Elite Four Anna [2.0]

[TheRK9]

A few months ago I posted my predictions for the Episode 19 Elite Four run. While I am still pretty happy with most of the teams, looking back, Anna's team is both improbable and pretty dumb. If you haven't seen that post, this was the team I gave her. 
There were 4 main changes I wanted to make to the team:
1. Ash-Greninja will not be in Episode 19. I knew this before I made the team, but I still put it in out of wishful thinking. However, I've decided that it doesn't really qualify as a "prediction" if I know something isn't going to happen, so I have elected to remove it.

2. The same is true for Victini. While I think it would be cool for her to have one, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense in terms of lore, and hence I am removing it.

3. I wanted either all, half, or none of the Elite Four to be in Double Battles. I still agree with this, as it would feel out of place if just one of the members used a different format than the others. I still believe El is a lot better in Singles, but in my original predictions I made Anna and Laura the two double battles. Looking back, I think Heather's team would be a better fit for a double battle than Anna, since she could make better use of Tailwind, Earthquake and Rock Slide in that case. Her team would need to be changed slightly, but not enough to warrant making another one so I made one anyways. I have hence decided to make Anna a singles battle.

4. Anna will most likely be battled in Starlight Arena, which can be destroyed by setting up any weather. This is a bit too easy for an Elite Four battle, so I have decided to add a secondary Psychic Terrain underneath the Starlight Arena, similarily to how Adrienn has a Fairy Tale Field in case his mist got blown away.

 

With those guidelines in place, here is Anna's new team!

PokéPaste Link

 

Starmie @ Magical Seed  
Ability: Illuminate  
Level: 102
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  
Timid Nature  
- Psychic 
- Scald
- Signal Beam 
- Rapid Spin

 

This is a Pokémon that a lot of people thought should have been on the team last time, and with good reason. I makes very good use of Starlight Arena, getting +2 Special Attack upon switch-in alone through Illuminate and Magical Seed.I originally intended to run Cosmic Power and Recover to deal with defensive checks such as Ferrothorn and Slowking, but I settled on a more offensive variant since the combination of Psychic, Water and Bug hits everything besides Empoleon for at least neutral damage, and with +2 Special Attack, neutral damage proved to be more than enough. This also left room for Rapid Spin as a lead, which is nice to prevent Whimsicott and Jirachi from getting crippled.

 

Whimsicott @ Focus Sash  
Ability: Prankster  
Level: 100
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD  
Bold Nature  
- Nature Power  
- Leech Seed  
- Substitute  

- Encore  

 

This set ended up being identical to the previous one, which I didn't notice until I compared the teams. But it makes sense, Whimsicott benefits from not having to run Speed EV's since Nature Power calls Moonblast, which have also been almost doubled in power. SubSeed is always fun for one of the people involved, and Encore is very useful since AI is often easy to set up on.

 

Zoroark @ Magical Seed
Ability: Illusion  
Level: 100
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe  
Timid Nature  
- Dark Pulse  
- Flamethrower  
- Sludge Bomb  
- Nasty Plot  

 

Zoroark will copy Anna's Jirachi, which is very useful to draw out any Ghost and Steel types which would otherwise threaten her team. This team desperately needed a Dark type, and Zoroark was the best option, as well as one of the only ones which wasn't too evil for someone like Anna. The Illusion strategy will unfortunately not work against players who are not playing blind due to the different level and Magical Seed, but it is still sure to catch some people off guard.

 

Gothitelle @ Magical Seed  
Ability: Shadow Tag  
Level: 102
EVs: 252 HP / 4 Def / 252 SpA  
Modest Nature  
- Psychic  
- Dark Pulse  
- Signal Beam  
- Thunder Wave  

 

Gothitelle is an interesting Pokémon for Anna to have. A few people, including me, have theorised that the previous Librarian in Beryl Ward, and the owner of the Gothitelle there, is Anna and Noel's mother. I won't get into too much detail about that theory, but it would be very cool to see Anna use that Gothitelle here. It also synergises with her team very well, being able to revenge kill Poison and Ghost types that could threaten her last two team members.

