Bethany Plays: Pokemon Alola Bonus: Ultra Beasts

Noah gets three boss fights, and fittingly, I found reason to use all three of the non-Melia Megas.

Absol drew the Anabel card, and while she won't be sweeping this one, I have more hopes for her than just Alakazam.

Glimmer has some handy matchups to make against a few of Anabel's Pokemon, and I can easily see just the right switch-in coming in handy.

...I have no idea what Eunie's plan is to mirror-match Mismagius. Her odds of outspeeding are not great.

Mio will make a solid Salamence counter, particularly with all those resists she's carrying. Won't outspeed, though, so the Wacan Berry will come in handy.

Triton can handle both Weavile and Salamence, whichever one turns out to be the more worrying prospect. It won't be half-bad on Snorlax, either.

Although there's nothing funnier than the idea of Snorlax versus Gonzales. World's most lethargic mirror match.

Five diverse Pokemon with set rules. Then again, I guess Noah has already dealt with Kukui and Blue.

Hm, now where have I seen that before?

We're going to take a different approach for this one.

See how easy the oneshot is when you don't have to worry about Reflect? The extra Atk Mega Absol has helps too.

Weavile. In addition to probably being able to take a Sucker Punch thanks to a Dark resist, it's carrying both X-Scissor and Brick Break. Alexandria doesn't have a lot to gain staying in.

You know what resists Bug and Fighting? Triton. And with Intimidate, Weavile's even weaker.

It's always fun to land a perfect counter.

And with the lack of Ice moves in her kit, Triton is even more of a perfect counter than it initially seems.

...You know, come to think of it, Weavile is an evolution of a Johto Pokemon, while Granbull is a Johto Pokemon that got recontextualised by having its type changed. It feels strangely funny that Granbull is the one that won.

Ehh... In addition to Heavy Slam not being Triton's idea of a good time, Triton's skill as a Snorlax counter kinda depends on it getting the Intimidate off.

Time for the battle of the Snorlaxes!

...Oi! What was the plan in Yawning Triton for, anyway?

Makes me wish Snorlax had some sort of passive Sleep Talk Ability, but that's Komala, I suppose...

I'm already drowsy, Anabel, what's the idea?

That's one fine Choice Band Body Slam, all right.

Wish I got off another one, though.

...Probably not going to get good luck with this Sleep.

Right, a Body Slam is incoming, so I switch to Eunie to nullify it. Eunie can't stay in, though- she's got no plan for Snorlax and Snorlax has Crunch for her.

Glimmer does, though. I kinda feel like these switch chains are a little cheesy, but damn if it isn't funny watching the AI fall for them.

Snorlax is a bit of a Special wall, though, so Glimmer's Aura Sphere is hardly the greatest weapon.

...Although if it's paralysed, that will sure help.

Switch out. That's... annoying, but it's not like Snorlax will be doing much when it comes back in.

Would probably be a more promising strategy if Glimmer was a Physical attacker.

As it is, the real gain was the Fighting resist.

Mio gets a nice switch in here, since Salamence's counterstrategy for Glimmer was going to be Fire Fang, a move Mio resists and is very low in BP.

Of course, Salamence avoids the SE move, since I'm holding the Wacan Berry. Since Dragon Claw is an immunity of Mio's, it's left with Zen Headbutt, a move that's got decent BP, but will not be scoring the KO without STAB.

Dealt with with distinction.

Mismagius. Packing both Grass and Electric. Yeah, Mio is getting away.

Alexandria can handle this opponent. This also shows off the fact that a Mega Evolution is permanent within a battle context- if I switch Alexandria out and then back in after Mega-Evolving her, she will remain Mega-Evolved. This is something some Megas can make better use of over others, but remains largely a novelty in Alexandria's hands.

Good, she could take a hit. Although I'm not a fan of how close that margin was.

Fortunately, the question of whether I need a second is moot due to Sucker Punch.

Snorlax came back, but it was handily dealt with with the guaranteed faster Night Slash. In Mega Form, Night Slash loses a lot of value over Sucker Punch due to the lack of Super Luck, but it does mean it works if Snorlax tried Yawn. Plus, the crit rate still exists.

I suppose it must feel right, to beat Anabel with a Battle Frontier's Set rules.

The rhythm of the UB missions meant that, by accident, I actually forgot to take my Mina team shots. I didn't notice I was doing it until I almost started Nanu without the shots, but it turns out it won't matter much. It's pretty obvious what the items of the Pokemon I used are.

