Pokémon Scarlet & Violet - Beast of Bloodmoon - Sep 1 24 C

While I play in Casual Battles for the greater variety of battle courts, over in Ranked, Regulation H had begun as of the start of this month (September 2024). Typically, that’s reflected in Casual as well, as Casual is where people often go to test out their teams before proceeding onward to Ranked. I’m the weird one for staying here, but it’s for aesthetic purposes.

Though there has been a decrease in teams from opponents with Legendary and Paradox Pokémon in them, they haven’t completely gone away. I suppose this is because for the first time this generation Regulation H has fewer allowed Pokémon than the regulation before it, and some people want to keep that power they hold in their hands that Regulation G enabled them to do.

Type: Single Battle
Opponent: みー (Mii)
Battle Court: Medali (Fortune Eatery)
Music: Terarium Pokémon
My Pokémon: István (Rotom) (Frost), Manny (Hitmonchan), Wanda (Delphox)
Opponent’s Pokémon: アシレーヌ (Primarina), ガチグマ (Ursaluna) (Bloodmoon), カイリュー (Dragonite)

My opponent’s lineup in this battle is two thirds the same as one of the matches in the previous video, but instead of Grimmsnarl, we got Primarina beginning this match, and that sent the battle on a very different trajectory. Ishmael (Kingdra) has no business fighting Primarina, even after Terastallization, so we got István (Frost Rotom) taking his place. And as it seems, my opponent was both lucky and unlucky. You can see that in the first turn, where a Discharge was a critical hit, inflicted Paralysis, and left Primarina fully paralyzed—but nevertheless, was a sliver away from knocking him out. (C’mon, use Primarina the Unrivaled because that one is female! They’re based on singing mermaids. Not that there’s anything wrong with a male one, but that’s how they were depicted in classic mythology.)

And then it happened again with Ursaluna—not so unlucky that Ursaluna was frozen from the Blizzard, but nevertheless, he survived with another sliver of HP. This is weird.

Finally, regarding Dragonite, the standard moveset for Dragonite currently is what Dragonite the Unrivaled is based on (and basically lets people play a competitive Dragonite minus the effort points): Scale Shot, Earthquake, Extreme Speed, and Dragon Dance. This one, instead, has Roost and Encore, effectively trapping opponents expecting the standard set of moves. Roost makes Dragonite extra annoying to deal with because Multiscale can trigger more than once.

In hindsight, my hunch told me to switch to Wanda (Delphox) instead of Manny (Hitmonchan), because bringing out a Fighting-type against a Normal-type like Ursaluna is too obvious. Not knowing I have Manny in reserve would’ve encouraged my opponent to Terastallize Dragonite earlier, putting Manny at an advantage due to dishing out super-effective Drain Punches against a Tera Normal Dragonite. And though I wouldn’t have known about the Roost and Encore shenanigans, neither would’ve been all that useful against a Pokémon with strong Drain Punches.