Right, so then, let's fight Guzma with a few of our other kids. Shouldn't be too hard.
A fast, special-attacking Flying type is a good lead for Guzma if you don't want to set Rocks. Consilia will succeed at that.
And Nemo's our... relatively fast Rock attacker to count on. 58's not great, though.
Hawkeye doesn't really need an item, although in this fight, it may want to have one at hand.
Sue, of course. Guzma's weak to Rocks, you pack all the Rocks you have.
He's also surprisingly weak to Electric, so in the party Genevieve goes.
Ridley's running HP Electric, Draining Kiss is good leeching, and the high Defence might help for Golisopod. I'm feeling good about this team.
OK, funnily, it turns out USUM changed Guzma's line from "You don't look like Hala's grandson" to "you don't look like you're Alolan". Which, I would agree with... had the line still been addressed to Bethany. It's absolutely not a line it's OK to say to Ailey, although the game does have the mitigating circumstances that a) none of the skin tones really match the Hawai'ian look, and b) Alola has enough local diversity that there are non-racist reasons he can draw this conclusion.
But still, he hopped out one frying pan and into another because of the protagonist switch. I dunno, how much can I blame him for this one...?
The response if you say that the Island Challenge makes you strong. Guzma's counterargument to this position is that Guzma knows quite a large number of people who serve as counterevidence to that assertion, not that he'd say it aloud in front of their faces.
Anyway, now Ailey gets to face her version of Guzma. His main strategy hasn't changed much, but they've given him a few subtle buffs.
Golisopod now has flat 30 IVs and 252 EVs in Atk. This, on top of the +3 levels USUM Guzma has over SM, means that Golisopod's Atk has increased by roughly 30% of its SM value- and at this point, those IV changes to Def and Sp. Def translate to a 15% buff each. It has also lost Swords Dance (a scary but relatively meaningless buff) for the additional priority coverage move Sucker Punch.
...All of a sudden I'm not so sure Xatu's the right lead for this fight...
...As omens go, I'd rate this as about a 3. Oh well, it was a neutral hit...
Right, Ridley, this is your fight.
There's the Sucker Punch. That Water resist doesn't really strike me as too great now, although Ridley's high Defence still counts for something...
...HP Electric didn't scare him out.
Emergency healing supplies!
To a lot of Pokemon fans, Masquerain is a bit of a terrible Pokemon. In its game of origin, Surskit was a 1% spawn on five different routes (what, did you think it would get more common later?), and it lost its unique Bug/Water typing to become a Bug/Flying type on evolution. This made it comparable to the early-evolves Butterfree and Beautifly- comparisons it kinda loses to statwise? It at least has Intimidate, but it can't run the Spores like Butterfree can, and said game of origin forces it to run its lesser favoured stat. You would be forgiven, therefore, for thinking that Guzma switching from Ariados to Masquerain is not a tangible change.
Nope. Starting in SM, Masquerain's Sp. Atk and Spd stats have been buffed by 20 points each, turning the pathetic 80/60 Special offenses into a moderately respectable 100/80 spread- hardly game-changing, but numbers you have to treat with respect. Guzma's Masquerain has flat 30 IVs, 252 EVs in Sp. Atk/Spd, and the Modest Nature (114 Sp. Atk, 91 Spd)- apart from the fact it's now a Special Attacker, not distinct from Ariados. Its moves are Air Slash, Bug Buzz, and Icy Wind. It's running high BP dual STAB, a coverage move that can slow you down, and Air Slash can flinch. (Also Bug Buzz can lower your Sp. Def, but at those chances, that's a bit of an academic advantage). This ain't yo grandpappy's Masquerain.
Fortunately, if you had a Special Attacker out to whittle down Golisopod, Intimidate is the least of your worries.
That, on the other hand...
OK. Gotta focus. Nemo, you can handle this, you're a Rock type: You're 4x SE on Masquerain.
...That is moderately alarming.
Things are going, to put it bluntly, badly.
Right, Hawkeye, you resist Bug, it's your turn. Let's get this over with.
Excellent, Hawkeye is fast enough to secure the outspeed. One more hit and we've got this-
...I'm not 100% convinced it needed the Icy Wind, it was just doing that to show off. If it did need Icy Wind, though, that was the correct play and he played it to perfection.
It all comes down to Genevieve. Electric type, you can handle this...
It did survive to KO the Masquerain. But as you remember... we didn't KO Golisopod.
"I'm BAAAAAAACK!"
