Minun Uses One Move to Break The Emerald Elite 4. Here's How. This video is geared to nuzlocking, but it happens that this strategy applies for casual playthroughs Join the Team Freeze Discord! / discord
It's not that important to this video, but I still love that Ghost moves are Physical in gen 3 and so Shadow Ball Vigoroth is actually extremely scary especially to Phoebe's Ghost types.
@@naturalharmoniagropius4486 Slaking Is really good in RSE, you can use whichever one you like but Slaking Is still really strong. Truant isnt shit with those base stats
funnily there are some NPCs in the game that use this same strat, encoring you then using encore again when the effect ends. of course you can just switch, but when I play in-game I try to mimic the NPCs as much as possible (minimum switching, limited items, one set team through the game) so it can be very annoying
Mimicking ai behaviour minimises your own expression of game knowledge and strategy imo like sure you can prepare teams beforehand for upcoming fights but being limited to things such as not being able to pivot to other pokemon mid battle seems kind of unfair especially in a nuzlocke when there's no way your pignite is beating the acrobatics archen that just switched in on it. I completely agree with playing on set mode and not using items in battle outside of held items though and maybe limiting yourself to using the same amount of pokemon as the enemy trainer in boss fights or something but actively going out of your way to play worse and play like the enemy ai just seems kind of pointless to me
@@Akumo69 for nuzlockes I agree. I'm talking about casual gameplay tho. when you are playing casually you usually don't care about being a strategy master, you just want to have fun. but I feel there are some unfair differences between the player and the AI that make the game too easy, at the same time I don't want to play an ultra hard mode. so I think these self-imposed, "non-challenge" restrictions are cool. aside from what I said, there are a few other things, like not abusing mega/z-move, no legendaries, no raising affection for random in-battle effects (surviving on 1hp, healing status condition, that kinda crap)
no switching may seem pointless to the experienced player, but I find it charming in its own way. yeah your pignite is going down if you don't switch out from that archen, but that's it. you may lose the battle, you may end with a heavily damaged team. you'll just have to heal outside of battle, fly back to the pokémon center or find one of those doctor/nurse npcs. I also learned to save a lot between battles so I reset if things go horribly. pokémon is such a short game, trust me, going back to the center all the time doesn't take much time. happens a lot with me. plus more gameplay time is always good, unless you're doing a speedrun... which, like nuzlocke, isn't my kind of thing
One of my favourite encore users is cinccino from the guaranteed hidden grotto minccino encounter you can get on route 5 in black 2 and white 2. With tail slap, rock blast, bullet seed and encore, there's little that can stop cinccino. Boldore and gigalith hate to see moves that essentially bypass sturdy and your crit rate goes through the roof with scope lens since you're using multi hit moves. You can always grab a miracle seed, rock incense or silk scarf to buff your pre existing moves. Very little can outspeed cinccino meaning you can very easily bait encores. I'm pretty sure if you're at the level cap you can even outspeed particularly fast pokemon such as elesa's zebstrika, clay's excadrill and iris' hydreigon. As long as you don't miss you can sweep skyla with cinccino and bullet seed is incredibly useful against marlon. Against ghetsis, lum berry cinccino can bait a toxic from cofagrigus, lock him into it with encore and then just switch to some steel or poison type for free setup such as excadrill, scolipede or metagross. If you teach cinccino some kind of ghost type coverage move I could see him having a niche in the shauntal fight, given his ghost immunity but I haven't tested that. Cinccino isn't necessarily overpowered since his attack is only a little above average and his defenses are on the lower end of the scale but he is absolutely an essential encounter in your black 2 and white 2 nuzlockes.
It should also be noted that a holding a king's rock will give Cincinno's multi hit moves a very respectable 41% flinch chance. Though there aren't many easy ways of getting a king's rock until the post game, so you'll instead have to rely on methods such as Pick Up or getting it from Join Avenue
@@UnlimitedRun That's a good point. Stuff like the battle subway and PWT is definitely a gray area in Nuzlockes and people may choose to avoid them based on their preferences, but it's definitely still worth pointing out. And the same could be said of Pick Up as well as Join Avenue.