 

Clefable @ Babiri Berry  
Ability: Magic Guard  
Level: 102
EVs: 252 HP / 252 Def / 4 SpD  
Bold Nature  
- Moonblast  
- Stored Power  
- Cosmic Power  
- Moonlight  

 

Anna having a Clefable is a neat nod to Noel's Clefable, and some people have even gone as far as to predict that Noel will die in E19, in which case Anna might use his Clefable when battling you. But even without the neat in-universe explanations, Clefable is an absolute monster on Starlight Arena. Moonblast is doubled in power, Stored Power gets a 50% boost along with the doubled boosts from Cosmic Power, and Moonlight heals Clefable for 75%, making this thing perhaps the only thing more obnoxious than Noel's Clefable.

 

Nostra (Jirachi) @ Normalium Z  
Ability: Serene Grace  
EVs: 252 Atk / 4 SpA / 252 Spe  
Naughty Nature  
- Meteor Mash  
- Zen Headbutt  
- Moonblast  
- Happy Hour

 

This is the one entry that is staying no matter what. I decided to change up the moveset a little bit, however. While that 4x boosted Doom Desire is very tempting, the additional Fire typing means it is 4x resisted by any Water and Fire types, making it lose some of it's potential. I found that a mixed Z-Happy Hour set is the hardest set to take out without suffering heavy losses, especially considering all of it's moves got a sizeable power boost.

So that is my updated team for Anna. It's definetely a lot more realistic than the last one, and I'm happier with how it turned out. Any feedback on improvments is obviously appreciated, and thank you all for reading.

Edited February 7, 2022 by TheRK9

[bobirobi20]

Hmmm I disagree that Heather will be a Double Battle, because having a team that's weak to Rock Slide, Icy Wind and Blizzard on a field that potentially boosts all of these is a horrible idea. Although now thinking about it, Tailwind activates Delta Stream, so maybe. But I'm not here to talk about that.

 

One option i don't see considered that often is Jynx. That propably wouldn't be too surprising, except it's the only (nonlegendary) Psychic type capable of using Aurora Veil, which is obviously amazing. I would replace that Whimsicott(which would be completely shut down by Taunt btw) with a Jynx with something like Aurora Veil, Psychic, Dazzling Gleam and let's say some good ice coverage (or Icy Wind if it learns it). Also Gothitelle is potentially perfect for setting up if it manages to trap someting it happens to wall, so i'd give it Nasty Plot. I also don't understand why rocks would cripple Jirachi, but Rapid Spin is overall decent( Swift is also worth considering for damge since it gets a 2x power boost).And that Victini fits Lin a bit more imo.

[TheRK9]

On 2/5/2022 at 7:55 PM, bobirobi20 said:

Hmmm I disagree that Heather will be a Double Battle, because having a team that's weak to Rock Slide, Icy Wind and Blizzard on a field that potentially boosts all of these is a horrible idea. Although now thinking about it, Tailwind activates Delta Stream, so maybe. But I'm not here to talk about that.

This was something i kept in mind a lot when designing the team, especially considering Rock-type moves are boosted and Ice type moves become boosted if you change the field to Snowy mountain. 

The new team I made for Heather isn't too weak to Rock and Ice types. While she has 3 Flying types, 2 of her Pokémon have Fire type moves and 3 of her Pokémon carry Rock Slide of their own to deal with Ice types, and 4 of her Pokémon have coverage for Rock types, only 3 of her Pokémon are actually weak to Rock, and one of them carries Charti Berry. And considering her 2 (buffed) Tailwind users, along with her very offensive team, even if a Rock or Ice type can get some kills, it takes some strategy to even get the attack off, let alone survive for more than a couple of turns.
She also counters Snowy Mountain pretty well since both Togekiss and Talonflame can melt the field back with Heat Wave and Flare Blitz respectively, and even if you get it set up, you've just given Excadrill and Decidueye Ice type coverage, doubled Greninja's Icy Wind power. 
And even if all of this wasn't true, as you said, with Delta Stream up, these hits are halved if they are super effective.