"And I've got a 90 BP STAB priority move. That hits you neutrally."
Ladies and gentlemen, on the list of things I wasn't expecting to happen: a party wipe. Guzma is a required victory, so we have to go back in and try again, but one thing is clear: We can't rely on doing what we just did again and expecting different results. Pertinent observations:
- We need a better lead on Golisopod.
- Honestly, Genevieve needs to slow down Masquerain.
- And we definitely need to start holding items.
Right, we're back, let's rethink our items. Consilia is actually not changing her plan of being the Amulet Coin bearing lead. I do, however, have an idea in mind.
Nemo doesn't really have much it can hope for, so might as well up the Miss chance, on the off chance it works.
The Metronome boosts the power of Electroweb for consecutive uses. I'm not sure Genevieve is getting consecutive uses, but it's on the table.
Hawkeye wants the Expert Belt for that sweet extra firepower.
And Sue's hoping she has the defense to make use of Eviolite and survive a Bug Buzz if necessary.
I'm switching Ridley out entirely, and employing Shade instead. Shade's party trick is her own Intimidate, but don't underestimate the power of that double Bug resist she's packing as a Steel/Fairy type.
Ready for Round Two?
An apt line to get pop up for what looks like the exact same problem we got in before.
SURPRISE! This gets us the Amulet Coin buff, and baits Golisopod into using a move Shade doesn't care about to minimise the damage.
Plus, this still gets us the Intimidate.
Surprising results from becoming a Mawile fan in Gen 6: finding out base Mawile isn't awful.
Right now, Shade's moves aren't great, so the Fake Tears it is.
Ehhh... not sure I can count on Mawile's first hit doing the numbers I need. Even with Fairy Wind- a STAB neutral.
Genevieve it is. We don't need a ton of speed for this outspeed.
That was Razor Shell. I like that number, I like that number...
...I've gotta admit, I'm not sure paralysis on Golisopod was the right call. Electroweb it and get it out of here, girl.
Now we can't paralyse Masquerain, and that was pretty important.
...Electroweb was even a oneshot, after Fake Tears. Yeah, T-Wave was a bad call.
...Although I'm not even necessarily sure it would've taken the Bug Buzz anyway. Still, though...
Sue is our best bet here now. She has Rock Tomb, Eviolite, and a whole lot of chutzpah.
Eviolite was sufficient!
That was what was supposed to happen the first time. That's what would have happened if Rock actually resisted Bug. The number 1 reason the first attempt went so badly was because I didn't properly respect the fact that Rock does not resist Bug. Because having Bugs fight Rock types is usually a bad idea, this isn't something most people test, even against the Rock types that are weak to Bugs, like Cradily, Solrock and Tyranitar.
When we first discussed type advantages with the Grass < Fire < Water triangle, I pointed out that you should never take the defensive merits of a type advantage for granted. Let this be an abject lesson in exactly why.
I can't exactly say my reaction to his victory was any different, fair's fair.
Anyway, as Guzma storms off angrily, he pauses.
Hau made it back from the malasada shop early this time, and it seems Guzma has some words with him!
Hau, the poor boy he is, doesn't know what the two could possibly talk about other than acknowledging that they know each other's names.
Going right for the gut on that one, aren't you, Guzma?
And right after his new doubts about his battling ability in Malie, too...
Kukui calls Hau over to join in the celebrations, although it seems Guzma did hit him hard.
Not so much that he can't fake a little enthusiasm.
...Hey mate, how long have you been doing that?
Kukui offers this line, which is the sort of line that helps him sound like he's actually worried about Hau's mental well-being.
On the other hand, counter-examples might be better than just reassuring him something exists.
Since Hau is here now, Kukui and Lillie include him in their statements.
The remainder of the conversation is the same, although once again, USUM Rotom actually paid attention.
Hau sticks around as an NPC after that scene, and talking to him allows you to get some insight into just what he took away from Guzma's parting shot.
Namely, that for all the fun he's having on his journey, that seems to be all it is he's getting out of it. That's hardly an argument to stop, but it does kinda make him wonder... does Guzma have a point? Would people who don't have fun find it as fulfilling?
...Anyway, Noah.
No surprises who's taking point this time. About the only thing to be worried about is a Razor Shell oneshot.
Admittedly, that's looking pretty likely, but...
Oh, Ethel's going to make Guzma cry for mummy.
...I'll be honest, I'm not sure what I want to bring Rain to Golisopod's doorstep. Probably wasn't the Amulet Coin user of choice.
