Dayglo | Lanturn (Water/Electric), Speed: 67, Ability: Illuminate (no use in battle)
Razz | Infernape (Fire/Fighting), Speed: 108, Ability: Iron Fist (power of punching moves is increased by 20%)
Cicada | Flygon (Dragon/Ground), Speed: 100, Ability: Levitate (ground-type moves have no effect on this Pokémon. Cannot be trapped by Arena Trap ability. Takes no damage from Spikes.)
Cicada is holding the Assault Vest (raises the holder's sp. defense by 50% but restricts it to using only damage-dealing moves)
First things first... Heather has always been a hit-hard-hit-fast-ask-questions-later sort of person when it comes to a fight. Hence two out of her three Pokemon are high-attack speedsters. While that got her through her first round with Shoto by the skin of her teeth, the first three seconds of watching Dirk and G'rhyf's battle from the stands tell her immediately that it will not get her through Round 2. And while she truly is not expecting to win this whole thing, she really, really, really does not want to lose to Dirk.
SO. Hoping that her first battle (which Dirk probably watched?) will convince Dirk to expect all-brawn-no-brains (and therefore an easy battle) from her, she is going to take a leaf from Shoto's book and attempt a craftier mindset for this one. Primary goals? 1) Keep everybody paralyzed and confused as much as possible. 2) NO FUCKING TRICK ROOM.
STRATEGY FOR IF EVERYTHING GOES (CHEF'S KISS) PERFECTLY:
VS. PGP | Porygon2: Watching Dirk's round 1 battle was an excercise in both "Ugh, of COURSE he'd do that" and "[chuckles] I'm in danger.", in no small part due to PGP. She has a feeling that she'll be having to deal with both Substitute and Trick Room early on (because why not? It clearly works), and she wants to head that off at the pass. SO, with Dayglo the Lanturn being her first Pokemon out, she's going to leap right in and use that first turn to hit PGP with THUNDER WAVE, hoping that paralysis will reduce Dirk's chances of successfully doing whatever it is he plans to do with his own first turn. Her second turn will depend on whether or not he used Substitute-- because she wants to get rid of that as quick as possible, so if he did, she will use DISCHARGE to fry the substitute (and potentially inflict paralysis if Thunder Wave failed for some reason?). If he didn't, or paralysis prevented him from moving at all, she'll have Dayglo follow up with CONFUSE RAY to reduce the chances of PGP getting a successful move in even more, with the bonus of potentially inflicting some damage to boot. And then-- AND THEN-- she'll use WHIRLPOOL to trap PGP in the battlefield for 4-5 turns (unless he summoned another Substitute, in which case she'll use DISCHARGE first), because SUCK MY LIGHTNING, DIRK!! With all this happening, she's hoping that even a successful use of Trick Room can potentially be waited out while PGP struggles with paralysis, confusion, and not being able to Teleport out of battle. During that time, she'll use moves like EERIE IMPULSE to lower PGP's sp. attack and AQUA RING to possibly mitigate any damaging moves that PGP does manage to make. Should confusion wear off at any point, she'll repeat CONFUSE RAY immediately. Which leads her to Phase 2: send in the monkey. If paralysis and confusion are both in effect and Trick Room is not, Heather will withdraw Dayglo, switching her with Razz the Infernape. While she wasn't particularly focusing on damage with Dayglo (outside of getting rid of those pesky substitutes, anyway), Razz will be instructed to use POWER-UP PUNCH repeatedly, building strength each time until, hopefully, PGP will eventually succumb to the super-effective Fighting-type move and leave Razz with a buttload of boosted Attack on her side.
VS. Heraclitus | Arctovish: This is who she's assuming will make the next appearance, given the type advantage over Razz. But that was what waiting out Trick Room and all those Power-Up Punches were for. With a x2 type advantage, her Attack boosted several stages and Iron Fist adding an extra 20% damage, she has two ideal moves to choose from: more POWER-UP PUNCH, or THUNDERPUNCH. If she was able to get 3+ hits in on PGP before coming up against Heraclitus, she'll use the former for that additional STAB boost. If she was only able to get one or two hits in, she'll opt for THUNDERPUNCH's higher base damage. A OHKO would be awesome (just one widdle cwitical hit, Arceus?? PWEEEEAAAAAS???), but if she has to take one Fishious Rend to be able to land a second, final hit-- so be it. If she goes down without being able to take Heraclitus out, Dayglo the Lanturn will return to the battlefield and finish him off with ELECTRO BALL (unless Trick Room is somehow in effect, in which case she'd go with DISCHARGE.)
