0:00 – Lana / Karen / SS Misty
4:19 – EX Elio / EX Wally / Darach
8:12 – Brock / Ghetsis / EX Spring Burgh
12:19 – EX Bede / Masked Royal / Hop
The best news I got from this update was Cresselia not being part of the next Gauntlet. I love challenging stages as much as the next Gauntlet fanatic, but even I know that Cresselia is such a pain to teambuild with. Any Gauntlet with her is probably only gonna take me to a 30-40 win streak, and that’s assuming that the two other arenas are on the easier side.
One of her many gimmicks that need to be addressed is her Go Viral 9 status conditions – Thunder Wave on Bar 1 and Toxic on Bar 2. I wanted to use this video to focus on preventing those specifically, as there are more ways to deal with them now compared to when this stage was first introduced.
Here’s how each battle went, and the sync grids used:
Team 1: Lana / Karen / SS Misty – https://ng-pomatools.web.app/team?v0=011002013400&s0=1&l0=140&r0=5&p0=0&a0=21010101&t0=44111&g0=AAECAwQFBgcICQoMERITFRobHB0jJCUmJyg&v1=016000075200&s1=3&l1=140&r1=5&p1=0&a1=17011701&t1=44114&g1=AAECAwQFBgcKCw0PERobHB8iJikr&v2=006200022900&s2=5&l2=140&r2=5&p2=0&a2=13010602&t2=4411&g2=AAECAwQFERQVFhgaGyUnKCkr
A while back, I gave Lana one of the guaranteed Status Immunity cookies (https://youtu.be/3IR454kgnwA) since she’s one of the lucky few tanks who already have both Vigilance and regen in their kits. It’s situational at best, but when the stage calls for it, it can really make the difference between an annoying clear and an easy one. Cresselia is one of those stages, as with Lana’s Status Immunity and constant healing, she can tank pretty much the whole fight. SS Misty takes care of Cresselia’s annoying buffs and also provides Sp Def buffs to help Lana tank, while Karen is the main striker even though I use her Tech grid here. It was nice to use Bite in a more offensive context this time.
Team 2: EX Elio / EX Wally / Darach – https://ng-pomatools.web.app/team?v0=015900039800&s0=3&l0=140&r0=5&p0=0&a0=13010602&t0=44111&g0=AAECAwQFBgcREhUWGRwfICMlKQ&v1=012200073000&s1=5&l1=140&r1=5&p1=0&a1=18050301&t1=44444&g1=AAECAwQFBggJCg0OGRocHyIlLw&v2=012800047500&s2=5&l2=140&r2=5&p2=0&a2=13010602&t2=44444&g2=AAECAwQFBgkKFxwdHyAiJC4v
This is one of those clears where things didn’t go exactly as planned, but the end-result was even more worth talking about. My simple idea here was to use disruption to prevent Cresselia’s status, and I went with Elio’s Sing since he’s of course one of the best partners to best boy Wally, who shines here with his mixed offenses. Darach completed the team with his evasion debuffs to make Sing accurate and his speed debuffs to boost Wally’s Cakewalk.
That’s all fine and dandy, but Cresselia gets status reflection in the second half of Bar 2, so when I used Sing on her it bounced back to Elio. I was about to reset, but then I realized that if Elio was asleep, Cresselia’s Toxic would fail, and syncing with Elio would just get rid of the sleep anyway. I didn’t know that the status reflection extended to the third bar, but by then Wally’s Focus Blast was doing enough damage anyway.
Team 3: Brock / Ghetsis / EX Spring Burgh – https://ng-pomatools.web.app/team?v0=019500064600&s0=5&l0=140&r0=5&p0=0&a0=13010602&t0=4111&g0=AAECAwQFBggLGB0gISIjJCUuLw&v1=001500009500&s1=3&l1=140&r1=3&p1=0&a1=13010602&t1=44111&g1=AAECAwQFBggLDh0gIiUnKCsuLw&v2=017001017500&s2=2&l2=140&r2=5&p2=0&a2=17041601&t2=44141&g2=AAECAwQFERITFRobHB4gIyYpKis
Highlighting one of Brock’s grid tiles that I’ve never used before – Group Therapy on his trainer move. This is basically an AOE Full Heal, which is perfect against Go Viral status. I paired him with Ghetsis since they both have Cakewalk-boosted syncs and cover both ends of the damage spectrum, while Spring Burgh completed the team with his buffs. I probably should’ve reset until I got enough MPRs on Spring Burgh’s trainer move to get accuracy buffs, but I guess I wanted to show that you can just rely on the sync move when the team is this bulky.
Team 4: EX Bede / Masked Royal / Hop – https://ng-pomatools.web.app/team?v0=011700072700&s0=3&l0=140&r0=5&p0=0&a0=18040702&t0=41111&g0=AAECAwQFBggLDQ8UFRYZIyUnKis&v1=024600085800&s1=3&l1=140&r1=5&p1=0&a1=13010602&t1=4441&g1=AAECAwQFBggKDA0QFRgjJSks&v2=024400088901&s2=5&l2=140&r2=5&p2=0&a2=21010101&t2=44444&g2=AAECAwQFBggLDRAaHB8iJCYoKw
For some reason, they decided to add Status Reflection to Bede’s trainer move, but I’m not complaining since it does give him an additional niche. Unfortunately, Cresselia has Clearheaded so Bede’s damage output is hindered here, so I focused on his debuffing niche this time around. I was trying to fish for evasion debuffs with Hard Knocks 9, but of course I got every debuff but evasion. Thankfully, I decided to pair him with Masked Royal, whose Darkest Lariat ignores evasion buffs and hits for SE damage. Hop completes the team since I needed crit buffs and heals.
#PokemonMasters #PokemonMastersEX #LegendaryArena