sound of silence

The only thing that annoys me with the alola forms (or at least for sandslash/ninetales) is that they can't be used in competitive due to evasion clause, which really annoys me as ice/fairy would be really awesome offensively once you take down steel types.

There are a couple of things for this fight that could help. Ideally to lead, your opening pokemon should be able to OHKO either space rock. Given the chance, aster and eclipse will both set screens which makes this battle far more irritating. Solrock is the first priority to take out if you are using a physical attacker as it carries will-o-wisp, otherwise Lunatone should be targeted so Aya can make the most of her special attackers. A fast water type with surf is probably your best bet here but there are very few good options nearby unless You have something in your PC. You will also need a strong electric or grass type if possible because Eclipse's milotic is near impossible to take down otherwise, especially if Ame has forgotten to remove the illegal Calm Mind from its moveset. A rain based sweep may also work as their team isn't well suited to dealing with water types outside of electivire, milotic and vileplume, while having numerous weaknesses throughout. It may also convince the AI for Aya to do something more sensible as the AI generally select pokemon that function best in a particular weather (She may send out tentacruel while rain is up to captalize on it)

Honestly with Amaria, I would be more worried about the use of whirlpool. Be sure to bring lum/persim berries or storm drain/water absorb pokes.

I have an old corduroy jacket that despite growing beyond 6 feet and having it fail to fit me anymore and wearing out holes in it in some places, I managed to wear that thing for...damn I can't even remember an exact time frame, but chances are it was for at least 6 years, if not more while becoming way too big for it to fit anymore (height wise). I only stopped wearing it due to holes forming in unfortunate spots (nothing rude, but not exactly flattering to know a hole developed there). If it symbolizes anything, it was my ability to give close to 0 damns about having a second going out outfit during my teenage years, something that has taken me up until the age of just now to correct (hint: greater than 21). There are also shirts I like collecting from various fun events I've been to, such as the Ridiculous Obstacle Course, or bungy jumping in New Zealand, or from a recent trip through Europe that all have significance. It's nice to collect some sort of physical relic that might eventually disintegrate, but can be worn on occasion as a reminder of the past. It's a pity they don't last as long as jewelry though. Maybe I should vacuum seal them or something to preserve them... Although of no significance, I cannot stand not wearing a watch, no matter how impractical or outdated it seems. I've always worn watches, usually massive casio G ones until recently. It's taken until about 2-3 years ago to break that cycle and wear something much less chunky, with a half decent casio edifice I picked up at duty-free in an airport for formal events/going out. I think its just something drilled into me from my dad's habit of collecting/wearing watches, even though no one in the family has any impressive collection. There's also the high school, and even a primary school graduation jacket/jumper I still have, but those never get worn anymore.

The only reason I really have a heated opinion on this is due to save file crashing This is usually for episode jumping mostly because when I see it recommended I think of the high chance of crashing your save file that comes with it. While some episodes are safer to jump between than others, that is where I feel a grey area exists. If you're doing knowing the risks yourself, so be it. But just willy-nilly recommending it to other users without proper warning as I've seen on some occasions is not okay. Additionally, I suspect this issue is going to become even more of a problem in episode 16, if not near impossible entirely, when the revamped reborn city changes far too many variables to make episode jumping safe without serious effort/multiple jumps. At least once the final product is out that will no longer be an issue. Then again, I have extreme disdain for x-item usage, and feel dirty if I have to use revives/potions mid-battle. I might expand my thought on question 3 though. I'm not huge about IV/EV changes but based on have used the pokemon showdown simulator, I would have no issue changing those to my hearts content for when the online battle system becomes a thing, although that is on the condition that everyone gets the same benefit of being able to do so. Effectively, an all or nothing approach to it.

Minor Nitpick Commander, but unless you're bending the rules for your hardcore mod forretress does not learn sticky web.

Big Top Arena could work for Bennet as rain is extended to 8 turns automatically by the field if set-up, while SD and QD have their stat boosts doubled so scizor and volcarona would be pretty deadly on that field and guts heracross will just hit everything for stupid damage. If we get talonflame before this point that would be problematic, as well as the acrobatics boost in general but there's enough bug/rock types that we can probably avoid him being 6-0'd by a single pokemon.

Delphox is insanely useful throughout reborn once you get past Julia. People really underestimate how useful a fast will-o-wisp is given the lack of that TM, or how good fire types that have utility as opposed to being totally mindless are (don't care if blaziken is god of reborn). Worst starter...Meganium is awful, but I've never been a fan of blastoise either. They literally had to make one single pokemon to breed with blastoise + a mega form to make it remotely useful other than it being a super shitty rapid spinner with leet scald hax. Even if for a while charizard was the worst of the 3 kanto starters, at least it could actually be decently offensive. Also hate samurott. The hype for that thing in reborn staggers me. Yay it learns swords dance. Too bad you can only fix that middling speed and bulk with X-items, and you can kiss that strategy goodbye once Ame gets the AI right for episode 16 and the AI proceeds to stop doing stupid things and actually KO's or cripples it while you wasted cash and a turn in battle.

