fearinahandfulof: (Evasion)
Cassandra the Dust-Eater ([personal profile] fearinahandfulof) wrote in [personal profile] indigo_league 2021-04-14 08:03 pm (UTC)

Character: Cassandra | [personal profile] fearinahandfulof
Badge/Gym Leader: Elite 4!
Elite/Regular: Elite Team
Team: Priscilla the DeinoLicht the Mimikyu, Blade the Silvally, Clara the Alolan MarowakNeideen the Crobat, Teresa the Dusk Lycanroc
Battle Details: Cassandra did so much preparation for this one, up to and including spending a lot of her spare funds on TMs. Let's see if it works!

(Note: Cassandra's pokemon are all going to start out equipped with Lum Berries.)

Will
Bronzong: Bronzong is bulky, but slow, and has a number of weaknesses - most of which Priscilla can easily exploit, aside from Ghost. Add to that the fact that Priscilla is faster, can use Taunt to shut down Bronzong's status moves, and picked up Spite to punish Bronzong for hitting her with a move she doesn't like. Bronzong's potential abilities do present issues - Levitate means Ground is ineffective and Heatproof means Fire is much less effective - but Dark Pulse and Crunch aren't impeded by either of those, and Priscilla has STAB for both of them besides.

Jynx: Priscilla's Ice weakness means she can't stay in this battle for long, and Jynx has both Perish Song and (possibly) the Oblivious ability. Given that, Priscilla's going to Throat Chop Jynx and then see what happens. If Forewarn triggers, she'll cast Taunt and then U-turn herself out of the fight. If it doesn't, she'll skip straight to U-turn - unless Jynx's next move is Mean Look or Perish Song, in which case she'll immediately hit back with Spite to prevent Jynx from using it again and then U-turn out. The pokemon swapping in depends on Jynx's ability: If Jynx has Forewarn, then Licht will come in and unload on Jynx with X-Scissor and their arsenal of Ghost and Dark moves, keeping Taunt up so Jynx doesn't get a chance to use any status moves. If it's Oblivious, then Blade will swap in and pummel her with Flash Cannon, Crunch, Flamethrower, X-Scissor, and other moves; if Jynx is able to cast Perish Song on Blade, Blade will stay in as long as it can before U-turning out for Priscilla to use Throat Chop and U-turn out for Blade again. Either way, the goal is to do as much damage as possible as quickly as possible, because a drawn-out fight won't do Cassandra's pokemon any favors. Cassandra will be watching her pokemons' health very carefully here, doing her best to make sure everybody's healed up by the end of this fight.

Grumpig: This is another fight for Priscilla; she's immune to Grumpig's Psychic moves and can hit Grumpig's weaknesses to Dark and Bug. Taunt, as usual, will keep Grumpig's status moves locked down, giving Priscilla more room to do her work. Grumpig's physical defense is frankly not great, so while it has a fair amount of health, Priscilla will probably be able to whittle it down relatively quickly anyway, though she may need a Leppa Berry or two.

Slowbro: Priscilla is doing things a little differently this time, to wit: she is opening with Substitute and then attempting Taunt. If Taunt works, great; it'll keep Slowbro from using its status moves. If not, then Priscilla will concentrate on keeping Substitute up as a shield for herself and targeting Slowbro's weaknesses to Bug and Dark. She'll also be using Spite to whittle away at Slowbro's PP, especially for its status moves, and Cassandra will be quick with the restoratives if Priscilla does get hit with a status effect. (Of course, if it turns out that Slowbro's ability is Own Tempo instead of Oblivious, this will go much faster.)

Gardevoir: Priscilla is taking a break for this one while Licht takes point; the Hydreigon's 4x weakness to Fairy is too dangerous. Licht's first move is unsurprisingly Taunt, because they're not interested in putting up with Gardevoir's status moves. And then it's time to break out their various Ghost attacks, with periodic pauses to re-apply Taunt or replenish their health with Giga Drain or Draining Kiss. This is a relatively straightforward fight; Cassandra will probably take some time to make sure Priscilla is healthy while Licht is fighting.

Xatu: Priscilla is back, using Taunt to shut down Xatu's status moves as usual; she's slightly faster than Xatu, so she should be able to land it first. Dark attacks are once again the order of the day, and Priscilla's probably been fed some Leppa Berries by now to let her keep using them. Again, this is a pretty straightforward fight.

And then it's time to heal up, replenish everyone's PP, pass out more Lum Berries, and move on to...

Koga
Skuntank: Priscilla is taking point on this battle; she has no particular resistance to Poison, but she's faster than Skuntank and has Taunt to shut away its status moves, and neither of the Ground attacks she knows make contact, which prevents Aftermath from triggering when Skuntank falls. Granted, there's a possibility that Skuntank has Stench as an ability instead of Aftermath, but while a 10% chance of flinching is certainly troublesome, it can be worked around. It's not like Cassandra doesn't have a lot of berries and other curatives stockpiled at this point, after all...

Venomoth: Licht is starting this one off, casting Taunt followed by... Trick Room. And then they're ceding the fight to Clara, who is normally quite a bit slower than Venomoth, but not under the effects of Trick Room. Clara can easily take advantage of Venomoth's Fire weakness, and she gets STAB with FIre attacks; it also helps that Venomoth can't hit her weaknesses. She may need to tag out for Licht once or twice so the latter can reapply Taunt and Trick Room, but together they should easily be able to take Venomoth down. Though Clara's going to want to cast Sunny Day before they do...