VS. Yolkai | Exeggutor: Assuming Razz is still up and kicking when Yolkai comes out, the first thing Heather will do is have Razz hit the Exeggutor with a super-effective, attack-boosted, double-damage-'cause-she-ain't-holdin'-no-item ACROBATICS. After that, though, she is SADLY likely to be unpleasantly surprised by Exeggutor also knowing Trick Room. Assuming that Razz survives the next turn's hit, she will be using U-TURN (a little parting gift of super-effective damage as a treat, eyyyyyyy!) to switch places with Cicada the Flygon. Dragon vs. Dragon battles are tricky, especially if the other party has a speed advantage over you. But in hopes of finishing the job Razz started, Heather will have him come out the gate with BOOMBURST. If that first BOOMBURST isn't enough to take Yolkai out for good, he'll try another, hoping that his Assault Vest will help him withstand any super-effective Dragon moves aimed his way for at least long enough to wait out Trick Room. If Cicada goes down before he can secure a win, it's hopefully with enough chunks taken out of Yolkai's HP that Dayglo can resume her spot on the battlefield and either finish Yolkai off with a super-effective SIGNAL BEAM, or THUNDER WAVE/CONFUSE RAY/DAMAGING MOVE her way to victory all over again.
AND IF THERE'S ROADBLOCKS... (BECAUSE THERE WILL BE):
If PGP escapes the ring while Dayglo is still in, regardless of which of his other two Pokemon come out, she will be employing the same strategy on them: THUNDER WAVE, CONFUSE RAY, and possibly AQUA RING instead of WHIRLPOOL if she gets the sense that Dayglo would be in more danger from them staying in the ring rather than switching out. Heather doesn't want to let Dirk do ANYTHING, even if she has type-advantage on her side. Once those are set up, she can vary her methods a bit. For Heraclitus, she's less worried about having a super-effective move used on her, and with AQUA RING'S backup will start to use STOCKPILE-- pausing to re-confuse with CONFUSE RAY if it wears off at any point. Ideally, she'll be able to charge STOCKPILE up to the max (defense and sp. defense raised 3 stages) while Heraclitus tries to land hits, then start hammering him with DISCHARGE and/or ELECTRO BALL until he faints (and then have an extra-fun SPIT-UP move to bust out against PGP or Yolkai later!)-- but if it looks like she won't have time for that, she'll just work with whatever she got out of it and start in with the offensive moves. For Yolkai, the Grass-type moves could spell trouble for Dayglo, so she'll be more invested in getting rid of the Exeggutor fast with SIGNAL BEAM, possibly opting for FLAIL if her HP gets low but she still has at least one chance to make a move. If Yolkai is able to start up Trick Room, Dayglo will just. Use SUCKER PUNCH repeatedly.
If PGP faints or is switched for Heraclitus before Razz can rack up at least 2 Power-Up Punches, Heather will abandon ship on that one and U-TURN Razz out of there for Dayglo. And then, well, SEE THE ABOVE-- though in this instance, she'd probably have Dayglo go straight for the offensive moves as soon as THUNDER WAVE/CONFUSE RAY are in place instead of trying to build a Stockpile, focusing on getting him completely out of the running.
If Yolkai is switched in instead of Heraclitus when PGP faints/is switched out, Razz will first use GUNK SHOT in hopes of afflicting poison, then switch to ACROBATICS if it takes. Both are super effective but since Gunk Shot has fewer PP, she wants to conserve a few in case Yolkai can somehow heal from the poison. And of course U-TURN is there as a last resort, should Heather feel that Razz may still be needed for something other than Yolkai (such as if PGP is still kicking)-- but it would be great if Razz was able to take the Exeggutor down without needing to put Dayglo or Cicada in its path.