I suppose the other thing to consider with PULSE pokemon is they are normally something seen as garbage in the competitive battling scene. The best competitive pokemon that's been given a PULSE form so far in the game is tangrowth. So I'm inclined to think whatever the cause is has to be something that would otherwise be poor competitively. I like the powder idea more as that seems to be the easiest way to make others fall asleep without suspicion of noise (yawns and singing) or some kind of anti-hypnotic device while the meteors can wear some cool gas-mask gear over a body suit. That still doesn't explain Terra's immunity though... As for the pokemon itself, I'm just going to take an absolute wild guess and go with Jumpluff, which ame will ever so nicely give huge power to and a lot more bulk to its PULSE form. It pretty much is a giant floating piece of pollen so I like the idea of it slowly disintegrating in the machine as its sleepy spore remains scatter over agate, similar to how PULSE muk dissolved into azurine lake.

Just a major point on the water types, I really wouldn't be suggesting crawdaunt/kingdra for ep 16 given the fairy leader is up next...If you're going to get a replacement water type...I'd actually probably keep simipour if anything and wait to see what new ones are available for Ep 16 given its nice speed tier. Barbaracle or Milotic would be my next choices though both might be too late in the game at this point to get high mileage out of before the more broken options become available. I wouldn't worry too much about having HM's in constant use either. Noivern should be taught tailwind from the move tutor as I find that to be a very useful move. Very surprised you went with vileplume though given how good roselia is, but keep it for now, and maybe upgrade once we get access to the better grass starters/the sludge bomb TM. Hard to say who your last permanent member should be. We still have some nasty match-ups to come, so a steel type wouldn't go astray. Don't bother with the beldum event. Either get shift gear onto klingklang or find another slow steel type that can make use of Lunatone's trick room such as escavalier. That should get you right for episode 16, but not sure how to advise you beyond that. The next couple of gyms are going to be very rough and you'll probably need quite a few more bench options, particularly for Amaria.

Hmm, in that case lead with magneton against the wigglytuff and ko it with flash cannon before it can set anything up. That should draw out porygon-Z out a lot earlier which you should paralyse (get it to relearn thunder wave) and damage it before going down. Infernape can start doing major damage at this point to everything except swellow which golem can handle, or honchkrow if it gets into sucker punch KO range. For clefable, have something faint against it and then bring in lilligant. Alternate between quiver dance when you can tank his attacks and giga drain when you need health. That last part will take a while but it should get you over the line.

Your biggest problem is that you need to go back to the move relearner with a heart scale and get quiver dance on Lilligant, who is completely useless otherwise. Give it a cheri berry and set up on Noel's wigglytuff with it. You should be able to get at least one quiver dance up, more if the AI is feeling really stupid. the field actually boosts grass attacks so a field boosted, STAB boosted, +1 petal dance should start making very quick work of Noel until swellow comes into play. Golem can take care of that. You will need to give magneton an air balloon for the fight, as I believe is clefable has hidden power ground. Magneton must be saved for clefable, nothing else. You also need to get murkrow to level 55 so it gets sucker punch which at that point you can evolve it to honchkrow. I'd also consider getting tailwind for it from the move relearner before evolving too, as tailwind is a godsend in reborn for doubles battles, and even singles.

Nah, but when we face Amaria, expect several of her pokemon to be abusing the hell out of it.

Just thought of something I would like to see in the reborn reborn now, and that would be some places to grow berries that don't involve that maze through adventurine forest. Thought occured to me some extra lum and custap berries won't go astray in later episodes.

If you are at the point where you can obtain type resist berries from the department store, dusclops might be able to cheaply deal with arceus through d-bond and a colbur berry. Otherwise, since you've just beaten Noel, I would strongly recommend exploring tanzan mountain for that upgrade and getting P2 onto your team, as I feel you'll need a bulky trick-room user in the near future. Misdreavious for randomus (because yay more d-bond/perish song abuse) I'll pass on any recommendations for El.

Lairon. Have a feeling steel typing will help you considerably here (I guess you could breed for head smash too?)

Am I the only one who set up the corrosive field against noel? Always liked using corey's nidorina, set up 2 layers of t-spikes against wigglytuff, then disable dazzling gleam, and then hit the switch-in with a boosted sludge wave from destroying the field.

I'd be adding alakazam to your team. That will help considerably with samson as well as special attacking in one. Abra can be gotten from the 7th street pokemon vendor. Otherwise consider a fairy such as gardevoir, florges, or if you ca be bothered grinding in the circus, there is a clefairy up for grabs.