Bethany Plays: Pokemon Alola Bonus: Electrium Z

We start off with Noah, and well, he's off doing the Molayne fight and picking up some EXP. No team preview yet, but that may be for the best.

This must be Skarmory's worst nightmare: being matched up against the baby form of one of its most popular counters. Anti-Skarmory Magnemite usually run Magnet Pull, but owned by an in-game Trainer, this one won't be running away anyway.

The thing about Magnemite vs Skarmory is that Magnemite dual-resists Skarmory's STAB, and Skarmory's defensively-focused kits don't tend to have room for coverage moves. And even if they did, I don't know what moves Skarmory has that hit Magnemite's weaknesses, or even neutrals. Best you've got is Night Slash, and Dark coverage is pretty rough.

And we pew pew right back with Special Electric, rating highly on the list of things Skarmory hates. PRNDL is almost custom-designed to be an anti-Skarmory machine.

I almost feel bad.

Net +2 Sp. Atk out of those Charge Beams. Would be cool...

If Dugtrio wasn't something PRNDL was terrified of being in the same room with. Granted, this particular Dugtrio is running Mud Bomb for some reason, but we are still getting PRNDL out of this situation.

Mio demonstrating why PRNDL was a valid choice. On the other hand, PRNDL doesn't have much to respond to Ground/Steel as a type.

Dugtrio hard-read me and performed a Sucker Punch in order to land free damage.

On the other hand, knowing a Scald was incoming did not prepare him for actually taking the Scald.

Anyway, Metang. Don't really have anything quite so clean for this guy, so let's start treating it like a soft boss-

I'm using a Metang with Ray. You'd think I'd remember this one.

Oh well, Water resists Steel. Free attempt.

Gonna let Earthwerk go for the KO, though. Ground/Ghost is pretty good for Totem Vikavolt.

That is a nice number to be seeing.

...Ew. Earthwerks kinda trapped here, huh...

And Sand Tomb is hardly the most effective attack to be firing.

Not sure what I was going for Rock Polish for, but it does mean I am now the one who is outspeeding.

Which just means now Metang is throwing out Bullet Punch instead of Pursuit. Less risk, I guess, but...

Ugh, that's a problem, too. Earthwerk has to win this fight twice...

Dang. I was hoping to get that EXP, but I guess not...

Gonzales has this covered.

...In, er, two hits. It is a coverage move, I guess...

Magneton (Sun): When three Magnemite link together, their brains also become one. They do not become three times more intelligent.

Noah got some more evos off Molayne, including one for PRNDL itself. Magneton was considered a fully evolved Pokemon up until DPPt, where it got an evolution. With that said, however, that kinda just made Magneton better, because Magneton can handle itself decently (its HP is a bit terrible, but it has a Special Atk base of 120) and Electric/Steel continues to be an awesome typing. I won't be able to get PRNDL to evolve for a while, but with the Eviolite, that shouldn't be too much of an issue.

Tri Attack is an awesome move for it to learn as an evolution move. 80 BP, Special Normal, this move has a 20% chance of inflicting Paralysis, Burn or Freeze (only one can be inflicted). The coverage only really allows PRNDL to hit other Electric types neutrally, but until it learns its high BP Electric/Steel moves, this is good to have as a powerful hit.

Magmar (Ultra Sun): Its entire body is burning. When it breathes, the temperature rises. When it sneezes, flames shoot out!

You know, I probably could've got away with deploying Arsena against Metang. If nothing else, Flame Body gave me good odds of doing what Baby-Doll Eyes was meant to do. At any rate, Magmar has a similar story to Magneton mechanically- this thing was considered fully evolved before DPPt, we won't be evolving it until late here, and we don't care because its stats are good enough to carry it until then. 100/93 Sp. Atk/Spd, it's a little behind PRNDL's power, but it'll probably outspeed more than its fair share of foes.

Anyway, onto Vikavolt.

Arsena's about to show off something really cool. I actually put Sandygast on this team because I thought it would hard-counter Vikavolt (resisting both its STAB types), but in retrospect, I think Magmar might be the more effective counter here.

A weakness to Electric moves will make it hard to deploy the boy, but if Taion's allowed to perform an action while not in Defeatist, it'll probably clean up any situation it's in.

This would be an amazing Pokemon to have against many Electric types, but that Bug type will hurt Nimue more than it helps. She gave an effort, but she'll be Leech Seeding and leaving if she contributes.

The other problem with Earthwerk vs Arsena: What's his plan? I think it's Hidden Power, but that's not a plan. Still, though, as long as no one has Bite around it, Earthwerk will be hard to shift.

...I think it's more EXP than functionality putting you on this team. Rock Tomb is the move Kailey is using, not Bulldoze, but I'm hardly getting functionality here.

PRNDL isn't quite the defensive hard-counter Genevieve was on Togedemaru, but its actually functional defensive stats and resisting most of the scary moves that exist here mean that it might as well be.

Night-only Zygarde Cell here. Beth's free to backtrack here later, I'm just keeping the time-locked Zygarde Cells in terms of which playthrough they're supposed to be seen with.

No real question what's happening in the in-betweens: Arsena is oneshotting bugs.

Incidentally, if you get a question wrong, Sophocles takes an electric shock. I'm not cruel enough to spam a few wrong answers, but sometimes I wonder...

Right, time for the real Totem. So what's Arsena going to show us that gives her the edge over Earthwerk?

