Pokémon Scarlet & Violet - The Ins and Outs - Dec 1 24 A

In case you haven’t heard (and announcements are made only through limited means as far as Pokémon goes), later this month, there’s going to be a Tera Raid Battle event centered around Black Rayquaza. There’s even a video they made on KZbin about it! (I gave it a watch. I like how Arven doesn’t care that it flew right by him.) This past weekend, the one that ended November 2024 and began December 2024, featured Tera Raid Battles of Corviknight and Bellibolt, two Pokémon often seen in Tera Raid Battles (probably not ready to bring back Iron Hands again quite yet), as well as Mass Outbreaks of Tinkatink and Chansey.
I’m guessing something major is going to happen in Pokemon Horizons very soon, considering one of Liko’s goals is to find the Black Rayquaza associated with Lucius, and this is a tie-in event with that. (On the Japanese side, at least. Netflix is…pretty far behind.)
Still waiting for more of the Paradox Pokémon raids though, considering there hasn’t been any since this past May, and the year’s about to end!
Type: Single Battle
Opponent: Nibroc
Battle Court: Medali (Fortune Eatery)
Music: Trainer Battle
My Pokémon: Dax (Kleavor), Ishmael (Kingdra), Manny (Hitmonchan)
Opponent’s Pokémon: Grimmsnarl, Flutter Mane, Incineroar
Obviously, my opponent’s team is not meant for Regulation H, considering Flutter Mane and Great Tusk are both in it, Pokémon banned from this rule set. Something I DID observe, looking at Team Preview, is that there are a lot of Pokémon here designed around switching in and out. Grimmsnarl and Incineroar both commonly have Parting Shot, Dragonite sometimes has U-Turn, and, of course, Palafin’s very gimmick is centered around switching out and back in, which you can do either by switching out manually or using Flip Turn. Hence why I began with Dax (Kleavor), whose signature move, Stone Axe, lays Stealth Rock on the field. I didn’t detect anyone on my opponent’s team that could easily dispel entry hazards, so I figured my best strategy is to open with Stone Axe, no matter what they start with.
And they did, in fact, use a strategy heavily reliant on switching in and out. Though they got an early lead, eventually, the Stealth Rock damage would take its toll on their Pokémon. A strategy like this also depends very much on having none of their Pokémon fainted; once at least one of them faints, it’s much harder to manage it all. It’s also why I brought over Ishmael (Kingdra). Reflect and Light Screen are a key part of using Grimmsnarl in single battles, and critical hits don’t care about Reflect and Light Screen, nor any stat drops that a team like this employs.
Still though, all of my opponent’s Pokémon are remarkably resilient, even in the face of a strategy based on critical hits, and even accounting for the dual screens from Grimmsnarl. (Stealth Rock does fixed damage regardless of stat changes, of course.) I was also surprised to see them prepared to deal with a critical hit strategy. I don’t think they’re all THAT common… This might have been an improvised one though, which would be commendable because I don’t see many opponents able to come up with new strategies on the fly like that.
My opponent’s name is “Corbin” spelled backwards.

[@ClefairyRox]

You usually don't see entry hazards get much use in quick battles like these, but here your opponent's frequent use of Parting Shot made that Stealth Rock damage stack up. The way they reacted to Focus Energy tells me they are aware of the CritDra strategy and improvised with what they had to stop it; Knock Off isn't an uncommon move on Incineroar. What I find impressive is Incineroar went first and Knocked Off Ishmael's Scope Lens before he could use Scald. Kingdra isn't exactly fast by the standards of Scarlet/Violet (just look at Flutter Mane), but Incineroar's base speed is 25 points lower than Kingdra's. They must have a lot of Speed investment on their Incineroar and your Kingdra must have little to no Speed investment for that to be happening without any speed control in place.

[@Overhazard]

I don't normally consider entry hazards as worth it unless it's paired up with something else, like how Stone Axe is also an attack. (I also don't consider these as "quick battle." Rather, full-team battles are an unofficial, nonstandard format, so if anything, they'd be "long battles.") This Kingdra isn't really built to be the fastest Kingdra ever, no. That was deliberate, not because I want a slow Kingdra, but because a strategy like this requires a Kingdra that can withstand a hit. They must have trained this Incineroar around Speed.

[@diddyknux]

I was impressed by your opponent going for Knock Off to try to counter your Kingdra's critical hit set-up.

[@Overhazard]

I think they knew how Kingdra works and improvised a countermeasure.

[@randomyoshi]

-Knock Off was a great counter to your Kingdra who was holding a Scope Lens that allowed its moves to always result in a critical hit after it used Focus Energy. -I think your opponent thought that your Hitmonchan was going to use Mach Punch and switched out to Flutter Mane. But your opponent guessed wrong. -The pointed stones created by Kleavor's Stone Axe hampered your opponent's strategy that involved lots of switching.

[@Overhazard]

Of course, even after Knock Off, there's still a 50% chance of landing a critical hit anyway. It effectively becomes a coin toss, though I flipped tails. Hitmonchan learns a surprising number of priority moves, and they're not all of the Fighting-type. It's part of why I considered one for this team. Hitmonchan is not a very well-understood Pokémon in PvP despite him having been around since the start of the series.