If Razz faints before PGP does, either Dayglo or Cicada will be forced to take him out at some point or another. Dayglo will likely repeat the same strategy as above; stalling out Trick Room with paralysis and confusion, but this time using DISCHARGE or HYDRO PUMP whenever there's a Substitute or the Trick Room ends in hopes of knocking PGP out before he can refresh it again. Cicada, who can't use non-attack moves, will just come in swinging with SAND TOMB to trap PGP and SUPERPOWER to (hopefully, if confusion damage + Sand Tomb damage make up the difference) knock PGP out. If SUPERPOWER doesn't quite manage that, Cicada will blow off the resulting lowered attack stat by following up with one of his specials, like EARTH POWER, BUG BUZZ, or BOOMBURST.
If Razz or Cicada are forced to face Heraclitus without Dayglo, well firstly, Heather's in deep trouble, even if she's managed to stop Dirk from using Trick Room. If it's down to Razz and she can't rely on boosted attack from POWER-UP PUNCH, she'll start using HEADBUTT repeatedly in hopes of making Heraclitus flinch. If he gets her down way low on HP, she'll use ENDEAVOR to match his hit points to hers-- followed up by MACH PUNCH (guaranteed first strike, STAB, super-effective, boosted by Iron Fist) in a hail-mary attempt to take him down before he does the same to her. For Cicada, well, like with her round one battle, she wants to avoid her dirt-dragon going up against an Ice-type at all costs-- but if bad luck winds up forcing her to, she'll have him use the super-effective ROCK SLIDE as many times as possible praying to Arceus (figuratively) for flinches, and then SUPERPOWER if she thinks it has a chance of knocking Heraclitus out.
If Dirk succeeds in setting up a Trick Room in general, Razz and Dayglo both have priority moves (Iron Fist-boosted MACH PUNCH for Razz, SUCKER PUNCH for Dayglo if Dirk is trying to use a damaging move). Cicada... doesn't, but he does know MUD SLAP, and Heather is happy to accent whatever other status ailments she might have been able to inflict by telling her Pokemon to literally throw dirt in the opponent's face to lower their accuracy. If every single one of Dirk's Pokemon can hit faster than she can, she wants to at least make herself harder to hit.
If Dirk catches onto Heather's paralyze/confuse strategy early and starts spamming Magic Coat with PGP, she'll be Annoyed (tm) but will switch to setting up AQUA RING and STOCKPILE, using damaging moves in between to keep knocking out those substitutes. She's in no danger from having paralyzation reflected back onto her (since she's an Electric-type, it won't take effect), but she definitely doesn't want to wind up confused.
If one of Heather's Pokemon is inflicted with a status ailment, Dayglo knows HEAL BELL and will use it whenever she's next got a good opportunity (preferably after she's managed to paralyze and confuse whoever she's out against).
If everything goes to shit, Heather will hope that she at least gave Dirk an absolutely wretched time. If she loses, she will drop dramatically to her knees and look skyward in a classic "WHY???????" pose for the audience's amusement.
If she wins (and if Dirk is not already laying on the ground in the Family Guy death pose), she will make eye contact with him... and dab.
no subject
HEATHER MASON vs. DIRK STRIDER
FOR REFERENCE'S SAKE:
First things first... Heather has always been a hit-hard-hit-fast-ask-questions-later sort of person when it comes to a fight. Hence two out of her three Pokemon are high-attack speedsters. While that got her through her first round with Shoto by the skin of her teeth, the first three seconds of watching Dirk and G'rhyf's battle from the stands tell her immediately that it will not get her through Round 2. And while she truly is not expecting to win this whole thing, she really, really, really does not want to lose to Dirk.
SO. Hoping that her first battle (which Dirk probably watched?) will convince Dirk to expect all-brawn-no-brains (and therefore an easy battle) from her, she is going to take a leaf from Shoto's book and attempt a craftier mindset for this one. Primary goals? 1) Keep everybody paralyzed and confused as much as possible. 2) NO FUCKING TRICK ROOM.
STRATEGY FOR IF EVERYTHING GOES (CHEF'S KISS) PERFECTLY:
AND IF THERE'S ROADBLOCKS... (BECAUSE THERE WILL BE):
If everything goes to shit, Heather will hope that she at least gave Dirk an absolutely wretched time. If she loses, she will drop dramatically to her knees and look skyward in a classic "WHY???????" pose for the audience's amusement.
If she wins
(and if Dirk is not already laying on the ground in the Family Guy death pose), she will make eye contact with him... and dab.