If you look at the lead matchup for example:
Let's say you lead of with a Weavile as well as something that can kill Excadrill. Your Weavile can't OHKO Togekiss without Band, so you bring it down to ~10% with an Icicle Crash (with Life Orb), hit the Excadrill with something else to bring it down to it's Sash, after which Heather gets up Tailwind and kills your Weavile with Excadrill's Rock Slide. If you double target Togekiss, Excadrill kills your Weavile. If you double target the Excadrill, Togekiss gets up Tailwind, you can no longer hit it with your Weavile for Super Effective damage, you die to Dazzling Gleam the turn after and Decidueye comes in with a free +1 Attack, is faster than everything and clicks boosted Rock Slide.

This is just one scenario, but I'm glad you brought it up because I spent way too long designing this offensive core to deal with any non-advanced counters. 

On 2/5/2022 at 7:55 PM, bobirobi20 said:

One option i don't see considered that often is Jynx. That propably wouldn't be too surprising, except it's the only (nonlegendary) Psychic type capable of using Aurora Veil, which is obviously amazing. I would replace that Whimsicott(which would be completely shut down by Taunt btw) with a Jynx with something like Aurora Veil, Psychic, Dazzling Gleam and let's say some good ice coverage (or Icy Wind if it learns it).

I did consider Jynx, but I ultimately came to the conclusion that Jynx fucking sucks, regardless of how much it benefits from terrain. It's not fast enough to outspeed offensive Pokémon, and not bulky enough to survive a hit (35 defense and 6 weaknesses is a notoriously good combo). This means that it will struggle to actually set up Veil without just being OHKO'd by something like a Lycanroc or a Talonflame. It's pretty much forced to have a Sash, and miss out either Magical Seed or Light Clay, so both it's damage and utility is limited. Ice/Fairy/Psychic also just doesn't hit Steel types making it easy to counter lead.
I also didn't want to give Anna more than 3 Psychic types (I did this with all of the Elite Four), and the 3 I picked were either more interesting lore wise, better for her team, or both.

On 2/5/2022 at 7:55 PM, bobirobi20 said:

Also Gothitelle is potentially perfect for setting up if it manages to trap someting it happens to wall, so i'd give it Nasty Plot.

It already gets the boost from it's seed, and it is too slow to actually sweep, especially considering the field boosts Dark type moves. Gothitelle is mostly here to trap and kill or weaken a threat for Jirachi and Clefable to sweep reliably, if it tried to sweep itself it would just do so worse than the other 2.

On 2/5/2022 at 7:55 PM, bobirobi20 said:

I also don't understand why rocks would cripple Jirachi, but Rapid Spin is overall decent( Swift is also worth considering for damge since it gets a 2x power boost)

Rocks don't cripple Jirachi, but Spikes do since it has no way to recover HP and relies on it's good defenses and typing to set up.

 

Swift doesn't hit anything that the other moves don't. It is a lot weaker than Psychic, the same power as Scald (which offers the Burn chance), and only slightly stronger than Signal Beam. Since Normal doesn't hit anything Super Effectively, and the only Pokémon that resist Psychic/Water are either weak to Bug or resist Normal, there is not a single Pokémon that would take the most damage from Swift out of these 4 moves. The only thing it really does is counter Evasion, which seems way too niche.

The only coverage move to consider would be Thunderbolt, which hits Empoleon, but it doesn't seem worth it to give up a moveslot to hit 1 Pokémon that can't damage you back. 

On 2/5/2022 at 7:55 PM, bobirobi20 said:

And that Victini fits Lin a bit more imo.

From a gameplay perspective perhaps, but aesthetically it's a pokémon I have a hard time seeing her using.