Pokémon Sword & Shield - Accept No Substitutes - Dec 22 19 C

Channel:

Overhazard

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Published on December 26, 2019 8:00:08 AM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5Ec0YKrJ3M

Game:

Pokémon Sword and Shield (2019)

Duration: 5:45

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19

It seems that I came across two people in a row whose League number is 555. Is that what happens when you input it in as quickly as possible? Is the cursor at 5 by default? I never checked, since I actually spent several minutes on deciding my number. My number is 259, and, like most things I decide upon, it's a reference to something (though not necessarily something significant): My favorite episode of Tiny Toon Adventures, "One Minute Till Three," in which Plucky Duck is trying to get the class to end before Granny, the professor, comes over to his desk to ask him a really hard question. He ultimately fails, but tells Granny "It's two fifty-nine," prompting her to congratulate him because 259 was the correct answer.

That's pretty much it.

Opponent: のの (Nono) (555)
Stadium: Default Stadium
Music: Legendary Battle
My Pokémon: Qwilfish, Galvantula, Haxorus
Opponent's Pokémon: Dragapult, Glaceon, ?

Don't think that I can figure out every opponent flawlessly, because I can get caught off guard completely sometimes too. This opponent is one such case. My eyes were drawn right away to Mimikyu, Sylveon, and Dragapult, so I hadn't noticed that the rest of the team consists of offbeat Pokémon as well (perhaps except for Glaceon, who has been continuously popular in Pokémon battles in Japan since it debuted but not elsewhere), though maybe that's just that のの is a fan of Eeveelutions, considering half the team is them. Certainly, the presence of Greedent should've tipped me off...but perhaps Greedent is popular in Japanese competitive play too?

Dragapult has all sorts of tricks up its sleeve, but I had never come across one with Substitute until now. You can probably figure that my Qwilfish is prepared to fight Dracovish in the previous battle; it is prepared to fight Dragapult too--but not one with a strategy centralizing on damaging via Hex while hiding behind Substitutes. I find it pretty interesting to do, since I did some similar stuff in Generation IV too, most notably with Ambipom, who, like this Dragapult, also held Leftovers to slowly restore the HP lost from using Substitute.

Any reasonably fast Pokémon can pull this off, and indeed, I actually had briefly considered Substitute on Eiscue, but I decided Aurora Veil was better suited. In addition, while Substitute has been nerfed in the meantime (in Generation VI, I believe) such that sound-based moves bypass Substitute, Dragapult's Ghost/Dragon typing makes it such that it resists or is immune to nearly all of them. Still needs to watch out for Sylveon with Pixilate or anything with Snarl though. And Kommo-o if it manages to get in an attack.

For the record, if I was able to get that Thunder Wave up, I would have followed with a Substitute-bypassing move that does affect Dragapult.

Some of you might be wondering: Discharge on Galvantula instead of Compound Eyes Thunder must be bizarre, but there is something else I have in mind with this Galvantula, one that did come into play, but the damage had been done by then, and Dragapult is one of Galvantula's worst matchups as there are no special attacks Galvantula can do that Dragapult doesn't resist. (Trust me, I looked it up.) In hindsight though, I should've figured I could bypass Substitute with Bug Buzz, though I don't know how well that would've turned out.

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