Clear Smog. Clear Smog is basically Haze if it were the bonus effect of an offensive attack, except it won't clear your own buffs. In one move, Arsena has cut Vikavolt's offensive power, defensive bulk, and what little speed it has. I think Earthwerk's still slower, though.

Lucky! That Burn status has cut Vikavolt's Atk further, and also applied some passive damage it has no answer to. See above about Arsena being the strictly-speaking superior hard counter.

And here come the Charjabug. Well, if Vikavolt's power is so low...

Might as well go for the Flame Bursts. Yeah, Arsena's got that, too.

Finally, something Arsena doesn't totally swamp Vikavolt with.

And it cost her a move. Ah well, it would've been an attack aimed at Vikavolt anyway.

With that said, the extra turn of Burn damage caused it to summon its other Charjabug, and now I can Flame Burst it down and leave nothing in this fight but the Vikavolt.

Might as well show off the Occa Berry. If such a Berry comes into play, the Pokemon eats it before the damage readout comes up. Without the Occa Berry, that probably would have been a finishing blow.

Arsena is also building up some scatches, so I wound up switching in Nimue. She is the lowest level one, after all.

Perfect. To be fair, Vikavolt would have to be a little foolish to click Bug Bite when it thinks it's aiming at a Fire type.

How ironic. After saying Nimue's role in the battle was pure support, I wound up only clicking Giga Drain after all. With how well Arsena handled it, there wasn't that much for Earthwerk to do.

Sadly, Nimue doesn't have a victory pose. Surely it has a curtsey or something?

Ah well. Ray, your turn to handle Togedemaru.

Ray's got this covered. He's got an actual Ground type, and one that answers both of Togedemaru's non-Electric moves.

After seeing how the fight went down, this is kind of hilarious, but Sirehound is here as a bit of a last hurrah. I plan to bench Sirehound before it evolves, to show off something later, and this fight is actually surprisingly kind to Sirehound despite being an Electric boss. A little weird I didn't go with the Wacan Berry from Araquanid, but I don't have a ton of Eviolite candidates. Although with that said...

I wish I could've evolved Ghondor sooner. I wanted to make sure it had all the options it needed offensively. But since I wound up forgetting I could get it, that was not on the table. Ah well. It's getting that EXP now, that's what counts.

(Also, it turns out Elekid can get Brick Break, so I switched out Electro Ball for it before the battle.)

No Lightning Rod, means Theodore isn't a hard counter that blocks both Electric and Steel moves, but Will-O-Wisp and Bonemerang give it excellent value otherwise. Theodore continues to be a strong Totem counter.

Intimidate and Bulldoze, what else? Wiingo's a one-trick pony. Or, well, Bull.

I didn't wind up giving Deep Blue an item, because I wasn't sure what it wanted. In hindsight, this is where the Eviolite should've gone, to give Sirehound that Wacan Berry.

Turns out this guy doesn't comment on you giving a wrong or uncertain answer, but he does seem encouraging of the prospect of us becoming an astronomer. Tempting, but I'll pass.

Ray checked the bushes in a different order to Ailey, mostly to show off that Sevenjabug will always be missing from the last bush you check.

Right, time to solve some puzzles.

And Bulldoze some Electric types.

A few other dramatic shots of this moment.

But otherwise, let's get started. We've got a second summon to see as well.

Went for the Sirehound lead. Bold strategy, but some well-placed Encores should give me a decent opening.

Assuming I'm allowed to actually land any moves.

Skarmory can only frustrate Sirehound, Steel Wing can't do much damage. My problem will always be the Togedemaru.

And Baby-Doll will always cover me on that.

Imagine being only slightly concerned about incoming STAB SEs.

Ew, Torment. At least Baby-Doll Eyes, Encore and Icy Wind are all good moves to be using.

And here comes the Stealth Rock.

That is a hilarious output on Icy Wind, by the way. You can barely tell it nicked Togedemaru, and that is a crit? Neutral on Skarmory, incidentally.

Always the worst combo to see.

Let's see what Ghondor can do, then.

Nothing, then. Rude.

Unfortunately, Theodore really hates Stealth Rocks, but let's see if we can't get something out of this.

Rude! But ultimately I should have plenty of time before Theodore is down.

You won't let me do anything!

And Tormented...

Well, I kinda expected that.

That's why I was aiming at Skarmory this time. All that natural defence is nothing to the power of a big stick.

And to add insult to injury, Bounce missed.

Got Will-O-Wisp this time. Maybe should've saved Ghondor, but I don't think she would've done much anyway.

Oh come on, we're really doing this?

...Huh. Intimidate works during semi-invulnerability.

Right, it's on the ground now... do I outspeed?

Apparently I do. And that's going to get the second summon, too!

...I think, with the Burn, it's still going to have low enough HP. But a second Bulldoze will ensure it anyway.

Either way, I did spawn it. Sadly, I don't have Dedenne's stats, but if Skarmory is any indication, it probably doesn't have any actual investment. I do know it has the Pickup Ability (allows it to pick up any consumable item that gets used- fortunately, it came too late to get the Sitrus Berry), and carries Super Fang, Charm, Eerie Impulse and Discharge. Aside from boosting Togedemaru's Lightning Rod, it should be noted that Lightning Rod would redirect any Electric move other than Discharge.

Eerie Impulse is the Special Attack equivalent to Charm, Screech, Fake Tears and Scary Face, applying -2 Sp. Atk stages to the target. It was the last of such moves to be introduced, first appearing in XY, and the only Pokemon that can learn it in Alola is Lanturn- and only by Move Reminder. Dedenne gets it by breeding.