@@TheBlueWizzrobe I think as long as you're willing to lose pokemon in the process it's fair but since you can just do the rental tournaments repeatedly and in theory lose nothing it's tempting to just allow battle facilities to speed the BP farming process but at the same time if you have access to choice items and life orbs so easily then is it even a challenge at that point? Maybe so with harder rom hacks such as Drayano's ones but certainly not with the main series games. It's worth giving some thought. Personally I do use PWT but only for small things such as protect, u turn and hidden power tms rather than just buying all the best held items to sweep through the game effortlessly
This was really nostalgic for me! The first time I played Emerald as a kid, the one Pokemon I leveled up other than my starter was a Minun. I didn't totally get how Encore mechanics worked at the time but I did end up sweeping the E4 with my Minun!
Very interesting! Maybe a "Truant Durant Breaks the Battle Facilities"? Only checks to it are Wishiwashi, Darmanitan-Zen, Aegislash (and those only work if they're the lead).
@@jaceee4154 Usually Durant is run with a setup sweeper (often Mega Gyarados for XY, ORAS, SM, USUM). Protect on the attacking turns, Dragon Dance/Substitute on the truant turns, sweep with Crunch or Mold Breaker Waterfall. In SM and USUM, Wishiwashi, Darm-Zen, Aegislash (I also forgot Komala) make this not work if they're the lead since you can't entrain Truant onto them.
I used this strat for the Battle Maison in X/Y, pairing it with Multiscale Dragonite with Dragon Claw and Fire Punch, since no pokemon but Azumarill and Heatran resist both moves. Really fun, really cheap. I had calm mind mega slowbro in the last slot just for insurance against two ice shards or focus sash ice types lol
Encore is one of my favorite moves to abuse in nuzlocke. Encore on Togekiss, for sure the best Encore user post gen 6, has broken Renegade Platinum so hard that it's now my 2nd favourite Pokemon
Togekiss with Encore is super disgusting, but i feel like the best user remains Whimsicott. Despite Prankster being nerfed, him being a Fairy type allows to destroy Dark types with Moonblast (and Dark types being Encore counters makes every Fairy type capable of using the move even better), while retaining the fastest Encore in the entire game. Also, he has Subseed strats which are just stupid against CPU, not to mention Charm, Stun Spore, and Taunt. I don't know if Whim is in RP, but in Radical Red it just WRECKS. Also, I just love how in many hack roms, Volbeat and illumise has an awesome Prankster toolset together with dual typing in Electric and Fairy types. It's pretty ironic to think that the most fearsome move against the CPU is basically a "Do It Again" ticket lmao
@@massimilianodelrosso5495 I was talking in terms of nuzlockes, not in competitive. In competitive, Whimsicott is the best for sure, but in playthroughs, its Togekiss no contest. Togekiss has a decent speed tier, great bulk, (it can take a Metagross Meteor Mash, for example) but most importantly, set up moves and quadruple resists and immunities. In terms of nuzlockes, it's very easy to bait Bug, Fighting, Ground and Dragon moves,allowing Togekiss to come in for free, Encore it, and set up 3 Nasty Plots and a Substitute in its face, and then proceed to sweep through the opponent. Its a disgusting strat you get super early, which is also why I consider Ultra Sun to be a harder game than Renegade Platinum to hardcore nuzlocke
To add, Whimsicott lacks the bulk and resistances Togekiss brings to the table, as well as instant set up power (Growth vs Nasty Plot, in this case). Togekiss also gets reliable Recovery in Roost in most games, which makes it just all around more consistent
So, I have been working on a challenge called the Gym Aura challenge, since I personally don't like nuzlocks. It has quite a few rules, but the main one is that you can, other than your starter and Pokemon gifted to you, you can only use Pokemon who appear on a Gym Leader's team, or part of its evolution line. For example, one of the most common Pokemon for a Gym Leader to use is Geodude, so you can use Geodude, Gravaler, or Golem. If you want to know more, let me know.
Speaking of encore, the speedrun of Pokémon XY uses this move to great effect, chiefly against the main rival, the opposite gender counterpart to the player, because their lead carries a move that it's worth using encore on in fake out (remembering to use the X item on the fake out turn)
Nuzlocke content wasn't what I expected, but Ive gotta say I love the conciseness and accuracy you present with any analysis video you make. Honestly never considered Minun for encore before, usually just box fodder for if I lose my better electrics, but maybe I'll consider it next time lol
I don't think I'll ever do a nuzlocke because I feel sad when thinking of the little dudes dying, but I love to see strats for them and seeing ways to cheese the game, so great video!
