Counting to four at the Battle Rally (Elite Four + Rival Upgrade, 10,450 pts) [Pokemon Masters EX] 

0:00 - Free upgrade + pattern
Lowkey think Elite Four Upgrade is just as bad as Trial Giver Upgrade to work with lmao. I might be biased in saying that though since I don't have most of the modern Elite Four units (Rika, the Kanto E4 varieties). Tech + Support has four possible patterns and only one of them doesn't repeat it, which is why I only used Tierno in Area 1 to save NC Calem and NC Serena for later in case I get a Lucky Area.
Guess which of the four patterns I got.
0:12 - Tech + Support vs. Oleana: EX-R Tierno / EX Clemont / EX Palentines Serena
This is the Battle Challenge for SS Roxie and SS Piers. Palentines Serena did double duty here in disabling Healthy Advantage and providing Speed debuffs to enable Clemont's sync.
2:56 - Strike + Sprint vs. NC Calem: EX-R NC Silver / EX-R SS Gladion / Olivia
While I unfortunately lost some points from not bringing the two Kalos NCs in Area 1, this pattern is quite fun to work with as it's one of those patterns that uses each role combo exactly once, which means I can maximize multipliers pretty easily. Since this is the only Strike + Sprint stage for example, I get to wreck havoc with both NC Silver and SS Gladion here, with Olivia providing the E4 boost while corresponding to both of their theme skills.
4:25 - Tech + Field vs. NC Serena: EX-R SST Red / EX-R Bede / Lorelei
Cute that they were one after the other, but cruel that they had to remind me who exactly I didn't bring in Area 1 lmao. SST Red is SST Red so this was easy, with Lorelei giving both the master passive boost and E4 boost.
7:17 - Field + Sprint vs. Rock-weak Alder: EX-R SST Red / EX-R Bede / EX Volo
I didn't use Red's and Bede's TMs in Area 3 precisely so that I could use them here if needed, and turns out I did. Volo's debuffs are as fun as ever, and his circle lets him tank well enough even without the E4 boost.
9:50 - Strike + Support vs. Lusamine: EX-R Emma / EX-R Penny / EX-R NC Blue
This is the Battle Challenge for Fall Iris and Fall Allister. I'm very lucky that this ended up being (semi) Poison-weak so that Emma would have an easier time here. Whimsical Stability on Clefable was super annoying though.
13:17 - Tech + Sprint vs. Water-weak Shauntal: EX-R SS Wally / EX-R Classic Elesa / Will
Brought Will for the E4 boost, but he turned out to be a good partner for SS Wally as his flinches go well with the sync acceleration and his confusion enables Wally's multiplier.
16:12 - Rival Upgrade purchase
Took this long to get a good upgrade from the shop. I'm gonna ignore the fact that all six areas before this would've gotten the boost.
16:28 - Strike + Field vs. Ice-weak Bertha: EX-R Mix Blue / EX-R Geeta / EX-R Akari
Might've trashed Mix Blue before but he has proven his utility several times in the past two weeks so I'm sorry for doubting you Mr. Original Rival.
18:59 - Support + Sprint vs. Anabel: EX-R Paulo / EX-R Rosa / EX Ingo
DId a double take coz how am I facing Anabel this early, only to realize that this is the Battle Challenge for Summer Tate and Liza lol. A bit of a drag but thankfully NC Rosa's Sing minimizes damage and also disables Weavile's Healthy Advantage.
23:36 - Strike + Tech vs. Ghost-weak Agatha: EX-R Anni Lillie / EX-R SC Barry / EX-R SS Hau
Luckily got a stage where one of my Strike+Tech options is on-type, and it's on the easier side too. This is my first role combo where I have more than three options but this week has proven to me that I need more of those instances for other role combos ASAP lol.
25:34 - Support + Field vs. Thorton (Hard): EX-R SS Morty / EX-R Variety Thorton / EX-R NC Serena
Lots of wrong plays here ugh. The Very Hard stage was also Thorton, and I was trying a lot of team comps, replacing NC Serena with a rival even if they didn't have the role bonus. The closest I got was with Anni N (with V Thorton having Defense Crush 2), so I thought a Half Cake would give me the win, but nope - N's damage was too low after Thorton's 60% endurance proc. So I ended up swallowing my pride and going for the Hard stage instead.
If I had a better free upgrade and I did Area 1 optimally, I could've reached 11k points with this pattern, but alas.
#PokemonMasters #PokemonMastersEX #BattleRally