0:00 - Free upgrade + pattern
I got the best freebie upgrade, and I even got a relatively easy pattern to work with. So I figured that this would be a breeze, but as it turns out, Rally didn't want me to get away with it easily and gave me an annoying set of stages to work with in the latter half. Oh well.
0:11 - Strike + Field vs. Fire-weak Wikstrom: EX-R Mix Blue / EX-R Akari / Flint
Strike + Field in Area 1 has two possibilities, and only one of them repeats the pattern. I didn't want to use Geeta this early though so I gambled it, and it ended up paying off.
1:35 - Strike + Tech vs. Fire-weak Blue: EX-R SC Barry / EX-R Classic Blue / Tech Lickitung
Strike + Tech has a second stage in this pattern, so I wanted to save three of my units with that combo in case it was a lucky stage. I used these two here since the other three have good-enough synergy even without the upgrade bonus, but as you'll see below, this is a decision I'll end up regretting.
2:55 - Strike + Sprint vs. Galar NC Battle Challenge: EX-R SS Gladion / EX Fantina / EX Selene
Similarly, Strike + Sprint has a second stage in this pattern, but I didn't wanna save SS Gladion for that because it's not easy to make him work with NC Silver, and that second stage being Area 9 is too big a risk. So I just used him here, with Selene giving the master passive boost and Fantina providing Sp Def debuffs.
4:46 - Support + Field vs. Ground-weak Shauntal: EX-R Variety Thorton / EX-R SS Morty / Support Charizard
One of the few recent rotations where Support + Field isn't my Area 10 pattern haha. I'm glad it's becoming a more common pattern after Variety Thorton had it on his own for so long.
7:23 - Strike + Field vs. Holiday 2022 Battle Challenge: EX-R Geeta / Roxie / Strike Hitmonlee
Geeta gaming. This stage wants Defense debuffs and she's happy to provide them.
9:35 - Strike + Tech vs. 3rd anniversary Battle Challenge: EX-R SST Red / EX-R SS Hau / EX-R Anniversary Lillie
What I said above about regretting my decision in Area 2 was referring to this. This is one of the hardest battle challenges in the game as it was made with SST Red and SSA Cynthia in mind, so try as I might with making NC Cheren / SS Hau / Anni Lillie work, it just wasn't possible without an upgrade bonus. Can't even do evasion shenanigans since the opponents have Piercing Gaze. So I just ended up foregoing the 150 points and using SST Red. (There wasn't anything in the rally shop that would help.)
11:31 - Tech + Sprint vs. Dragon-weak Cynthia: EX-R SS Wally / EX-R Classic Elesa / EX-R NC Calem
Not an easy stage either but thankfully best boy prevailed. I'm glad that he and Classic Elesa do have some synergy, especially with their sync acceleration shenanigans. I brought NC Calem to change Sandstorm but it ended up running out before he could lol
14:32 - Strike + Support vs. Kalos NC Battle Challenge: EX-R NC Serena / EX-R Emma / EX-R Penny
Pretty obnoxious stage at this level too. I have four units with Strike + Support and I was hoping to use three of them here, though none of them having Main Character really made this impossible. So I just used NC Serena, hoping that I wouldn't need her in Area 10. Well...
17:41 - Strike + Sprint vs. 2.5 anniversary Battle Challenge: EX-R NC Silver / EX-R Paulo / EX-R NC Rosa
Had to look up what BC this was, but it was for the Anni May/Skyla/Raihan event. It has Clear Advantage, which Silver thankfully counters, and sleep spam from Rosa makes it much easier to handle.
20:15 - Strike + Support vs. Anabel: EX-R NC Bianca / EX-R NC Blue / EX SS Kris (+ Ultra Jelly purchase)
...yeah. Of course I get the NC Serena stage after using her in an earlier area. Thankfully the rally shop had the Ultra Jelly so after making a few attempts without it, I just bought that and called it a day.
All in all I lost 250 points from the best this could've been (without a lucky area), which isn't bad but at the same time, ehhhh hahaha
#PokemonMasters #PokemonMastersEX #BattleRally