and had to burn it here to keep going.  I’m incredibly mad about it too.  Having to use this here was my decision point of “Azelf is the hardest fight here.”  This thing is such a pain in the ass.

Lysandre, Kimono Jasmine, Marlon Probably my favorite win, by sheer shenanigans.  I want you to guess what saved us.  No, not Kimono Jasmine’s special defense buffs and regen effect.  Lysandre’s healing effect is a good guess and did play a part, but that wasn’t it either.  It was Marlon.  Marlon’s speed debuffs saved us.  Azelf was slow enough that it could charge up moves quickly in bar 3, allowing Lysandre to get two shots off to heal up and survive another hit, and also to finish the job before Azelf could sync.  It was so close, and we won because of goddamned Marlon.  Never in a million years would I have expected that statement, but here we are.  I guess I have to like Marlon now?  Unfortunate.

And finally, Cobalion.

Anni Lillie, H!Caitlin, Erika&Vileplume Azelf is a pain because it breaks down your defenses, and has pretty ridiculous mixed offenses.  It mostly spams special attacks, and sets itself up to seem like a specially offensive threat, but then its sync is physical.  So frankly, when Anni Lillie wasn’t enough to auto-win, I brought in Halloween Caitlin because I desperately just wanted to clear this.  Dude’s a pain.  I do feel this was a mistake, however, because Erika offered paralysis support.  That Lillie didn’t need.  I mostly wanted special defense debuffs but...oh well, I guess.

Anni N, SS Leaf, Torchic This took so long, and required me to 5* my Torchic and give Anni N 100 power-up tickets.  I’m mad about it.  But we won.  SS Leaf is pretty great for helping Torchic survive, Torchic takes a lot of buffing pressure off of Anni N, and Anni N can deal pretty decent numbers.  After...what is, that...six sync buffs?  He’ll get there, he’s 1/5.

Knight Diantha, Roxanne, BP Surge Okay, I expected a slam dunk here, just based on Knight Diantha.  But frankly this one was a really, really rough go.  BP Surge needed to survive long enough to apply paralysis effectively, while Roxanne helped buff Keldeo to max and keep move gauge control.  It doesn’t help that Cobalion leads with a -2 special attack debuff on the whole enemy team.  I thought I was being cute, bringing Keldeo to fight one of its masters, but oops.  At least the sync guaranteed a win once paralysis was on.

Final Thoughts The second run felt like it should be a victory lap.  I have so many good units!  Anni Lillie, Renegade Cynthia, Princess Hilda, Knight Diantha, Champion Iris, etc etc.  But oh man.  Oh man did I go in too self-confident.

I think it’s a testament to this game mode’s design being really good that you can’t just walk in with all the big flashy super units with damage output and claim win after win.  Team comps really matter, and notably your support choices really matter.  Even really good units like Knight Diantha straight-up struggled without the right supports.  Which is good!  I think that’s a really nicely designed concept for the game, and brings a lot of value to the variety of sync pairs in the game.  It draws on specific utility to clutch out a winning strategy, and led to nonsense like Marlon’s speed debuffs saving the day, something I still cannot get over.

But it also highlights a huge deficit in our roster.  We have tons of offensive units who can perform wonderfully...but too few supports to facilitate all of them.  Special attack buffers in particular seem to be in shorter supply, and the number of times I found myself wishing someone could buff speed was...high.  Really high.  This game mode really showcases that there are a lot of niches left to fill, and a lot of roles that may be filled but could use a duplicate, either for a more premium performance, or just a more easily accessible free option.  It’s impressive, really.

But all that said, I do think this may be a good indicator that Dawn/Cresselia is likely to be the first support Master Fair.  I think she’s going to be pure support, and be a major draw for players entirely because of where and what she buffs.  At a guess, I think she might be a premium special attack/speed/crit buffer, something we’re severely lacking at present, that takes place before they give Roxanne a grid and provide a more F2P friendly option for those buffs.  We’ll see if I’m right, but that seriously feels like the most likely outcome, based on my own identified support needs.  And based on Reddit posts, it seems I am not alone.