Toxicroak: ...because if Toxicroak has Dry Skin as its ability, it'll lose health every turn, and that will make Neideen's job easier. Even if it doesn't have Dry Skin, it will still make Neideen's job easier, because Neideen's picked up a few new tricks - including Heat Wave. However, her main weapons for this battle are liable to be Taunt (of course), Fly, and especially Zen Headbutt to take advantage of that lovely 4x weakness to Psychic attacks. Neideen being a partial Poison type herself also means she can't be afflicted with the Poison status, which takes another strategy out of Toxicroak's arsenal. Plus she's faster, so she can keep Taunt up and ward off any other status infliction attempts, thus preserving her Lum Berry for when she'll really need it.

Swalot: Once again, Neideen is using Taunt to shut down any status attacks that may be aimed at her; her base speed is over twice as fast as Swalot's, so she'll be able to get that out first and conserve her Lum Berry. Zen Headbutt is once again the order of the day (preceded by one or two uses of Super Fang to soften Swalot up), and Cassandra will be keeping her PP topped up with Leppa Berries. Cassandra will also be using healing items alone to keep Neideen's HP up; there's a chance Swalot has Liquid Ooze as an ability, which means Neideen won't be able to safely use her HP-draining moves. Still, this is another relatively straightforward fight.

Crobat: And this would be the reason Neideen was using Taunt to guard her Lum Berry. There's a chance that Koga's Crobat will be able to move first; if that happens, Neideen's Lum Berry will kick in, after which Neideen will retaliate with Taunt. She'll also be using Super Fang at least twice, to halve the other Crobat's HP and then halve it again, before breaking out Zen Headbutt and using it to hammer Crobat's Psychic weakness while its HP is reduced, the better to take it out quickly.

Muk: This is essentially a repeat of the earlier battles in this round: Neideen casts Taunt, then Super Fang (at least twice), then Zen Headbutt, with re-applications of Taunt in between the latter two steps as needed. Sticky Hold, if Muk has it, is a nonfactor; given that Neideen has Inner Focus as her ability, so is Stench. After Koga's Crobat, this is almost a victory lap.

And once again, it's time to heal wounds and status conditions, pass out Leppa Berries, and equip everyone with Lum Berries (Licht gets Leftovers and Neideen a Shell Bell), and then it's time for:

Bruno
Hitmontop: And now it's time for Licht to no-sell absolutely every attack Hitmontop has except Gyro Ball. And even Gyro Ball isn't as much of a danger as it could be, because while Licht is speedier than Hitmontop, she's not on the level of, say, Neideen. Further, Licht has Draining Kiss, which targets Hitmontop's Fairy weakness and which Licht gets STAB for using, so they can offset a good portion of the damage Gyro Ball could do - to say nothing of Licht's other useful attacks, like Psychic and Play Rough, which will come into play when Hitmontop isn't using Gyro Ball. Regardless, Cassandra will still be watching Licht's health carefully for this battle, and if necessary letting Clara take over for a bit. Clara can't hit any of Hitmontop's weaknesses, but Hitmontop can't hit hers either, and Gyro Ball will do less damage given that she's actually slower than Hitmontop.

Hitmonlee: Once again, Hitmonlee has exactly one attack that can even hit Licht, and that attack doesn't even hit either of their weaknesses. Draining Kiss will keep Licht's HP up while Psychic and Play Rough will cause straight damage. Hitmonlee's abilities are a nonfactor. Cassandra will probably make sure to top up Licht's Draining Kiss uses here just in case.

Hitmonchan: Hitmonchan actually has four attacks that can hit Licht. Granted, one of them is Bullet Punch, but while it goes first, it doesn't hit as hard as some other Steel attacks, and Licht still has Draining Kiss to counteract it somewhat. That said, Cassandra will be watching Licht's HP like a hawk and will switch her out for Clara if Licht seems to be faltering. Clara won't be able to rely on hitting Hitmonchan's weaknesses, but Hitmonchan can't hit hers either and she no-sells most of his attacks just like Licht does. And Clara still has a variety of attacks of various types to work with - plus False Swipe if she's feeling adventurous. Her lack of speed is also less of an issue than it could be, because Hitmonchan doesn't really use status moves. Still, she may end up just marking time until Licht is healthy enough to come back in.

Hariyama: Neideen is coming back in for this one, though she may not be staying long given Hariyama's Heavy Slam (she's not weak to it, but she's also not the heaviest pokemon in the world). What she is going to do is cast Taunt (mostly to avoid Sand Attack), and then use Super Fang. And then use it again, if she can get away with it, or use Fly if she can't; Fly takes her out of harm's way for the first round, and it lets her hit one of Hariyama's weaknesses during the second. Cassandra is going to be watching Neideen's health extremely carefully here. If she has to, she'll send Clara or Blade out to stall while she gets Neideen back up to snuff, though while Blade can use its Fairy-type Multi-Attack to hit that particular weakness of Hariyama's, its own weakness to Steel could be a problem, which is why Neideen's coming back in ASAP. Neideen's strategy will likely continue to be a mix of Taunt, Super Fang, and Fly or one of her other Flying moves until the battle is done. 

Machamp: Thankfully, this battle is back to business as usual, with Licht no-selling all but one of Machamp's moves (Knock Off, this time) while clowning on it with Draining Kiss, Play Rough, and/or Psychic, with maybe a few Taunts thrown in for hate's sake. Simple, really.

Lucario: And once again, it's Neideen's turn. Taunt starts things off, and then Neideen takes a few bites out of Lucario with Super Fang before switching to her shiny new Heat Wave move. It helps that Lucario can't hit her weaknesses in return, and she's outright immune to Ground anyway. Goodbye, Lucario.

And with that, it's healing and equipped Lum Berries for everybody, before they go off to face:

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