Pokémon Scarlet & Violet - Golden Archaludons - Global Challenge 2024 II #1
9If you’ve just tuned in, and going through my previous Pokémon Scarlet and Violet battle videos, you may be wondering: “Where’s Global Challenge 2024 I”? Well, there is none. I didn’t participate in it. That’s because, unlike the other official competition events, signups end when the competition begins, rather than when the competition ends. I didn’t realize that and missed the registration window. Well, I wasn’t going to make that same mistake for this one, and I signed up ahead of time, so here I am now!
Type: Double Battle
Opponent: Are$tout
Battle Court: Naranja Academy/Uva Academy
Music: Pecharunt
My Pokémon: Zebstrika, Mightyena, Hippowdon, Pyroar
Opponent's Pokémon: Pelipper, Zapdos (Kantonian), Archaludon, Baxcalibur
A lot of the matches I played in this event were pretty long, and this one was no exception, going through various phases. Considering various Pokémon on their team benefit from rain, I think they needed to ensure Pelipper would be there to provide rain when needed—since these people are a savvier bunch than usual (and some of them may not only have been watching the VGCs going on in Utrecht, but may also be participating in it), I did not expect them to just keep Pelipper around to get zapped by some Electric attack from Zebstrika. Hence, a lot of this came down to guessing games on both sides about what they’ll do next.
Nevertheless, I gave Volt Switch a try anyway—if they do switch, I could perhaps bring out someone better suited to whatever takes Pelipper’s place. As it seems, Zebstrika would’ve been the best Pokémon to deal with Archaludon anyway. That’s because Archaludon’s signature move, Electro Shot, is normally a two-turn move, with Archaludon charging and raising its Sp. Attack on the first turn, then attacking on the second turn, but in rain, Archaludon will do all of that in one turn. This is a devastatingly powerful move found on about 86% of all Archaludon in Ranked, at 130 power and calculated off of Archaludon’s 125 Sp. Attack plus the boost during charging. Having Zebstrika around is crucial because, as an Electric attack, Lightning Rod would redirect Electro Shot and give Zebstrika’s attacks the oomph needed to surprise my opponent and score the first KO of the match.
Though just as they overlooked Zebstrika’s Lightning Rod, I overlooked Baxcalibur’s Thermal Exchange. Baxcalibur isn’t as common a sight as they used to be, though they certainly can’t be dismissed as weak, especially with the Tailwind boost. (It’s hard to counter Tailwind due to Farigiraf’s rising popularity, such that experienced players like my opponents in this event know they’ll have Trick Room. Farigiraf is the most popular Trick Room user currently.)
Finally, you can see that my opponent is fond of using Hurricane, as the move’s accuracy is boosted to 100% in rain, regardless of accuracy or evasion modifiers. Initially, I thought that the accuracy drops to 50% if under any other sort of non-neutral weather, but looking it up, it’s just harsh sunlight. Otherwise, the accuracy is just 70%. Since Rock Slide’s accuracy is 90%, I consider them luckier that Rock Slide missed from my side than Hurricane missing from theirs (though changing the weather from rain to sandstorm was probably still the wrench in their plans).
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