[crystalelemental]

The entire Pokemon Masters subreddit: “But Hau is so challenging!  Discharge hits everyone, and the paralysis effect from his Hostile Environment 6 means you lose turns; my sweeper can’t survive.”

Me, petty as all hell: “If only there were a recently released defensive juggernaut capable of keeping literally any sweeper alive guaranteed.  That sure would’ve been helpful, huh?”

This week felt really easy, but I also have to acknowledge that is purely because of the tools I have and built up.

EX Annilillie took down Acerola with ease, but hilariously Fantina got the final hit.  She barely survived sync, and it was hilarious.  I do like Fantina, but I like almost all the Gen 4 leaders, so...you know.

Olivia is ridiculous because Ground weak, and I’m not using Clay.  I also didn’t remember I had May for Ground damage, so instead we broke her apart with Tangela Erika and base Leaf.  Who once again refused to MPR on Potion, which I think is just her showing off anymore.

Psychic-weak is an auto-win for everyone, but I insist on using Caitlin over Giovanni.  She still deals like 10k per Psychic after a Sabrina EX sync.  These three still break most fights.

Molayne was...hilariously weak.  Anni N is only 1/5.  No multipliers.  And frankly, Serena was the real damage dealer of the set, thanks to Hypnosis and Overheat with no drawbacks.  Kiawe helped by giving us maxed crit buff without N wasting turns.  I’m honestly a bit surprised we pulled it off as easily as we did.  Literal first try.  And this in spite of him having tricks that seemed to temporarily prevent stat debuffs or status effect.  I feel like he earned the Weenie Award.  It’s not Kahili’s fault Psychic is OP, or Acerola’s fault I have EX Anni Lillie.  This guy had plenty of advantage and still got beat easily.

And then there’s the big man.  The one everyone is talking about being a super challenging fight that’s hard to beat offensively, because it turns out he’s a well-designed fight that counters the dominant playstyle without being impossible.  Hau.  Now, I adore this fight.  If the lead-in wasn’t clear enough, I think this is a great fight, because the major focus of “Just have an EX and nuke” doesn’t work as well.  Unless you have Lusamine or Guzma maxed out.  But most people either don’t have them, or are so used to using alternate strikers on Bug, that this fight has given people massive trouble because of how effectively he shuts down dominant playstyles.  Discharge hits everyone, and Hostile Environment 6 means paralysis is damn near guaranteed.  And that cuts into your turns, which means if your striker doesn’t act, you’re done for.  Evasion is hard to buff for teammates (I think only base Misty and NY Lillie can do it), so you’re likely getting hit, and likely losing at least a turn, which slows you significantly for damage output.  And as a result, people had trouble.

But I got it first try.  Because you know the solution?  Just make your striker unable to die.  EX Lusamine can already deal good damage, especially alongside base Lillie who powers her up tremendously.  All she doesn’t do is survive.  But Halloween Caitlin, without the Light Screen buff, kept Lusamine alive after Hau’s sync just fine.  Then afterward, the Light Screen effect and heal off of sync meant Lusamine survived several basic attacks as well, and just tore the team apart.  Slower than usual, but effective just the same.  It wasn’t even that hard with this setup.  And sure, I have to concede that I have EX on Halloween Caitlin and Lusamine both, without either it would be more challenging, and without both you’d be fighting quite the uphill battle.  But the point remains that H!Caitlin got some shit for being a defensive supporter, who is like perfectly optimized for a fight like this.  So that’s validating.

Overall, I think this was a pretty easy week for me.  But from the sounds of it, Hau alone is really challenging.  I’ve heard nothing of the other four, but I imagine the other challenge is Olivia, given her weakness being ridiculously rare.  But it also says something that I didn’t need to bust out SS Leaf for the first time since I got her.