The fact that I have deployed Glimmer tells you all you need to know.

In addition to being a relatively boring statup set and Abilities, Mega Lucario doesn't actually redesign Lucario all that much. But Glimmer is more than capable enough here, even if it forgot its Fairy resist.

...Had I known it was going to do that, I might've considered going for an attack turn 1. The somewhat ironic thing is that base Lucario has higher Sp. Atk, while Mega Lucario has higher Physical.

Glimmer went with Sp. Atk investments, and Riolu gives it Nasty Plot for setup.

Unfortunately, Klefki has realised its mistake.

And that was enough to prevent a oneshot.

Oh well, another one to be safe. I don't think Flash Cannon will worry about the backup, but better safe than sorry.

...OK, I guess we're attacking now.

Fine with me.

You wish.

There are some similarities between Flambebe and Glimmer's strategies, I'll admit.

Surprisingly, Mina actually let Glimmer sweep everything that wasn't Ribombee, while Flambebe left Wigglytuff. I think this has more to do with Glimmer's defensive profile than anything- Wigglytuff knows a move that's SE on Glimmer, were it allowed to use it.

A neutral hit. Although that does raise the question of whether Glimmer could've taken this hit had she not been hit with a crit from Klefki. And didn't bother with the first Aura Sphere.

Lanz can easily clean this mess up. He'd have the Amulet Coin, in all likelihood.

I've got no idea what I've got in my back pocket, but considering Glimmer handled herself just fine, I can only imagine what they would've done if they had got their attacks off.

Nanu's turn, and, uh... wow. Good thing Bethany didn't go straight from the conversation into the Nanu battle, or that line would be... yeah. At least I remembered to get my team screenshots this time!

I feel like I did kinda try to make a different one of Noah's Megas a keystone (no pun intended) of each of the UB battles, but wow they actually kinda fit for purpose, huh? With that said, Kailey turned out to not be able to pull off the Nanu fight quite as well as Glimmer did Mina, despite the fact that her subtype is not weak to Dark like hers was.

Triton will be the best and easiest cleanup crew, and Intimidate will cover lot of the scariest opponents.

Lanz isn't quite as amazing as you'd expect, since he doesn't resist Dark, but Leech Life will be hilarious if I can find the right opportunity.

Ethel's job is to deal with that frankly terrifying Krookodile. She's the one I can actually expect to pull that matchup off.

Glimmer is actually pretty decent, since she resists Dark thanks to the Fighting type. I think the best argument that "use a different Mega each match" was intentional was that I should really have fought Nanu with Glimmer's Mega rather than Kailey's.

And of course, Mio with her high bulk and Moonblast will make a generally nice pick.

So let's see how well this one goes.

Something about this matchup kinda gives me a bad omen. I think a part of it was me not giving Kailey as much EXP as I probably could, mostly to not "overlevel" her...

Still, let's give it a shot.

It's also worth noting that, as Mega Pinsir, Kailey does not get the benefits of Moxie.

Her only Ability is Aerialate, which is not contributing to the reasons Pinsir is a good choice for dealing with Nanu.

And now she's on a clock.

Saying a lot that I'm already deploying Glimmer here.

Glimmer goes for a Nasty Plot sweep, and while I get the idea, this was... not exactly the right time.

Krookodile's still up, after all.

And Glimmer does not outspeed.

Kailey, of course, is immune to Ground. This'll be just a fine way to avoid an Earthquake.

Oh. Aerial Ace is... not what I wanted to see.

Especially when I'm not oneshotting in return. Dangit, Kailey.

Ethel, your turn.

Much better. Although she will have to take another attack on the switch in.

This could've gone a lot better.

Still, it's down, and Mio and Triton are still untouched. I'm still in this.

Ethel, probably not so much.

Honchkrow came next, and Ethel took a bold strategy of staying in. It didn't even Sucker Punch me!

Turns out that's because it saw an opportunity to Psychic and took it. So much for Leech Life.

Triton felt like the right option here.

Although that's a bit more HP than I'm happy to lose before I get to Absol. At least he's a very critty opponent, not sure Intimidate helps.

Switched for Mio on Persian. Thanks to Fake Out and Leftovers, this was basically a free action.

That Thunderbolt is uncomfortable, though. Nanu almost seems built to counter the Dark counters that Alola has, rather than the idea of "Dark counters in general".