Fairly sure he's here for EXP. Although he sure won't be going down in a hurry!
She can contribute... but that's about it. The birds have got this.
Also EXP. And possibly Psychic on Ariados, but that sounds like a poor way of solving that problem.
Righty-o, then. Noah has the easy fight, but we can't take it for granted.
Not when Taion's in the lead. Golisopod has better physical bulk than Skarmory, don't you know?
...Dangit.
I was so hopeful. Oh well.
Oh, now you're just showing off, Ethel.
...Although, wait a second...
What do you mean, at no point in any of these three moves did Golisopod Emergency Exit?
That also didn't trigger the Mago Berry, which is irritating. Mago Berry's 25%.
Well, it looks like Golisopod didn't trigger Emergency Exit for Noah, either. Wonder what's going on with that.
Well, if there's no chance of Golisopod coming back, might as well get the Amulet Coin out.
That's really all he goes for.
Credit where credit is due, he wasn't oneshot by that. Probably more of a comment on Daj than Ariados, though.
Oh well. When in doubt, click Scald.
Another shot of his "berating self" animation- got a pretty good shot on this one, actually.
Ray's turn.
I think we knew Candy would be playing a key role in Ray's Guzma fights from the minute I said "Guzma is particularly susceptible to Stealth Rock". Sand Stream to shore up our Rock types' Special Defence will also be nice for Masquerain.
The main reason I'm running both Candy and Dawn is to hit Guzma with strong Rock attacks and Stealth Rock.
Angry Bird is kinda getting to the point where Fearow's soft-powercrept nature is going to be an issue. His job on the team is kinda winding up, but is his space in the party sufficiently covered, when we know we've got a few Bug-type bosses ahead?
Veeka's story is getting... interesting. She's still good, but we're going to have some words about her fate on Route 12.
Did you know Alena is actually really good in this fight? Take another look at Golisopod's kit.
Guardia's job is to be something that can take a hit from Masquerain and hit back with a SE move. Looking at its kit again, I think Guardia is an even harder counter to Golisopod than you might expect.
Here's hoping Ray doesn't have to do this one twice.
I love how Golisopod and Gigalith kinda look alike. Not, like, significantly, but you look at these two titans and see natural enemies. And of course, their statlines and typings show us a pair of Pokemon that can have an equal match.
Unfortunately, the sandstorm is only a defensive asset on Special attacks. Against Golisopod, it's just chip.
Razor Shell is dangerous and gets even more so.
Got my rocks up.
Which is good, because Candy is not lasting another turn in this fight.
Giving Veeka a shot. She has the Eviolite, after all.
...Eurgh. -1 Def from Razor Shell and my own residual damage? Those are good odds of being finished next move.
I sacrificed Veeka for the free switch. Fortunately, Veeka's days on the team were already numbered.
Dawn goes in, to benefit from sandstorm when Masquerain comes in.
And she manages to scare Golisopod off. Funny how neither night team managed it. Well, on the successful run.
As a Bug/Flying type, Masquerain takes ~50% HP from being poked with Stealth Rocks. In practice, you still need a plan for something to take out the other 50%, but this is why anything with a x4 weakness to Rocks is considered terrible in competitive Singles- they do a lot more switch-ins than in the main story.
Took an Intimidate for the cunning plan, but this is pretty worth it.
Sue oneshot Masquerain with Rock Tomb from full HP. What hope did half HP Masquerain of taking a Rock Tomb from the...
Gets nerd sniped by doing the math actually, I think -1 Atk Dawn is weaker than unmodified Sue. At least Dawn had an Expert Belt while Sue had an Eviolite?
That was dangerously close to Golisopod being taken out by the Rocks.
I decided to have some fun and switch in Alena, to show off her party trick.
I may have forgotten which Pokemon is holding the Amulet Coin...
Ouch. Razor Shell. Worrying.
Hah. Sandstorm almost finished him.
Golisopod only knows one move that can hit Alena, and she resists it.
And as it turns out, Guzma doesn't realise that. Possibly because Alena could not be running Queenly Majesty. But... you know... why wouldn't you?
Anyway, a Trop Kick finished the job, and...
...Right. No Amulet Coin to boost the payout for me!
Incidentally, Guzma's payout is x120, putting him in the middle of the pack for evil team leaders (he's poorer than any evil team leader in a game from DPPt on, but richer than the originals), and pretty high among the Trainer Classes of SM- fitting his status as a boss.
Next time: We'll be goin' 'round the mountain...
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