Paperblade

I disagree here, in a game where you fight a monotype of every team already due to 18 gyms, and two of Poison/Fighting due to the nature of Corey/Kiki, it felt very redundant to fight yet more monotype teams. It made the few fights that weren't monotype teams stand out, but not in a good way since it was more "finally" and not "oh cool", and took away from the feeling of gym leaders being gym leaders. Samson is a lot less interesting as a mono-fighting encounter when I've battled Victoria like 5 times already plus Kiki.

I put together a document with the stats of every e17 story boss. This is going to have spoilers since it includes trainer names, so be warned. I'm posting it here since this info is useful for outspeeds and damage calcs and just generally knowing movelists. There might be a couple of errors with stat calcs, so if you notice something funky point it out (for a long time I was using Mega Lucario's base stats for Victoria's Lucario and only noticed when I had something outspeed it and wondered why my mon like 30% slower was faster...). Stats are based on the PBS files available in the FAQ. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ox9ftl9TJUC31yB-F5rFVVqtjxamw6UTTxzr07gjQjY/edit?usp=sharing Anyway Flygon for S-rank Meowstic-M I've also been really liking fast Destiny Bond users (Gengar and Sharpedo for example), it adds a ton of consistency since they tend to be frail mons, so even in situations where they struggle to find KOs or are in an otherwise unfavorable fight, they can still get a 1 for 1 trade. Finally, having done a playthrough with Typhlosion, I'm gonna rescind that its limited coverage hurts it as much as I thought. Eruption is insanely powerful and it frequently OHKOs things that take even neutral damage from Fire, and can still truck things that resist it. It can also get Extrasensory and Nature Power which help cover up its coverage weakness a little bit. I'll add to the Primarina ranking that I agree with it in A/S. If anything keeps it out of S I think it would be that its meh Speed+physical durability means it struggles vs. fast physical threats. I ran it with Sparkling Aria/Moonblast/Misty Terrain and an HM/TM flex spot. I have like 6 more playthroughs worth of mons to do opinions on but I'm feeling lazy rn especially since I need to consider e17 changes

It's a held item, no need to power them up. Anyone can use the type-based ones, pokemon-specific ones have to be used by the pokemon named in the zmove. They can only be used once a battle edit: forgot which thread I was in

Well it's not coming now. Or now. Or now.

0 SpA Goodra Sludge Bomb vs. 0 HP / 0 SpD Lilligant: 180-212 (64 - 75.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO Enough since Lilligant outspeeds and will OHKO any other dragon save Dragonite. Worth noting that most things that get Nature Power will do this kind of damage since 170BP super effective moves are pretty good

Nature Power turns into Dragon Pulse. Dragon Pulse gets doubled by field. 252+ SpA Choice Specs Lilligant Dragon Pulse vs. 252 HP / 252+ SpD Assault Vest Goodra: 196-232 (51 - 60.4%) -- guaranteed 2HKO

7th Street Agate Circus Peridot Ward, in renovated Reborn

Torchic should be fine early, although the real power spike is when it gets Bulk Up/evolves. Fire is the best starter type looking solely at early game, since Water is bad vs. Fern/first two gyms/Tangrowths and Grass isn't much better + is bad vs. Cain/Corey, and the other Fire types don't really have a huge advantage over Torchic early game imo (I say this having used every fire starter but Tepig so far) That said, for super early (pre-Shelly I guess?), Fennekin and Charmander are probably the best. Fennekin line gets Psychic coverage on top of its Fire STAB which makes it good vs. victoria/cain/corey and fire is just good everywhere else. Charmander's Dragon Rage OHKOs everything but Julia's electrode. However, after Julia most stuff has more than 40HP so it's not as great since most other fire types have good STABs at this point that let them 2HKO stuff.

Only steel types are Klink line and Wormadam. They're not good (4 of his pokemon have coverage that SE Steel), but they do have a really funny niche: in Corrosive Mist field both of his Crobat's attacks do Poison damage, so you can totally cheese his most threatening mon with a Klink you just caught without training it at all

Unless the AI is a lot smarter next episode, I'm pretty sure you can just sweep stuff with an SD set. You just need to SD to whatever lets you OHKO everything, then alternate between king's shield + attack to punk everything since you only take hits while in shield form. No priority moves needed, just pick whatever 2 out of Steel STAB, Shadow Claw, Sacred Sword best lets you beat down whatever you're facing. Claw and Gyro Ball are both available TMs so the only cost of switching around is a heart scale for sacred sword. That said, the AI getting a lot smarter is totally possible. idk what all is going on with it in e17 other than it's probably going to stop trying to sludge bomb my chesnaught

Since we're discussing Scizor's power level... the main thing I find puzzling is, if Scizor is too broken, how is Aegislash okay? It also gets Swords Dance, and its moves are far more powerful than Bullet Punch. It has more weaknesses, but it also has a lot more resistances/immunities which gives it a higher chance of finding something that can't even do neutral damage to it. On top of that, its special bulk is really good (whereas Scizor is just kind of average), making for even more opportunities for easy setups.

tbh anything with access to Nature Power and decent stats will be OP vs. Saphira, the field turns it into Dragon Pulse which then gets doubled to 170BP by the field, and the only Dragons not weak to it are Mega Altaria and Dragonite (because field)

Skarmory and Toxapex line are in Also going down to 1 per day Remaining non-legendaries (+Silvally I guess) Dragonite Gyarados Scizor Garchomp Salamence Hydreigon Aegislash Silvally Kommo-o