Pokemon Brilliant Diamond - 0 Exp Part 10: Fantina

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MoogleBoss

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Published on June 12, 2022 5:13:37 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnL650eeujU

Game:

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (2021)

Duration: 4:03

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The fifth gym leader in the game, Fantina uses the hard-to-counter ghost-type Pokemon. Ways of exploiting their weakness aren't easy to find, and Gengar even takes it another step further by holding a Colbur Berry to patch up its weakness to dark-type moves like Gyarados' Crunch. We also find ourselves moderately underlevelled. Previously the level champion of the party, Spiritomb no longer boasts any level advantage to speak of, and its typing doesn't provide it with any resistance against ghost-type STABs.

Drifblim leads the battle for Fantina, and Spiritomb ends up being my counter. With Payback, it can actually land an easy unboosted OHKO on its foe, but Drifblim has a diverse moveset coupled with odd AI behaviour. Strength Sap, Will-O-Wisp and Fly can all be used alongside Hex, the latter sufficient to 2HKO Drifblim. However, if it does take precedence over the other moves, Drifblim will fall prey to Payback on the very first turn.

Gengar is next, taking usual damage from dark-type moves but no longer immune to ground-type moves after losing Levitate in the transition between generations 6 & 7. It hits hard with Sludge Bomb and coverage Dazzling Gleam, but its ghost-type attacking is limited to physical offence, somewhat gimping its potential. Unlike the potentially burn-inflicting Drifblim, Gengar is one of the two Pokemon Fantina uses that go for confusion instead. We don't want a 33% chance to miss a turn at all, so Persim Berries on any and all Pokemon likely to be used in this fight as well as the next are appropriate. Here, Golem wins the matchup thanks to a turn being wasted on activating a Persim Berry. If he had failed, I would've finished the job with an Extrasensory-using Noctowl.

Mismagius, Fantina's final Pokemon, may threaten my Machamp, armed with Guts to maximise Knock Off damage against a Pokemon who does indeed have a held item, with its coverage Dazzling Gleam, but I can't even tell you if it would OHKO with it, considering it's never once come up on any of my attempts. Confuse Ray and the weak Phantom Force seem a lot more popular in comparison, strangely enough. With Persim, Machamp fears neither of the two.

I've kinda grown tired of having to trade-evolve Graveler and Machoke every time new ones are found in the wild, though they remain such universally good Pokemon in most matchups all the way until endgame.

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