A favourite of mine after using one in alpha sapphire. It was originally just a team filler. But after finding out the power of entrainment and minus I fell in love. I'll have to use one in emerald as well.
Encore is especially good though because the AI is pretty obsessed with status moves. If you use items in your nuzlockes, try using the x items, they'll make you want to ban items lol.
@@HomeCookinMTG X items are easily the most busted shit in the game, especially since so many battles lead with a pokemon that isn't very threatening and can let you fully set up with near impunity, especially if you also use healing items in battle.
In gen 5 I took a full rain rain team that was 10 to 15 levels under the E4 levels at the start of the challenge Swift Swim Choice Band Beartic was absolutely hilarious. It's definitely understandable why Swift Swim got Banned with Drizzle in Smogon xD
I clicked on this because my accidental EV having Minun carried me through the championship my first time too! Not exactly how I used it, I just used charm/agility, baton pass, charge, and spark/thunder. It was purely accidental and completely bewildering how well it worked out, not just in Emerald, but also swept Champion Steven in Sapphire (which was my first game, and how I discovered it's potential. It was cakewalk in Emerald later). So many people underestimate Minun.
@@ethanrussow9262 also tinted lens with good bp stabs, absorbs toxic spikes, quad resists fighting and resists fairy. Also in gen 7 can get quiver dance boosted unresisted z moves. Venemoth has a lot of good qualities
Oh gosh, I'm currently doing an Alpha Sapphire Nuzlocke, and I've barely had the chance to catch anything in the latter half of the game because the water routes have nothing but Wingull and Tentacool (I'm using dupes clause). I should've picked up Cosplay Pikachu, but at least I have a Lanturn now.
I saw Minun in the thumbnail and knew exactly what move it was going be. I remember doing a nuzlocke of Omega Ruby and used a Minun to similar success. Encore is just a busted move, great move, great video!
I learned to love encore in my radical red hardcore mono fairy run illumise (fairy type in radical red) with prankster, encore and infestation was great during the entire run and e4
The key to make a Nuzlocke Run success, is to "Collapse all possible futures into one predictable one". In this case, encore does force the opponent to use that exact move for the next few turns. Hence, forcing an undetermined future into a determined one.
I'm running my third Nuzlocke in omega ruby (hardcore now, no items allowed) and I caught a minun earlier without ever thinking I'll use it. Now I might
Doing an Alpha Sapphire hardcore nuzlocke with only pokemon that have no base stats 100 or higher. Plusle and Vigoroth with Encore are both on my planned Elite 4 team just so I can enact cheese
I think, due to Slaking being held back by its ability every few turns, it'd not be good to use in a team that uses Encore+Switching Pokemon as a sweeping strategy. Fast Pokemon with good Attack or Special Attack are more fit for the job than slow bulky ones.
Who came up with that? Like who was the first a) to notice the AI behaviour, b) figure out strategies to exploit that and c) realize Minun/Plusle fit the deal perfectly?
My sister used a Minun in Omega Ruby and I gave her shit for it, that damn thing used Entrainment against Primal Groudon and let her Swampert weaken it for a capture. Damn you Twubblemaker
I wish there was a way for the UPR to make the in game AI better. I use UPR not to randomize, but to make the game harder but similar to prevent me from using exploits like these to win. Ideally I’d want them to be just as good as any human player.
AI isn’t smarter but it will less frequently lead with encorable moves. I’ve heard nasty plot minun sweeps Steven though - not sure if that involves encoring skarmory or not, or it uses something like nasty plot/tbolt/grass knot/substitute. Both seem possible.
@@spegasparce1389 Encore was nerfed to only last 3 turns, so if you’re going to help facilitate a sweeper, it needs to be one that only needs one turn to reach optimal sweeping levels.
wow, I had never used encore, that is a good strategy, it always seemed absurd to me, because you can simply change Pokémon, but the game's AI is so stupid that it gets stuck and then you can freely use the stat boost attacks without the problem of getting hit, in 2nd gen, encore lasts 4-5 turns, and I think in this 3rd gen, it's 3-5 turns, otherwise I was wrong, but 2 free turns is quite good
